|  |  |  | | | | | Global Business Articles WebSite | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Running a seminar or a small business management course can potentially be a labor intensive undertaking. You want to ensure the ROI. A major part of that effort will be in researching developing your materials for presentation. How do you do this?
The following acronym (SOAP) sums up the process and the result:
reSearch
leads to Originality
and Authenticity
in Presentation
Essentially, if you research your topic thoroughly before you begin, even when it is an area you work in daily and are familiar with, you are more likely to produce original materials and ideas and present them in a fresh and authentic style.
In addition, you want to get away from the dull familiarity of ‘talk and chalk’ training. Training should be participatory and your presentation materials should include in addition to standard lecture materials,
o Ice breakers such as problem solving and team bonding exercises
o Scripts for introducing and running hothouse sessions to generate ideas
o Case studies
o Role plays
o Workshop exercises
o Multi media presentations
o Supplementary guides and more in-depth technical explanations
o Where to find further information
Researching an area, particularly one where in-depth technical knowledge is required can be a time-consuming process. It also needs specialist skills. While books and trade magazines supply useful background and allow you to ground yourself in the concepts and principles, they are normally out of date. They also cost money to buy or subscribe so unless you have a very good library (probably belonging to a college) to hand, they not the cheapest or most readily available resource.
The best source for fresh and up to date material is the Internet. This material can come from several places -
o Professional association pages
o Magazine and specialist sites
o Discussion forums
o News organizations
The key to unlock this material is knowing how to use an Internet search engine.
Everyone has experienced entering what they thought was a meaningful phrase into a search site such as Google only to be presented with unexpected and unwanted material or so much apparently relevant information that there seems no possible way of trawling through it all. Experts in the area know how to use specific search engine commands to cut down the amount of work required.
For example, if you enter the following words into Google -
income tax
you will be presented with every site that has the word ‘income’ and the word ‘tax’ in it and from sites throughout the world.
Whereas the following phrases -
“income tax” date:3 IRS
will pull up recently searched pages on US income tax increasing the relevance factor by 100% and cutting down the amount of material to trawl through (a process called ‘data scraping’) by an order of magnitude.
You can also use search engines to trawl news, discussion pages and blogs on the same subject and track down any multi media information – such as cartoons, pictures and training films.
And there are specialist search applications which work with search engines to make this process easier and more thoroughgoing. However, these normally need a license from the search engine owners to run and so are generally only used by agencies or individuals that specialize in this area of work.
Whether you or someone else is doing the research you need to be very discerning. The Internet can be extremely useful but some of the material posted can be both out of date and very misleading.
Once you have collated your material and selected the most relevant items, you need to structure your training around them. Here it helps to bring in someone with good composition and typing skills as you need to rapidly and accurately develop the key lecture materials and notes along with supplementary guides and sources of further information. If they have also participated in the research effort, so much the better.
In addition, you also need to script the other types of sessions. Even sessions where you are expecting your participants to generate the material need a carefully worded introduction and a well thought out set of rules to structure the session so that it is maximally useful to those who take part and that no one is put under pressure or embarrassed during the process.
What you can be sure of is that the more effort you put into research and development and the more professionally it is done, the more it will repay you in the long run.
What To Say: How to Find Material To Fill Your Seminar or Small Business Management Course | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | There are four ways to overcome the wrecking ball in your online business but seem to elude the faint hearted. If allowed, it will destroy the very fiber of your being!
I was almost classified in this category. Do you remember the song, ‘I just wish that I knew what I know now?’ I don’t remember the artist, but I do remember the catchy tune. Knowing what I know now sure would have saved me a lot of heartache when I was younger.
When I was about ten I remember having a lemonade stand in the middle of fall. It was cold out then and my friends ribbed me so harshly that I almost gave up on my sales escapade. After I stayed outside for an hour or so with no sales money in my little cup, I began to believe what my friends were saying was true.
I guess my father saw my disappointment wrote all over my face through the window because he came out to keep me company. Now I don’t know about anyone else’s dad, but mine was like Superman in my eyes. Little did I know then pop taught me a few lessons that afternoon about business and life in general.
He sat and talked to me about 4 things I need to know to survive in any type of business. The 4 concepts are actually very simplistic in nature. They are belief, passion, patience, and perseverance.
Dad asked me if I still believe people will come and buy my lemonade. I answered by saying I didn’t know but if they were coming, I wished they would come soon. He told me to be patient and they will come. He said for right now, I need to know if you believe they will come or not. Of course I said yes, but I still wasn’t sure.
I learned the awesome power of belief that day. I found out that when I truly believed they would show up and buy, I became very passionate about selling. I didn’t know the first thing about advertising or marketing like I know today, but I went into the house and began to call some kids in the neighbor. Little did I know, my mother already called their parents.
In the mean time I went back outside, only to find dad ready to tell me a story about some old farmer and his mule. Bet your bottom dollar I wasn’t very interested in his story then, but it kicked in about thirty years later. It was a perfect illustration about perseverance.
Pop told me this mule fell in an abandoned well. The farmer attempted its rescue. Unable, he was determined to bury his friend and dumped a load of dirt down the well. That mule kicked, stomped, and snorted, until he stood two feet higher. A few more loads of dirt a lot of kicking, snorting, and stomping down that dirt, the mule walked out on level ground’ a survivor!
I bet by now your asking ‘What in the world does this story have to do with an online business?’ It has everything to do with overcoming the wrecking ball!
Unlike the mule, often Internet marketers get caught in a well, but they see no way out so they give up! In actuality, the wrecking ball is a form of self-destruction! It’s so deadly! I truly believe this is the reason it is so elusive to the faint hearted. Not practicing these concepts in our business is like inviting a wrecking ball into our minds that can, and will, demolish everything in its path including our self esteem and confidence.
If you are one of the faint hearted, I urge you to keep your chin about you. Try believing that people will buy from you! Once you believe they will come, your passion level will be higher than you can possibly imagine!
Now get out there and advertise the heck out of your product(s). Just don’t expect it to happen overnight. It does take hard work. Be persistent and have patience prudence, they will come.
By the way, about that lemonade stand’ within a half hour or so people started to come and buy my lemonade. I made $56.30 that day. It may not seem like a lot of money to you, but back then, at ten cents a glass and age 10, it seemed like a goldmine to me.
Article may be freely distributed in its entirety! Absolutely no selling, editing, or altering of content including the link provided. You may add your text box with link under author’s text box.
4 Ways to Overcome the Wrecking Ball In Your Online Business | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Almost all products being sold in the market today have already been sold before by their competitors but what makes other products a hit despite their being new in the market? Most entrepreneurs say it is a matter of marketing your products to your target market.
Marketing can be done in various ways depending on the expertise of the marketer. However, one common way to market a new product is through participation in trade shows. Trade shows are held at any time of the year and they do attract buyers and prospective customers.
There are general trade shows but you can choose from niche trade shows depending on your area of business. Companies join trade shows not so much for actual selling but most importantly for showing off their products and for the possibility of getting bulk orders during the trade show.
A company or a sole proprietor planning to join a trade show should take note of the following:
1. Able personnel to man the trade show booth. A trade show is not just an ordinary selling venue but it is a venue where prospective clients abound so make sure that you send your best personnel to man the booth. Some companies take trade shows for granted and allow inept personnel to watch the booth. The people who are put in charge of your trade show booth can make or break your product. A good staff with public relations skill can attract more clients to your products. It is also important to instruct your booth personnel to dress properly depending on the venue of the trade show. Business attire will always be safe.
2. Invite visitors to your booth. The booth personnel must be trained and instructed to invite visitors to the booth. Most visitors walk away from trade show booth when they see the staff busy with their own thing. Tell your staff the main reason why they were assigned to the trade show and that is to get as many visitors to see your products. Booth personnel should be able to answer questions from the visitors because the visitors may already be potential customers. A booth demo will catch the attention of visitors especially if the demo is useful to them.
3. Prepare your brochures, leaflets and business cards and make sure you do not run out of them. Always expect plenty of people to visit trade shows so never be caught without your marketing tools. Imagine if a potential client asks for your brochure or your card and then you cannot give him anything just because you did not prepare for an influx of people. It is better to have plenty of left over marketing materials after the show rather than miss the opportunity of showing off what you have to offer.
4. Keep a visitors’ book. Most companies who join trade shows require visitors who get their free marketing materials to sign up in a guestbook. However, only a few of these companies will communicate with the people who signed in their guestbook. Be creative and use the guestbook as a sourcebook for potential clients. The people who visited your booth and who got your materials are definitely interested in your products or else they will not even glance at your booth. Why not take advantage of their contact information? Mail them a thank you letter along with more information about the product and where they can buy the products.
5. Promote your products but do not be too pushy. Visitors are often turned off by very eager booth personnel who call out to the visitors using their loudest voice. No one would want to visit your booth if your personnel are boisterous. Allow the visitors to go inside your booth and look at the items you have on display but always keep a welcoming smile. Entertain their questions and try to respond to them accordingly. Never shout your words of welcome to the visitors since they might feel defensive all of a sudden and decide against looking at your products.
Tips When Attending Trade Shows | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 1. Scrap the ‘Image’ and work on an identity.
The first step to success is to get away from the idea of creating an image. In fact, the literal definition of image is an imitation or representation of a person or thing. Now that is exactly what you don’t want to be’ an imitation
Identity on the other hand means is the condition of being the same in all qualities. It’s based on truth and honest. And believe me, it only takes a millisecond for consumers to identify a fraud.
Consumers respect integrity, and feel comfortable depending on companies who have invested in their identity’ invested in being real, and have lived up to their name.
2. Be Yourself
Copycats are a dime a dozen. Whenever a good idea comes to light, there will be a thousand and one imitators ready to cash in on the success of the idea.
I’m not talking about learning from the best, and using their success stories to guide you on your quest for success. We all need mentors and examples to follow at times.
True success lies in originality. What good would it do to copy your competitors advertising strategies and campaigns? Finding your own niche and capitalizing on it will go a lot further toward making you stand out from the crowd.
3. Be Consumer Friendly
Friendly service is winning service. Who can resist a heartfelt smile? Most business have this down to a science. They spend a great deal of time stressing friendliness and ‘the customer is always right’ attitudes among their employees.
What about customer-friendly products and services? We all know that people should be friendly, but sometimes overlook the fact that the product itself should bring a smile to the consumers face.
Tents have to be right near the bottom of the list of customer-friendly products’ though in the case of my family, it wasn’t the tentmaker’s fault. We always lost the instructions before we made it to the campsite, and Dad’s attempt to assemble the darned thing without them had us kids running for the hills.
Do missing instructions or parts erase the smile from your customer’s face? What about websites with hard-to-find contact information or fliers that leave out important details?
Be sure you’ve thought of everything that will make your customers experience A+ from start to finish, and they’ll be back for more!
4. Have Guts
Trying something new often fills us with fear’ especially when it involves hard earned money. Sometimes the only way to get out of a rut is to do exactly what we don’t want to do ‘ get out of our comfort zone and try something new.
Other emotions that keep us from jumping onto a new idea are:
Hesitancy ‘ we want to play it safe
Discouragement ‘ we’re all set to lose before we even try
Pessimism ‘ we focus more on the problem than the options
If you find yourself stuck in the doldrums remember that doing what you’ve always done will get you exactly what you’ve always got ‘ and that’s why you’re where you’re at right now. Don’t be afraid to step out and get your feet wet!
The ‘Big 4′ Promotional Tips | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | It isn’t “free”.
It isn’t “you”.
It isn’t anything you might imagine.
So what the heck is the most powerful word in marketing?
Because what I’m about to reveal to you is so important, I want to ask you to do something a bit out of the ordinary to set the stage. Whether you’re sitting or
standing, lift your right foot off the ground about two inches and hold it there for a count of three.
Did you do this? If not, I really want you to take a few seconds to do it now, because it will hammer home the importance of what I’m about to tell you.
So go ahead. Lift your foot up about two inches, then hold it for a count of 1-2-3.
The power of a single word to drive people to action
If you went ahead and did my little exercise, you’ve just experienced the profound effect of the most powerful word in marketing.
So now do you know what that word is?
It’s embedded in both the requests I made of you to lift your foot and do my goofy little exercise. That word is – drum roll please…
Because
Studies have proven that no word has more power to motivate people to take action than “because”. Simply adding this word to a request, to a statement, to a call to action, the number of people who respond go up exponentially.
Hey, it got you to lift your foot up for a three count, didn’t it?
Why the word “because” is so effective
In the classic book “Influence – The Psychology of Persuasion”, Dr. Robert Cialdini talks about the power of certain words that tap into preprogrammed behaviors we all have. He demonstrates this form of human automatic action in a study conducted by Ellen Langer,
a Harvard social psychologist.
Langer asked a favor of people standing in line waiting to make copies on a Xerox machine at a library. Her first request to cut the line was stated using the word, “because”:
‘Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine
because I’m in a rush.’
The results? 94% of the people she asked let her jump ahead of them!
Now, compare this to the second request she made, without “because” embedded in it:
“Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine?”
Using this version of the request, results plummeted to just 60%.
To prove the powerful ability of the word “because” to trigger an automatic response, Langer’s final test used just the word without a specific reason:
“Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine
because I have to make some copies?”
This almost non-sensical version produced nearly identical results to the first “because” statement. A whopping 93% of people complied and let Langer jump ahead of them.
“Because” is a simple word with a powerful ability to trigger an automatic response in most people.
How to start using “because” to your advantage
There are dozens of ways to start taking advantage of this powerful trigger word in your copy. Here are just two examples.
(1) Use “because” in your headline.
Because your life may depend on it, you owe it
to yourself to find out how a common garden herb
can reduce your chance of heart attack by 47%
(2) Use “because” in a call to take action.
Instead of, “Hurry, seating is limited to just 60 people. Don’t risk missing out. Enroll in this all-day event now”.
Use, “Because seating is limited to just 60 people, don’t risk missing out. Enroll in this all-day event now”.
But don’t just stop there. Because this knowledge can be so effective for improving the selling power of all your copy, spend some time brainstorming other ways you can put it to use today!
The Most Powerful Word In Marketing | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | What’s an article anyway, and why would I want to submit one to an ezine? That was a two-fold question and will require two answers.
An ezine article is usually composed of approximately 500 words on a single subject that would be of interest to your target market. At the end of the article, you should include a “resource box.” This box should provide such things as your name, the name of your company, your web site address, email address, and a small blurb about your product/service.
Writing an article is not hard work. All it requires is some research and note taking. Use any of multiple sources to find information about the topic that you choose to write about. Then write your article in your own words using the notes that you took during your research. It’s not difficult and it’s something that you learned to do early in school (grade school probably). Write in a conversational tone. Write like you are talking to your best friend.
Now, I’ll answer the second question. The reasons to submit this article to an ezine are varied, but not difficult to understand. They all boost your bottom line.
1. The submission of the article will help identify your business (web site) in the Internet marketplace. This is normally called “branding.”
2. Article submission provides publicity, virtually free.
3. Someone may like your writing style and hire you to write articles or ebooks for them.
4. The published article will drive traffic to your web site.
5. If the publisher of the ezine that you submit your article to maintains an archive, your article may be read many months later. Traffic may still be driven to your site this way.
6. People will come to know you as an expert on your subject.
7. You might get your article published in free ebooks that are distributed all over the web. This will drive more traffic to your web site.
8. This will help you become a trusted vendor of information.
9. If you allow anyone to publish your article or email it to a friend, you will gain further exposure for free.
10. Webmasters may read your article and display it on their web site. You get additional free exposure.
11. If you send out an ezine, you could offer to swap articles with other ezine publishers for free. This provides more publicity without expense.
So, there are quite a few benefits that you could receive from publishing small articles like this one. If that isn’t enough reasons for publishing your own articles, I don’t know what else you’d need. Don’t forget to provide enough valuable information. The more knowledge you supply, the more valuable you become. Provide real value and you will always have people clamoring for more.
11 Reasons to Submit This Article to an Ezine | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Wow!
I just finished reading T. Harv Eker’ s Secrets of the Millionaire Mind. I searched for the book and couldn’t find it in our bookstores, so I went to Amazon.com and got a copy. I was astounded when the book arrived’-in a dust jacket, signed by the author.
OK. I’m an author and I sign a lot of books, but when I see signed books from other writers, I really treasure them. I have a whole shelf, but I digress. I really want you to know what a great book Secrets of the Millionaire Mind is. It teaches you to think in a whole new way.
According to Eker, we’re all programmed as children with attitudes about money. If our mothers said to us, ‘We can’t afford it,’ we tend to go through life with that imprint. Or, we don’t think we’re worthy of becoming wealthy. But there are many other scenarios. They all come down to one idea’-we have to open ourselves up to the possibility of money. We have to welcome it and EXPECT it to come to us and it does.
Seriously.
I tested this over the past few weeks since I read the book, and maybe it’s just coincidence, but I’ve made more money this month than usual’-a lot more. AND, I expect it to continue. I’m just here waiting for it.
Here are some quotes from the book that I found most fascinating:
‘Leaders earn a heck of a lot more money than followers.’
‘There’s nothing wrong with getting a steady paycheck, unless it inerferes with your ability to earn what you’re worth. There’s the rub. It usually does.’
‘Rich people believe ‘You can have your cake and eat it too.’ Middle-class people believe ‘Cake is too rich, so I’ll only have a little piece.’ Poor people don’t believe they deserve cake, so they order a doughnut, focus on the hole, and wonder why they have ‘nothing.”
I don’t know if T. Harv Eker is a genius, but he certainly understands more than just what’s on the surface. You can work hard, pour your life’s blood into your passion, but if you don’t proceed with the intention of getting all that you can, you’ll continue to live hand to mouth until you die.
Pffft!!! to that. Buy the book, and I guarantee that you’ll come away with the same feeling as I did. Perhaps you’ll have a power month, too, which will lead you to another and another. These affirmations are awesome. Just try them for a month, and I know you’ll agree.
Do You Have The Millionaire Mind? | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | The factors behind opt in MLM leads is to be inside, where the good stuff is located.
The situation would be like this; you outside of the opt in MLM leads industry, wanting to get in. to get the inside scoop of the leads business. If you knew what actually went on in some arenas, you may think the inside scoop looks like this picture.
How are opt in MLM leads generated?
For the most part, opt in MLM leads are generated over the Internet. While there is no definite study to prove this matter, it is safe to assume that 85-90% of all leads you find for sale are originated on the Internet.
There are two main reasons for this. First, the Internet is where most people are doing their research today when looking for jobs, looking for ways to make extra money, something to invest on, etc. So, why not go where the people are looking?
Second, it is the most cost effective way of generating opt in MLM leads.
Surely, a person is surfing the Internet, doing a Google search, and checking out their options for ways to make extra income. Or, sometimes the person is not even thinking about wanting more money when an online ad catches their attention and they check it out. So, they fill out a form and hit submit.
That is the basics behind online opt in MLM lead generation. Some person is out there surfing the Net. There is an online ad and a form. Filled out and submit. Then they are now a prospect waiting to be sold.
Quite a nice system. Wouldn’t we all like to receive a batch of opt in MLM leads after people had been surfing the Internet for ways of making money from home. Now you have their name, phone, and E-mail address in your hands.
But there are some variables that can make a big difference in the type of opt in MLM leads you are holding in your hands.
Incentivized opt in MLM leads.
One of the biggest problems that exists among the Internet lead generation business is the incentives that entices a person to fill out a form and submit.
If you have purchased opt in MLM leads long enough, then you have probably come across the person who did not know they were going to be contacted about a home business. Instead they thought they were going to get a new Video iPod, $10,000, or a vacation cruise.
So, what do you do? You go to an opt in MLM leads company and you buy a batch of leads.
The leads are $2.25 each, so you buy 50 of them for $112.50. There is a chance you may find a good prospect in there, one that will be targeted to the product or service that you are offering.
No opt in MLM lead is ever pure because you do not know what other sites the prospect has been to, filling out forms, and checking out other businesses.
However, if you are going to invest in opt in MLM leads, it is worth a few extra minutes of research or an email or phone call to the owners; to know what kind of leads you are purchasing.
Opt in MLM leads are all about results. So go ask and test first.
All About Opt-In MLM Leads… | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | As a small business owner you may find yourself in a situation where you want to partner with another business but they are asking for a commission on your services. You will want to be prepared to handle such a request BEFORE you find yourself in this situation.
Whenever someone asks you for a commission in exchange for marketing your product or service, it is basically an affiliate or referral program. This can be one of the most powerful forms of marketing because it promotes word-of-mouth marketing. Who better to refer clients or customers to you than someone who fully understands the value of the services you have to offer?
Often these people are your current satisfied customers, or as is the case with this question, they may be strategic partners. Strategic partners are those individuals or businesses who agree to refer business to you, sometimes in exchange for you doing the same for them, or perhaps for a commission. Either way, it is important to make sure it is a win-win situation for both sides.
If you consider these individuals or businesses are in effect doing your marketing for you, then you realize paying a referral incentive or commission is merely a marketing expense.
When you consider that referred customers are “warm leads” and are a lot more likely to purchase from you than a “cold” prospect because they come with an endorsement from someone they trust, then you see even more how valuable this referral marketing can be.
My suggestion is to approach this as a potential business partnership. Make sure they completely understand the benefits you can provide to their customers and let them know you would like to design a mutually beneficial partnership. Before you offer to pay them a commission, find out what is important to them.
What are they looking for that you can possibly help them to get? In this case the potential partner IS your target audience so know them and approach them with a relevant proposition. Be willing to pay a referral fee or commission if that is all they are interested in, but also be open to other ideas.
I have negotiated some amazing partnerships just by spending some time talking and brainstorming with potential partners. In other cases I have straight affiliate/commission partnerships. It all depends on the partner and how we determine we can BEST HELP EACH OTHER to be successful.
(C) 2005 Debbie LaChusa
Should You Offer Commissions For Customer Referrals? | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | A simple definition of marketing is “the getting and keeping of customers.” To sell your product or service, you must have customers. To increase your revenues, you must have customers, and you must turn those customers into repeat super-customers.
The easiest way to do this, both on- and off-line, is through a content newsletter. There is no doubt that content sells. Useful content builds trust and credibility, and over time turns your customer from a stranger to a friend.
An online newsletter is easy to begin–all you need is an autoresponder. I use Aweber for my newsletter . You can advertise your newsletter on your website, on forums, on your business card, in articles you write, on traffic exchanges, and in your email signature. If you faithfully do these marketing tasks, your email list will grow over time.
You must provide useful and informative content in your newsletter. If you want subscribers to read it and (eventually) buy from you, do not offer them junk. I define “junk” as opt-in spam. Don’t fall into the habit of sending out advertisements veiled as “articles.” Don’t send only solo ads. Instead, research topics for your newsletter and write quality articles. Subscribers who are impressed with your newsletter will buy from you. But it will take time to build trust. Trust is not built through junk.
There are three phases to this process: 1) Get a lead; 2) Convert that lead into a customer; and 3) Convert that customer into a super-customer. Your newsletter will help you accomplish all three tasks.
If you sell or market a product or service, and you are driving traffic to your website, you typically have only one shot at capturing the interest of a prospect. If I go to your site and click away, I may never come back. You need some sort of follow-up system. A newsletter is the perfect vehicle for follow-up.
If you are sending targeted traffic to your site (any other type of traffic is a waste), visitors will be interested in the content of what you are offering. To keep their interest, and to keep your name in front of them, offer a f-re-e newsletter. Even a simple, once-a-month newsletter will do.
If they sign up, you then have a chance to build a relationship. This is done through your content. Many people don’t buy something the first time they see it, but as they come to know you and your product through your newsletter, they become more willing to purchase. Over time, just by offering a newsletter, you can convert more leads into customers.
You turn those customers into super-customers also through your newsletter. If the product or service they bought from you was quality, you have built even more credibility with them. Perhaps now they will make repeat purchases, or join a membership site you offer, or even become an affiliate for your product or service.
But the key is to offer useful, informative content. If the premier issue of your newsletter is nothing but an ad similar to your site, you will lose that lead. Build relationships through high-quality content, and you will convert leads into paying customers into paying super-customers.
Remember – no list, no money.
Convert Leads Into Customers, And Customers Into Super-customers! | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Before buying a shredder for office use, it is important to understand what type of shredder is good for which application. The way shredders are traditionally purchased and sold is by an uneducated consumer talking to an uneducated dealer.
A typical consumer will open a catalog containing 10 or more shredders and think that they are all designed to meet various price points. THEY ARE NOT!!! They are designed to meet different applications based on the amount and type of materials the consumer needs to shred.
If you try to purchase a shredder to fit a predetermined budget you may wind up buying a desk side shredder that will be required to shred five or six cases of computer printout per week. The shredder doesn’t perform well, or at least not for very long, and sooner or later you will be back in the market looking for another paper shredder that fulfills your exact requirements.
First of all, it is important to understand the application of shredders for different organizations and departments. For example:
‘ Accounting Departments shred documents like profit & loss statements, bills, audits, customer account records, financial statements, work sheets, letters of credit, tax records, delinquent accounts, checks, data processing.
‘ Paper shredder are used at Executive Offices for confidential documents, correspondence, agreements, contracts, executive reports, financial records, labor negotiations, committee reports, charts and graphs, periodicals, meeting proceedings.
‘ Clerical Departments have a use for paper shredders to shred letters, memos, telegrams, articles, bulletins, reports, announcements, archival data, customer records, vendor records, directories, routings, and files.
‘ Legal Departments need to shred contracts, correspondence, warranties, depositions, affidavits, pleadings, judgments, decisions, insurance files, promissory notes, cancelled checks, tax information, patent designs, and option agreements.
Depending on the work that is performed at your office, you should determine what types of documents should be shredded at your office. This analysis will give you an idea of how much paper will you shred in any busy day. You will also be able to figure out the size and type of paper that is used for the documents that you want to shred. Most importantly, you will be able to figure out whether your security needs will be fulfilled by a simple strip cut shredder or if you need a high security cross cut shredder.
There are distinct advantages to each type of shredder. A thorough understanding will help you in determining the most appropriate shredder for the application.You can find more details on how to choose a shredder . For further information, please contact:
Legal Applications of official Paper Shredder at Accounting Departments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Below are some tips to help you optimize your pages to make them more Adsense-friendly. Note that these tips deal with ad delivery rather than ad formatting or placement. While ad formatting and placement may affect ad click-through rates, they have nothing to do with the delivery of relevant ads to your site. Your site must display relevant ads before they have any chance of being clicked on.
1. Avoid too much content on a page
If Adsense does not understand what is your page is about, it cannot deliver ads targeted to its content. Although a human being can easily tell what a web page is about by taking a glance at it, computer algorithms are no so intelligent. If your page contains too much content, chances are that it also contains too many seemingly unrelated keywords. Adsense becomes confused and displays PSAs or ads unrelated to the topic of your page. Try dividing the page into smaller ones, each focusing on just a few related keywords.
2. Avoid too little content on a page
If your page contains lots of graphics and very little text, Adsense may have a hard time figuring out what it is about. This is especially true when the bulk of your content is derived from graphics and scripts. When possible, use text rather than graphics to display website names, page titles, and headline texts. Make certain to include your keywords in the title of your page and repeat them throughout the page. Avoid hiding your text through sneaky tactics, such as using tiny fonts or making your text the same color as the background. This may be construed by search engines as spam.
3. Repeat keywords that you are targeting
Keyword repetition makes it easier for Adsense to decipher what your page is about. Do this in moderation as excessive repetition may be considered spam by the search engines. Excessive repetition may also make your writing sound awkward to the human reader. Instead of repeating the same keyword more than 5 or 6 times on a page, use synonyms and related keywords. For example, instead of repeating ‘Adsense optimization’ 20 times, you might try alternative phrases like ‘increase Adsense revenues’ or ‘earn more from Adsense’.
4. Avoid acronyms
I once wrote an article on pay-per-click advertising for one of my sites. When I uploaded the article to my site, I was surprised to find that all of the ads showing on the page were for Apple computer products and had nothing to do with pay-per-click. It later occurred to me that instead of repeating ‘pay-per-click’ over and over in the article, I used the acronym ‘PPC’ numerous times. As it turned out, ‘PPC’ also stands for ‘PowerPC’, Apple’s line of Power Macintosh computers, which explained why I was getting all the Apple related ads. When I replaced all the ‘PPCs’ with ‘pay-per-click’ and ‘pay per click’, the problem went away.
5. Choose keywords with commercial value
You may get public service announcements rather than paid ads if your page deals with a subject matter whose keywords no one bids on. A remedy for this is to incorporate keywords with commercial value into your manuscript. For instance, if your page is on some obscure medical condition, you might try sprinkling a few drug names into your document to make it display paid ads rather than PSAs.
How Do I Extract The Maximum Money Out Of Google Adsense | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | The printing industry has changed immensely and the greatest proofs are imminent especially in book printing. In ancient times, only a limited number of books are published since very few authors are willing to write their books. You see books during those times are all hand written. Writing a book may take a year or so to finish. And of course we all know that handmade products are usually expensive so just imagine how much a book would costs during the ancient times.
If the actual writing already poses a problem just think of the problem in reprinting the same book. But thanks to the development of printing technology more books and other printed materials are easily printed today. Aside from that, there are also other options that are available to improve the quality of each book printed. As much as there are so many types of books there also numerous book printers and publishers that offers varying costs and benefits.
Book printing in its simplest sense is the method of having a book printed. But is it really all printing? Or is there something more to it that meets the eye? Book printing should never be confused with traditional publishing. Traditional publishing refers to the entire life cycle of a book starting off with the development of the book, then the creative design for the cover followed by printing, manufacturing, distribution and then the marketing of the books. Book printing is more of ‘your-own’ publishing and printing scheme since you are the publisher and at the same time the printer of your own book.
At present there is a vast number of book printing presses already used by publishers as well as book manufacturers. Nevertheless, there are also local print shops that offer book printing services. The difference between professional book printing and your local print shop lies on the quality of the output. Books that have undergone professional book printing press procedures are more superior in terms of prints and then the colors used are more impressive compared to the quality of books that are simply done by inexperienced local copy shops.
An excellent choice of book printing company is one that takes the time to explain to its customers the benefits that may be derived from the technology in order to help their customers in correctly choosing the correct format, page count, ink type, colors as well as provide their customers with the quotes to help them with their budgets.
For comments and suggestions about the article kindly
Book Printing Press In The Present Time | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Dear Pay Per Click Marketer,
You should, by now, be aware that having a massive highly targeted keyword list with terms related to your site is a gem. The more keywords you have in your list, the more traffic you will generate to your site, and the more sales you will make. The formula is simple. Many people ask me how I generate hundreds of these high quality, targeted keywords every hour; so I decided to leak my #1 secret to the world. I hope that you will use this secret to your advantage and it will help you tremendously in your Pay Per Click Marketing.
Step 1
Go to Google Suggest
Step 2
Type in the root keyword you’re trying to SEO for or brainstorm around. If you haven’t used this tool before, then listen closely.
[DO NOT PRESS SEARCH]
Just wait, and the results will pop-down with the top 10 most popular searches on google for that phrase and 10 others. This way, you know that the keywords you are collecting are not only highly targeted, but also consistently pulling in traffic.
Step 3
Okay, now here’s the sneaky part. Let’s pretend our website is about ‘dating’.
Typing in ‘dating’ gives you the following keywords:
dating
dating direct
dating services
dating sites
dating tips
dating service
datingdirect
dating advice
dating sims
dating agencies
Now, here’s how you get your 270 more keyword ideas:-
Type in ‘dating’, space, and then the letter ‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’ etc. (26 letters in the alphabet, 10 keywords for each letter, plus the keywords from the root list above)
Just for show…
Here were the top results for ‘dating’ and the letter ‘a’:
dating advice
dating agencies
dating agency
dating after divorce
dating advice for women
dating a married man
dating agencys
dating australia
dating advise
dating agencies uk
And how do I know Google actually gives you the top 10 real searches?
Quote From Google
Our algorithms use a wide range of information to predict the queries users are most likely to want to see. For example, Google Suggest uses data about the overall popularity of various searches to help rank the refinements it offers. An example of this type of popularity information can be found in the Google Zeitgeist. Google Suggest does not base its suggestions on your personal search history.
Now you know my secret; use it wisely…
How To Generate 270 New Keyword Ideas In 15 Minutes | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Attending an exhibition is still one of the best ways to get in front of thousands of potential customers in one go. Whilst your internet site might be accessible by people the world over, an exhibition is only attended by people who are interested in your sector and it’s an ideal opportunity to make your presence known.
1. Choose your space well
If you leave it too late, all the best stand space has already gone. Book early and you can have your pick of the best spots ‘ directly opposite the entrance; unmissable from the bar or caf’; a corner stand or a stand at the top of the stairs. These are all great places for your company to be, so the earlier you book, the better your chances of getting a top spot.
2. Think about design
Your stand needs to be eye-catching, so think about what distinguishes you from the opposition and use it to attract attention. From bright colours to unusual photography, there are lots of ways you can stand out from the crowd. Enlist the help of your designer to make sure that you do.
3. Clever marketing
Exhibitions are full of giveaways and we know that most of it goes in the bin when delegates get back to their hotel rooms. Be creative with your marketing. Consumer-led companies can give away vouchers, whilst others need to look for gifts that add value or have immediate use. Put your brand on water bottles or blister plasters or face wipes ‘ anything that’s going to attract the attention of a hassled executive.
4. Get your displays right
Stands that are crowded with leaflets or where information isn’t readily available are often by-passed. Delegates don’t always want to speak to you, but they might want to take your literature and they shouldn’t have to fight their way to the back of your stand to get it. Use a variety of display systems for products and literature to entice people onto your stand rather than shy away from it.
5. Smile
You’d be surprised how often stands are by-passed because the stand staff are eating, drinking, smoking or looking downright unapproachable. It’s amazing the difference that a smiling, welcoming face can make ‘ the difference between netting a big client and getting nothing at all.
Five Ways To Attract Attention At Your Next Exhibition | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Ok, you MUST of heard of The Rich Jerk! You know. Hes the guy who apparently makes millions on the Internet and loves nothing more that to belittle others about it!! He sells a guide on how to do the same!
Well, ive had enough of his obscene ego! Here im going to give you an in depth insight The Rich Jerks guide. I probably shouldn’t, and he wont like it but i don’t care. Here goes!!
The Rich Jerk starts off with the top six ingredients that he uses to write a sales letter. Most of them are nothing that i haven’t already heard of and used, however the first ingredient is a stroke of genius. It is one of those things that you sub-counciously already know, you just haven’t got access to it! You will be able to use this technique in all of your sales promotions not just your sales letters.
Next up in The Rich Jerk he talks about hes pay-per-click strategies. Again, most of the stuff id already heard off but once more he slips in a little nugget of brilliance. This method should go a long way in making your ads stand out and crush the competition. I the tip that The Rich Jerk gave, with excellent results. For me this has alone proved, literally, to be worth the price of the book Its hard to monitor exactly what changes you make do what within a adwords campaign, but i firmly believe that this one tip has nearly doubled my monthly adwords profits. Real good stuff!
Here we take a look at The Rich Jerks adsense strategies. Not sure if i should be telling you this but what he advises is what is known as traffic arbitrage. Whats traffic arbitrage i hear you say. Its basically buying buying web traffic cheap from one place and then selling it to another place for more money! which is buying traffic cheap from one source and selling it high to another… For instance you could be buying traffic from GoClick for 7p, then sending that traffic to a page that you have set your adsense up on that is worth 28p. This is a strategy that i have been using successfully before i read it in The Rich Jerk. It is not a particularly well known technique, so I cant say that im all that pleased with The Rich Jerk for telling everybody about it. It is however excellent news for you. Once you get the hang of it you can add about ’150 a month to your income within about 2 hours.
The Rich Jerk now enlightens us all with his SEO strategies… alarm bells are ringing!!! This, i think is absolute rubbish. He basically advices you to buy thousands of incoming links then use a $1700 search engine cloaker!!!!! Great. Cheers Rich Jerk!
Next Chapter in The Rich Jerk is how to sell your own product. This is some very solid information and i managed to pick up more than a couple of interesting tit bits here.
Ebay! – Im not a big fan of Ebay, so im only gonna touch upon this. Here, The Rich Jerk lists all of his wholesale suppliers. I happen to know that there allot of complete rip off wholesale merchants out there so a list provided by The Rich Jerk himself holds allot of water to my mind.
The rest of the Rich Jerk concentrates on HYIP’s. Im not a huge believer in the validity of these, although i do know some people who have earned allot of money from these.
Bottom line, do i recommend The Rich Jerk? Yes I do! Since buying The Rich Jerk ebook I have cherry picked my favorite tips out, implemented them and have earned the price of the book 150 times over! No, really i have!
If your a complete newbie to Internet marketing then i can not think of a better guide than The Rich Jerk. Likewise if your an old sea dog like me, you will still pick up some real pieces of gold from The Rich Jerk!
The Rich Jerk… Or Just A Jerk? | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | It’s amazing where you can find hidden revenue when you take a moment to look around your business. Many businesses are losing revenue because of their phone system, whether you have multiple lines, or a home phone, no matter. Either can easily lose you money.
YOUR PHONE SYSTEM
Recently I’ve called a couple of clients’ phone systems. In several instances I was trapped in a queue. It was frustrating. I don’t necessarily have a problem with queues that prompt me to ‘press #1 for the children’s department’ or ‘press #5 for Dr. Smith’ rather, I get frustrated when I follow your recording instructions and I get no where! Thus, I hang up resulting in missed revenue.
LESSON
Call into your phone system at least once a week, no less, even if you have only one home phone line with voice mail. Call into it. Is it still working? Has your greeting suddenly disappeared? Is there even a dial-tone? Has the line been cut? Did you leave your phone plugged into your fax? Is your receptionist still pleasant or has he suddenly become fed up with his job, grumbling at callers?
If business suddenly drops off for no reason, always look to your phone. Call all your numbers, especially after you’ve requested any changes or updates from your phone provider. [We all have stories to tell about the latter.] And don’t forget to check all forwarding numbers from your yellow page ads. Can’t remember? I check mine every time the bills arrive.
A quick story’.
Many years ago I worked as a marketing manager for a large telecommunications company. One afternoon my general manager tried reaching all her direct reports, only to get voice mail each time. The next morning she demanded that all voice mails be deactivated. Moving forward, the receptionist was to take all calls live and handwrite all messages.
It was a fiasco.
We were a sales-based organization. Part of the bloodline for any sales organization is their voice mail. A large majority of deals are concocted through voice mail, since all parties can be on the run and leave long winded messages, moving the deal along to closure.
Voice mail was reactivated about a week later.
MORAL OF THE STORY’.
#1 – Never make critical decisions for your business out of frustration. Had the GM spoken with her direct reports first, a more stable solution could have been created, i.e., a manager is assigned to be on call each day. Because of her knee jerk decision, sales were stifled that week. Of course the GM still received her hefty paycheck, but her army of ants brought less home to their young the week after.
#2 — Voice mail is not a bad thing. It’s an incredible marketing weapon when used effectively. First and foremost, you should return all calls with 24 hours. If you need more time, then your greeting should say so. If email is faster for you, especially if you’re bombarded by vendors trying to sell you stuff, as I am, then proactively give a ‘unique’ email address, whereby you direct all sales inquiries to this email. This way, you can cut and paste various questions you’ve already asked time and time again of other vendors, and simply email it. Make the vendor provide you the information you want. Until then, there is no reason for the two of you to have a voice conversation. Until he gives you the basics you need, i.e., Does his product reach your demographic? If it doesn’t, he’s wasting your time. And you’re wasting his time but not telling him so upfront. Remember, most salespeople have been taught to push until they get to either ‘no’ or ‘yes.’ Sadly, many skip over the entire part of establishing a relationship, exploring what the prospect needs, and hanging tight for when you ‘really’ have a solution.
Start obsessing over your phone system and all touch points that impact your phone. You’re losing money.
When business drops off, always look here | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | “Before you begin marketing through a VIP Club, you need to take a step back and look at your restaurant. Make sure that you are ready for increased business. Don’t attempt to market your restaurant unless you have above average food and service. Good marketing can actually put a restaurant that provides poor food and service out of business faster because more people will have a poor dining experience, and the negative word-of-mouth will cause them to fail faster than if they do not market at all,” says Brent Davis, Director of Coaching Services for RestaurantMarketingGroup.org (RMG) a company that specializes in helping restaurants to build sound, trackable marketing systems through its easy-to-use software, “How-To” marketing manuals and personalized coaching.
Gathering the Data:
Once you have taken an internal inventory and feel good about the food and service that you provide, it’s time to start using and building your database of existing customers. Remember that in most restaurants 30 percent of the customers are bringing in 70 percent of the business. For the sake of our discussion, let’s say that Joe’s Family Diner has 10,000 customers a month. That’s 322 customers each day. Seventy percent of the diner’s monthly customers would be 7,000. If the restaurant’s VIP Club marketing creates only one more visit per year per customer at an average check of $25, the volume will increase by $175,000 per year or $14,538 a month and that’s with only
one extra visit per existing customer per year. You can see why it’s important to go after additional customer visits.
“Don’t forget that your existing customers are your neighbors. A VIP Club nables you to market within your neighborhood to existing customers. It’s permission based and therefore considerably more effective than if you did a
blanket coupon offer to all of your neighbors. These are folks who know and frequent your restaurant; they took the time to fill out a VIP card and have shared personal information with you,” says Davis.
“VIP Clubs are a great way to build customer loyalty. Always give a thank you reward bonus for joining the club. We recommend that the offers go out by email or regular mail within 72 hours after signing up. The offer should be
without any strings attached. I like to suggest that the offer be for a dollar amount. A flat $15.00 or $10.00 amount could be enough depending on your guest check average. You could give a FREE, dinner with a $10 or $15 limit. Give them an offer they can use on anything they want. The offer is now valuable and they feel compelled to use it,” says Teresa Horn, RMG Marketing Program Development
Specialist.
To enjoy the greatest return on your VIP Club enrollment campaign, you should train your employees so that they understand everything about the VIP Club. Have a contest and give prizes to the employees who sign up the most
customers. Place VIP Club displays and sign-up cards in very high-traffic, highly visible areas. Use pre-printed “Post-It” pad messages and put them on your menus so that your customers and employees will be reminded to fill them out.
Always emphasize the benefits of VIP Club membership. Enter the names and additional information into the computer software program on a daily basis, using a part time employee.
Horn suggests that your VIP Club sign-up cards include the
following information:
Name:
Address:
Birthdates of each family member, so that they can receive a
birthday surprise.
Anniversary:
Email::
Phone: (Optional)
“Carefully select your expiration date. I usually suggest using a three-week expiration date. If it’s not used by then, it is usually lost. You want to create a sense of urgency,” says Horn.
Processing the data:
Don’t wait until you have built a large database. Start marketing to each VIP Club member the minute you get their data. You will find that this information is your most valuable marketing asset.
Creating a database of your customers and immediately communicating to them on a regular basis will increase the frequency of visits to your restaurant. For almost any reason, or sometimes for no reason at all you should send
the customer a postcard or an email with an incentive to bring them into the restaurant again. Remember, the goal is to bring the customers in at least one EXTRA time per year. By sending them a reminder postcard or email around a
holiday or during a local community event will remind them to visit your restaurant. And if they make several EXTRA visits you have exceeded your goal and dramatically increased the sales and profit of your restaurant.
Create a Birthday Club:
What is the most popular holiday for eating out? According to the National Restaurant Association, it’s on your birthday. In fact, 55 percent of all Americans eat out on their birthdays. The best news of all is that people have
birthdays 365 days a year, spread out over 12 months. Birthdays are the perfect time to encourage additional business.
“Use the information gathered in your database to send out birthday cards for each VIP customer as you recognize one of the most important days in their lives. Their celebrations might as well happen at your restaurant. Always include a FREE offer such as a FREE dinner for the birthday guest.
Remember that birthday guests rarely party alone; the average size of a birthday group is five individuals,” says Horn.
Go out of your way to make the birthday party a special event when a customer redeems his/her certificate. Your restaurant needs to become the “Party Place.” Develop definite policies to ensure that it happens”that the parties are fun and your birthday guest is treated like royalty for
their day. You must create a special party atmosphere. One Northwest seafood chain has a crazy fish hat that the birthday person wears while they take a Polaroid or digital photo of the birthday guest and his/her friends. The photo is then slipped into a cardboard photo holder and becomes a
nice takeaway remembrance of the evening. Of course, the restaurant’s name and address is on the card. If you include a “year” sticker, it can become a collectable item.
Celebrate Anniversaries:
Another great marketing campaign can be centered on your VIP customers’ anniversaries. Forty-three percent of American couples say they go out to eat to celebrate their wedding anniversaries. If you own a fine dining restaurant,
try to make your guests dining experience special and romantic. Doing “little extras” is what will set your restaurant apart from the competition. Value-added incentives are more important than discounts on anniversaries. You must
make it a “special occasion.”
Quick Service Restaurants and Pizza Shops can effectively wish mom and dad a happy anniversary by giving them a great offer for their children’s meals that way, Mom doesn’t have to cook for the children before she goes out to dine.
This let’s the children celebrate the anniversary too.
Advertise Specials or New Menus:
“With a marketing database, you are prepared to communicate with your regular customers. It’s a great way to introduce a new menu or a new menu item. Always include some special offer just for VIP members,” says Horn.
Many companies have developed a newsletter for VIP members. Others are sending out e-newsletters. This is a great way to say thank you to your frequent customers. It’s also a great medium to tell them about new menu items,
new employees, and new recipes. All this helps to make our customers take an interest in your restaurant and keep your restaurant’s name in front of your VIP members. Be sure to make the newsletter newsy and fun to read. Always include some sort of incentive for those members to stop by for a
meal. Change your incentive in each newsletter and track the results.
Sponsor Contests:
One restaurateur saw a substantial increase in VIP member visits when she started having a weekly drawing. She sent out a postcard to the VIP members and asked them to bring in the postcards for a FREE offer. When redeemed, the
postcards were entered into a weekly drawing for a free lunch or “Dinner For two”. Monthly drawings were also held with prizes such as a digital camera, CD player, clock radio, etc. Grand Prize Drawings held twice a year gave away a
grandfather’s clock or a cruise. With every mailer, she reminded her customers of the grand prize drawings.
Additional Celebrations:
Create theme nights to attract your VIP members back to your restaurant. Tie your theme occasions with holidays. For instance, February is National Chocolate Lover’s Month. Offer your VIP members a special chocolate dessert promotion for the month of February. One creative Italian restaurant
owner did a VIP promotion for its St. Patrick’s Day celebration. He sent out an email invitation saying, “Come party with real Italians on St. Patrick’s Day. We’ll show you how to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in style.” Any holiday will
do. One restaurant celebrated Agatha Christie’s Birthday by offering a surprise entree special.
Remember that the number of dollars that a customer is going to spend is limited. To get more than your share, you are frankly going to have to
take them away from your competition Effective marketing will help you get a larger share of your customer’s dollars and includes the tools to track
each and every promotion to determine your customer response and return on investment. With good marketing and tracking you will be able to
keep your restaurant in Top OF Mind awareness with your customers.
“It’s not your customer’s job to remember you. It’s your obligation and your responsibility to make sure the customer doesn’t forget you! An effective VIP
Club will do just that,” says Horn.
Developing VIP Clubs that Increase Business | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Throughout the United States many consumers and businesses are electing to purchase bottled drinking water instead of tap or well water. The trend is clearly on the rise. A recent study of the bottled water industry indicates that U.S. bottled water sales and consumption continue to multiply at double digit rates as consumers and businesses increasingly choose bottled water as a beverage of choice. (Source: International Bottle Water Association Press Release dated April 13, 2006,) Many consumers are choosing bottled drinking water over tap or well water because of the level of contaminants and bad chlorine related taste.
This increase in demand is significant as bottled water has also gained considerable share from the Carbonated Soft Drink (CSD) market. The CSD market share was also reduced as a result of the recent program to ban the sale of CSD products in school systems.
Private label drinking water is the fastest growing segment of the total bottled water industry.
‘ Why the Strong Demand for Bottled Water?
The continued growth in bottled water consumption is mainly comprised of four elements, which are as follows:
‘ Good taste and quality of the product
‘ Convenience of delivery
‘ Supplier customer service
‘ A product line offering that meets the needs of the customer
Country-wide, the bottled water industry has moved quickly to respond to the needs of the market and customers, which results in the increase in bottled water demand and consumption. This trend has also proved evident in the heavily populated area of Northern Virginia in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan area.
‘ The Northern Virginia Market for Bottled Water
Northern Virginia population has grown dramatically in the last ten years largely due to the massive homeland security build up after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. This huge influx of population stressed the existing water infrastructure for both tap and well water. Tap water, although tested against FDA standards, still contained a number of potentially hazardous minerals and chlorine additives to kill bacteria. Well water, subjected to chemical and organic pollution and not tested by any government agency, proved also to be undesirable and not beneficial to health.
The State of Virginia ranks among the highest in terms of violation of EPA maximum contaminant levels. The constant influx of population into Northern Virginia will continue to stress the water infrastructure. (Source: Water on Tap: What You Need to Know )
Many of the new arrivals in Northern Virginia are young urban professionals with young families. Most of these people seek healthy alternatives for their drinking water supplies.
Because of water quality problems in Northern Virginia, the growth in bottled water demand seen throughout the country is repeated locally. Strong demand for high-quality, good tasting water coupled with the convenience of local delivery resulted in the emergence of bottled water firms with product and service offerings of varying quality.
‘ 5 Valuable Tips for Selecting a Bottled Water Supplier
In Northern Virginia there are many choices facing the consumer that seek an alternative to tap and well water. It should be revealed, however, that the many suppliers in the market are diverse and not uniform in their product quality and service offerings. The best suppliers meet the customer’s expectations in 5 critical areas: Tips for the best choice in each area are listed below.
1. Quality and Taste of Water
Choose the purest, best tasting water. There are many types of water that vary in quality and taste. The United Sates Food and Drug Administration (FDA) defines a number of water categories including Spring Water (water from an underground source) and Purified Water (including distilled water). Each category defines a specific type of bottled water with Purified Water containing no minerals or other contaminants.
In addition to quality, taste is an important consideration. The taste of bottled water should be light and refreshing without any hint of after taste. Not all bottled water products meet these criteria, but those that do are very popular. Take a taste test before deciding to purchase.
Purified Water removes all contaminants, which allows many experts to believe that the distilled/oxygenated Purified Water process produces the highest quality, best tasting bottled water.
2. Broad Product Offering
The consumer should look for a company that offers home delivery of high-quality coolers, 5 gallon jugs, small package (12 and 20 oz.), PET products and water accessories. All products should be user friendly and commercial grade with bottle handles, spill-proof caps and other features that ensure the water supply will be convenient and safe.
Since private label water is now available for corporate events, weddings, birthdays, anniversaries and other memorable occasions, a supplier that offers private label drinking water combined with high-quality private label design and production is a plus.
3. Total Customer Satisfaction
Many bottled water suppliers promise customer satisfaction, but few deliver on that promise. A good way to test whether a supplier can guarantee satisfaction is to place a telephone call to the supplier’s customer service department. If you reach a human voice on your first call then probabilities are very high that you will receive customer satisfaction; if you receive voicemail or a recording however, then the supplier values cost cutting more than customer service.
Poor customer service will rapidly offset a seemingly low price. Consider total value including customer service and product quality before agreeing to a ‘price only ‘offer.
4. Ease of Ordering
Ease of ordering should be a priority and long term contracts should be avoided. Frequently, some suppliers will quote a very low price but require an onerous one-sided long term contract. The best way to order is with a simple agreement that does not include penalties for cancellation and is customer oriented.
Ordering off the internet is very convenient if the site is truly interactive. Choose a supplier that has an interactive site where a customer can select the type and amount of water, establish delivery schedules, use a credit card for payment with guaranteed security and modify their account on demand.
A limited number of suppliers offer the ability to design private label drinking water on the internet through highly interactive e-commerce sites. The best sites offer multiple layered tools that provide for advanced graphic design and powerful label messages.
Those suppliers who have invested in a powerful, interactive site offer their customers added convenience and flexibility when creating brand messages on private label drinking water.
5. Complementary Products
Home and office delivery of bottled water also offers a distribution channel for other products like coffee and tea. Similar to bottled water, complementary products often vary greatly in quality and customer service satisfaction. The consumer should choose a supplier who offers products of high-quality supported by the best customer service.
Bottled water offers a healthy alternative to tap and well water in Northern Virginia; and home and office delivery offers convenience to consumers and businesses. The quality of product and service offerings in the marketplace differs significantly however. Therefore it is beneficial to the consumer to investigate any potential bottled water supplier with care.
Home and Office Bottled Water Delivery in Northern Virginia - 5 Valuable Tips for Selecting a Supplier | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | An online discount health insurance plan should be researched if you find the insurance costs offered to you through your job, professional association or chamber of commerce outside of your budget. It is important to find something that works for your needs as well as your family requirements.
What is important to you? Do you think you’ll be needing maternity care , physical check-ups for your family, regular prescription drugs refilled or Are you considered high risk or have a health condition ?
Ask friends about the policies they use, but keep in mind that their own needs may be different than yours.
Don’t pick a plan just based on your friend’s recommendation but see if it will cover the types of services you require or if it may have more features than you would normally use.
One nice thing about looking for an online discount health insurance plan is that a lot of insurance companies are aware of the competition and you can compare rates to get the best deals. It is important to look via your zip code as counties even 10 miles from each other can have huge differences in the monthly premium charges. This can be based on cost of living or other factors.
When you fill out an online form you will be asked some question and it is a quick process where you can then get a comparison. They will be looking at your age, degree of risk and you can see what each has to offer in terms of the premium and benefits. By keeping in mind what services you’ll be using you can make an informed decision and choose a health insurance plan that will speak to your needs. Some are comfortable for example with catastrophic insurance that would protect them from expensive hospital bills but not have coverage for doctor’s visits until a high deductible is met.
The Importance of Comparing Online Discount Health Insurance Plan Options | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | A – Affiliate Marketing
Merchant products are promoted on 3rd party (affiliate) websites. When visitors click through from the affiliate site to the merchant site and make a purchase then an agreed fee is paid to the affiliate.
If you advertise your products online, affiliate marketing is an efficient way to generate additional business. It is a cost effective form of advertising for merchants, and a simple way for affiliates to earn revenue from their website.
B – Banner Advertising
Banner advertising generally has a low response rate, often yielding about 2 visitors per thousand banner impressions. Despite the relatively poor value of banners for driving traffic, banner advertising can be particular useful in certain circumstances such as raising brand awareness.
C – Categorise
Structuring your site well can be worth its weight in gold, not just to users of your site, but also to search engines. A well structured site in terms of infrastructure (i.e. directory structure, page naming convention) will not only tell your visitor what the page is about quickly, but also provide the search engines with an idea of what the page is about before it is indexed.
D – Differentiation
A unique Marketing Campaign that allows a company and/or its products and services to stand out from its competitors. Having a niche product or service makes the job of marketing your product or service much easier. If your service is not unique, it is often possible to identify a ‘unique selling point’ of your product or service.
Focus on your unique selling points, those products or services that differentiate you from your competitors, and ensure you portray these to your potential customers.
There are many aspects that can make you similar to your competitors, so ensure your unique selling point is clear to your customers. This can make a significant difference between success and failure.
E ‘ E-Mail Marketing
Using e-mail as a means of communicating commercial messages to an audience (Direct Marketing) can be a profitable addition to your marketing strategy.
This could take many forms:
‘ Targeting your existing client base with additional services or products.
‘ Targeting your existing client base with the purpose of enhancing the relationship of a client with its current or old customers and to encourage customer loyalty and repeat business.
‘ Targeting your existing client base with the purpose of selling 3rd party products for a fee.
‘ Purchasing a list of client email addresses for the purpose of marketing your products to a new client audience.
‘ Adding your advertisements to e-mails sent by other companies to their client base and marketing your products to a new audience.
Direct marketing is popular with companies online as it is:
LOW COST : Compared to direct mailing or printed newsletters the costs are negligible. The advertiser does not need to pay for production, paper, printing or postage.
IMMEDIATE : It is instant, as opposed to a mailed advertisement, an e-mail arrives in a few seconds or minutes.
TRACKABLE : It is easy to track. An advertiser can track hits, conversions and rise in sales. Real-time.
FAR REACHING: Direct marketing can reach substantial numbers of e-mail subscribers who have opted-in (consented) to receive e-mail communications on subjects of interest to them.
F ‘ Focus
Keep it relevant!
There is no point spending hundreds or thousands of pounds on advertising on your site, and then sending a potential customer to a non-related “landing page”. There are two scenarios as regards online marketing where this is especially true, namely
‘ PPC advertising – Send your customers through to a targeted page. Many companies send clients through to the homepage, or worse, a non related page to what the term is. By sending potential customers through to a relevant page, you reduce the number of clicks required to find the product, at the same time reducing the number of exit points, which have the effect of making the money spent on sending the client to the site redundant.
‘ Affiliate Marketing – These days may clients are using companies such as Tradedoubler and Miva to drive traffic to their site. However, the number of times I have seen companies use the extra functionality such as product feeds that these Affiliate Marketing companies provide, and then under utilise them is staggering. By again targeting the users directly to the product/service they are searching for you are reducing the chances of the customer leaving the site before he/she has even
viewed your product.
G – Gift Vouchers
Gift vouchers can be a good way of influencing users to your site to buy a product/service. Not only can this be a good way of adding conversions, it can increase your customer loyalty as well.
H – High earners vs Low returners
Differentiating what products/services offer the highest return on investment is often one of the best ways of increasing your bottom line, and as a result your return on investment (ROI). This may sound like common sense, however many companies overlook this, and continue offering products or services that never make any positive ROI.
The same applies to search engine marketing as a whole. For example, If you have a pay-per-click campaign, and are using very generic terms, you may find by tweaking the terms, and making these more specific, you decrease the amount you are spending on your PPC campaign, and increase your ROI as a result.
I – Informative
Having a site that is informative, interesting and unique is one of the best ways of keeping visitors coming back to your site, whether they be human or robots. Visitor loyalty is invaluable. This can be achieved via a number of ways whether it be a niche product, well written technical articles, your companies own PR or even just something that is just unique, funny or controversial.
J – Just keep it simple
Over complicating the conversion process is often the biggest barrier to obtaining a successful sale. Many companies place barriers in the way, giving customers more reasons to pull out of a sale before completion, whether it is up-selling, over zealous data capture, or an inaccessible website.
A recent client’s buying process involved 10 clicks from site entry to sale completion. By reducing the number of clicks required to complete the sale from 10 to 6, sales increased by 400%. This involved streamlining the buying process, ensuring that the customer completed in as little time as possible.
In the modern era, time is money. Therefore time can be expensive so keep the time required to make a purchase to a minimum.
K – Keywords
Research thoroughly the keywords that your website can realistically be ranked for. If you have a new website in a highly competitive market then ranking naturally for the major terms will be close to impossible, so consider less competitive and more targeted terms.
Higher levels of visitors do not necessarily mean an increase in sales. A more focused set of keywords may mean lower traffic but the quality of the traffic can lead to a better ROI.
L – Landing Pages
This is another asset of search engine marketers that is either over-optimised for search engines or under-utilised for visitors. Both can have a detrimental effect on sales conversions and ultimately your ROI.
If you are using landing pages for any of your online advertising/marketing, it is highly advisable to keep these landing pages tailored to their requirement. You will find that by sending potential customers directly to the area/product they are looking for, you will significantly increase your sales as a result, and ultimately your ROI.
M – Mod Rewrite
A Mod Rewrite engine is a piece of web server software used to modify URLs, for the purpose of making your dynamic URLs more user friendly to customers and search engines.
A rewritten URL is easier to use if it is short but descriptive. The URL should have some text describing the content, but should not be too long.
The A-Z Of Increasing Your Online Marketing ROI Part I | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | One of the best books you could ever read that reveals the secret key to building a successful business is entitled: ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’ by Dale Carnegie. It was originally written over 70 years ago but almost every successful business person has read it and applied its principles. And because I want to be successful, I read it myself, and after doing so, I can now recommend it to you.
One of the secret keys you will learn in this dynamic book is that your customers do not care about you; they care about their own needs. But people who fail in business only think about their needs, not the needs of their customers. However, people who are successful in business place their customers’ needs above their own.
Let me give you an example of what happened to me the other day. I was planning a vacation to Alamosa, Colorado to visit the Great Sand Dunes for my 50th birthday. I found a cute little cabin online that was a bed and breakfast and sent them an email that said:
‘I was very impressed with your cabins and I would like to celebrate my 50th birthday there on July 5th. Please call me and let me know if you have a cabin (at any price) available for July 4th and 5th. If so, I will give you my credit card information and book the cabin immediately. Besides, I am planning to move to the area within a few years and perhaps I could hire you as a carpenter to build me a cabin like you have photographs of on your website. I look forward in speaking with you.’
Notice that I provided the innkeepers with enough personal information about me and my desires that would enable them to successfully sell me a cabin rental. I told them it was for my 50th birthday. I also told them how impressed I was with their cabins. I told them I didn’t care what the price was. And I told them I was ready to pay them with my credit card. Additionally, I even included the fact that we may become neighbors and he might be hired to build me a cabin within a few years.
But the innkeeper who received my email was not a person who read the book, ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People.’ Instead, he was only concerned with his wants and desires not his potential customers. In fact, he even overlooked the possibility that he might have been able to make an extra $75,000 or more building me a cabin in the near future and we could become good neighbors for many years.
Instead, this is how the conversation went when he called me:
Innkeeper: We don’t have any cabins available on July 4th but we have one available on July 5th.
Me: So, are you asking me to sleep in my car on July 4th?
Innkeeper: (Silence)
Me: Since you live in that area, can you suggest accommodations to me for the 4th and I will rent your cabin on the 5th?
(This is where the Innkeeper really hurt his chances.)
Innkeeper: Our cabins are the cleanest and best in the area. But we are also the most expensive. Therefore, if our cabins are sold out, you won’t be able to find anyplace in the area to stay on the 4th.
Me: That’s all I need to know about you. You have shown me that you are not someone I want to know as a human being. Goodbye. (Then I hung up on the nut.)
Do you see what I mean? If the innkeeper had not been interested in his own ego and supplying his own wants and needs, he would have said something like: ‘Tell you what. Let me make a couple of calls and see what I can do for you.’ Then, after a little while, he could have called me back and said ‘I couldn’t find anything for you on the 4th but I would be happy to reserve the cabin for your birthday on the 5th.’ With this approach, I would have rented the cabin on July 5th and found my own accommodations for the 4th.
But since I knew the innkeeper was only interested in his own needs, I would never give him my business, never contact him to build me a cabin and never speak to him as a neighbor. Besides, I could care less how clean the innkeeper’s cabins were since I couldn’t rent one. I also could care less that they were the most expensive since I couldn’t rent one. The information the innkeeper provided to me did nothing to fill my wants and needs. The comments he made only benefited him.
The Summary of the Story
If your business is not as successful as you want it to be, there is something you are doing wrong. It could be a number of reasons why your business is not successful, but one overlooked reason may be that you are only thinking about your own wants and needs. Instead, think of your customer’s wants and needs first ‘ just like you do your children.
How many of you, who are parents, do a number of things to fulfill the wants and needs of your children? How many times have you dragged yourself to a school function when you were so tired you could barely hold your eyes open? Why did you do it? For the kid who lives down the block? No, you did it to fulfill your child’s wants and needs.
Start thinking of your customers in the same way that you give of yourself to fulfill your children’s, spouse’s or family’s wants and needs. Then, buy the book, ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’ and you may see a huge change in your business income and the success of your business as well as your personal life.
My thoughts and prayers are with you in the coming days ahead.
The Secret Key to Building a Successful Business | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | I’ve heard them called by many names as of late: Generation Y, Gen Y, The Plug-and-Play Generation, The Gotta-Feel-Good Generation. What they’re all referring to is the new young generation – our current 20-somethings. Every generation “deals” with the generation who comes after them. Their different views, their different ways of doing things, and so on; this generation is no exception.
Why is everyone talking about this new generation now though? They’ve been coming along for years. They’re in their 20′s now, after all! Because now they’re starting to impact the workforce and because we couldn’t predict their group characteristics until we saw them in action. In some ways they’re changing the landscape for the better, in some ways we oldies would say for the worse.
Regardless of the nostalgia we feel for the “old days” this generation is plunging headlong into the workforce and will impact you and your business at some point. There’s really no sense fighting it. No generation has ever changed the generation which came after it; not once that generation reached its 20′s anyway. These are the kids we raised and we did raise them this way, so let’s figure out how to work with them. To work with them we first need to understand them.
What makes this generation tick (or turn off) and what is the impact on businesses looking to hire them?
Problem: They’re not called The Plug-and-Play Generation for nothing. This generation grew up on video games and television while their parents were out working and making (what they viewed as) better lives for their families. This led to a whole generation of children, now entering the workforce, who need instant gratification in whatever it is they do. Whether its work or play, the satisfaction must be immediate.
Solution: What this means to the business owner looking to hire qualified workers is that you need to be diligent in assigning tasks to (or rather asking the worker if they’d be happy to do the tasks) that they enjoy doing. You must challenge this generation to the capacity in which they want to be challenged.
Problem: This generation waits for nothing and no one. If they don’t like the game, they find a new game to play and new people to play it with – now – not tomorrow or next week. Simple as that. Think pulling the PS2 game out of the player and inserting one they think they may like better.
Solution: This goes back to speed again. They’re used to moving at the speed of the internet, not the speed of the horseless carriage. You’re going to have to give this generation what it’s looking for or prepare to lose them. Regular check-ins individually to gauge their interest and excitement is critical to keeping this generation happy and working for you.
Problem: The Generation Y’s demand that they feel good about what they’re doing. If they don’t feel good about it, they’re not going to do it. Again, simple as that and no amount of money will convince them otherwise. Remember: they watched their parents work and work and work to earn a few extra bucks and what did it get them? Absentee parents who were rich. This generation wants quality, not necessarily quantity.
Solution: Sometimes the work just isn’t all that gratifying. However, you can combat that by showing your gratitude in the work being done. Often the sheer pleasure of helping someone else and that person being grateful is enough for the worker to receive the gratification they need.
Problem: The generation of ADD. Oh yes, this is where ADD became popular. The Gen Y’s are not going to pay attention for long. They want their information fast and to the point.
Solution: Don’t waste time with long drawn out memos and information. Just shoot it straight and fast!
Problem: A recent study suggested that the average tenure in a job for Generation Y’s is 18 months. Wow, what happened to life, or even a few years? Unfortunately those days are but a memory. As older workers retire and leave the workforce, we’re left with the generation we raised and we need to count on them to fill the open positions within our companies. Remember again that this generation watched their parents stick in jobs for life, only to be spat out by the very corporations and unions who claimed they’d protect them – when they were juuuuuusssst about to collect that pension. The Generation Y’s aren’t going to hang around to let that happen to them.
Solution: There’s no changing this generation’s stick ability. So as a business owner you have two options: 1) Make the work enjoyable or 2) Prepare in advance for every single worker’s eventual departure. If you opt with number 1, you need to figure out what it is that makes each and every one of your workers happy. They must be regarded as the individuals they are and with their own set of needs and instructions. Prepare to meet those needs or move on to number 2: The most crucial thing any business owner can do is to have instructions written for every task that is performed within their company. Put all those instructions in a safe place and hang on to them so you can pass them on to the worker’s successor. In staffing, one of the biggest complaints we hear from clients is the need to retrain the next person. I’m sorry – that’s the way it is nowadays. We train and we retrain and we need to be ready for it.
Problem: Lack of office etiquette. Check out this recent article on Yahoo! News about modern office etiquette (and lack of it) . Unfortunately, as the article suggests, the new generation may not even know they’re breaking the rules! Etiquette in their world is far different than that of other generations.
Solution: As my husband and business partner says, “But wrong is still wrong and right is still right”. However, with the internet and a new generation, is this perhaps the new “right”. Maybe, maybe not. If most families are dysfunctional, doesn’t dysfunction become the new “normal”? Unfortunately I think the new generation has us beat in sheer numbers folks. In this writer’s opinion there’s not much we can do but learn to deal.
Problem: As another article Gen Y’s by Penelope Trunk suggests: “They won’t play the face-time game.” That means they’re not going to sit in the office just to make you happy. They know that work can be done from home (or from the beach) just as well as it can be done sitting in the office.
Solution: Let ‘em work from home! Why not!? Working from home offers the ultimate in flexibility (something this generation demands) and helps keep this generation of workers happy and working for you.
As a virtual staffing agency, we deal with the same things as you do day in and day out. We’re not immune to the caveats of Generation Y. We deal with the unique issues of this generation through increased back end staff which checks in with and coaches our virtual assistants regularly. We also take great pains to make good matches between clients and virtual assistants and quickly offer to change assignments if it doesn’t “feel right” for the virtual assistant.
Yes, this (generation’s issues) results in a higher turnover of virtual assistants but no higher than what you’d experience in the bricks and mortar world. In many respects we shield our clients from the impacts of turnover by quickly locating new help, interviewing and screening for the right skills and attitude. But even as a virtual staffing agency, we still can’t change a generation or their attitudes so we can’t stop the turnover – we can help our clients get through the turnover.
Even with a high-turnover generation, companies can still benefit from all of the pluses of virtual assistance and virtual staffing. The cost savings over hourly in-office staff still exist; office politics is still absent; the speed of bringing in additional help is still present; the benefits of not having someone sitting in your office holds ground; start up capitol needed (desks, computers, phone lines) of hiring help is not a concern; and ultimate flexibility still exists.
In many ways, hiring virtually is a great way to deal with the issues businesses must face with this generation. This generation wants flexibility. Working virtually offers the ultimate in flexibility, which helps keep the generation happy. Virtual staffing fits this generation like a glove and is one of the best ways to put them to work for you.
If you’d like more information on how to set up a virtual office, please check our article.
Working With The New Generation | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | At one level this is a relatively simple tool, requiring the management to select a key area of business activity and to audit performance in that area, comparing to previous performance levels and, ideally, benchmarking against known best practice and performance levels. The information generated by these audits will then be used to identify unsatisfactory performance and enable measures to be introduced to bring about improvements.
The business areas that should be regularly audited, in any business, whether public, private, or not-for-profit, include: External Environment: well established tools and techniques are available and used to scan the external environment for information on issues, events, and trends that will impact on the strategies and performance capabilities of the organisation. The quality of this information, and the interpretations of it, is critical, as it is the foundation stone of the strategic planning activity that follows. An audit of processes, tools, and techniques, and the quality of output, is essential in ensuring that the strategic planning process is provided with high quality, relevant, valid information.
Competitors: although an element of the external environment analysis activity, this deserves a separate mention. Monitoring and-or benchmarking – variations of auditing – of competitor performance is essential. Competitors are, by default, in the same business, and gaining knowledge of competitor performance levels, in as many key areas as possible, will bring benefits to any organisation in any sector.
Strategic Planning: often an area of activity that is not evaluated, because it is carried out by the senior executive levels of management, but should be. In addition to the information gathering discussed above, the level of expertise in strategic planning of the managers, the rationale and justification for the chosen strategies, the processes used to communicate the strategies throughout the organisation, the level of support and resources provided for implementation, the performance of existing and previous strategies, are all areas that should be audited in order for optimum performance to be continuously achieved.
Leadership: separate from the Strategy audit, the quality of leadership should be audited regularly. A set of competencies for leadership, at all levels in the organisation, should be drawn up, and the leadership performance measured against these. Development activity should also be based on these competencies, and on eliminating or reducing weaknesses identified by the audit.
Culture: the existing culture that blend of beliefs, values, perceptions, behaviour, that makes up the culture of the organisation should be regularly audited and compared to the culture that is desired by, the objective of, the organisation’s leaders. Particularly at times when the organisation is planning or undergoing major change, information gathered from these audits will be invaluable.
Financial: where, although there is usually a framework of management and financial accounting processes, there is a need to rigorously and regularly audit the effectiveness of these, to ensure that the budgeting and accounting activity is as productive as possible.
Suppliers: one of the most critical areas of any organisation’s activity, the start of the supply chain, supplier performance, including the performance of those in the organisation who audit supplier performance, must be audited, rigorously and regularly. Now accepted, in parallel with research & design and strategic planning, as one of the foundation stones of quality assurance, any weakness in supplier performance can damage the organisation, sometimes irreparably. Auditing ensures that optimum performance levels are maintained.
Physical Resources: the quality of and use of physical resources, such as raw materials, operational equipment, technological equipment and systems, furniture, fittings, and buildings, all need regular auditing to ensure that the most appropriate resources are purchased, installed, maintained, and used effectively.
Human Resources: this entails auditing the quality of human resources employed by the organisation, the way in which they are deployed, how well they are trained and developed, as well as what opportunities and channels exist for progression. Every aspect of human resources activity should be audited at all levels, from operational up to and including executive level.
Equality: encompassing diversity, discrimination, and equality of opportunity which are all key areas that if not audited regularly to ensure high levels of performance not only abiding by legislative requirements but also contributing positively to the culture of the organisation will lead to conflict, dissatisfaction, lower morale, lower motivation, and ultimately lower levels of performance.
Internal Customers: often ignored, the level of satisfaction of internal customers the next department, individual, or team, that handles the next stage of production or service creation is critical. Overwhelming evidence shows that dissatisfaction of internal customers, leading to breakdowns in communication and cooperation, is one of the major causes of poor overall performance.
Distribution: of the products and-or services provided by the organisation is an essential element in making the organisation successful. Auditing this process will ensure that logistics best practices are in place, and that distribution activity is contributing positively, in terms of financial costs and corporate identity, to marketing, sales, and customer service efforts.
External Customers: auditing the satisfaction levels of external customers is a critical activity that should be carried out on a frequent basis. Customers here include all those at separate points in the distribution chain, through to buyers and end users. Information drawn from these audits will ensure that the organisation is in tune with and can respond appropriately to the needs of its most important stakeholders its external customers.
Stakeholder Relationships: stakeholders are any individual, team, external organisation, that has a legitimate interest in the performance of the organisation. This could include, depending on the sector and specific organisation: employees, unions, parents, relatives, local or national media, local authorities, emergency services, shareholders, financial institutions, funding bodies, governors, national or international governments, strategic partners, and of course, a variety of external customers. Relationships with each of these, in their own way, are critical, and should be audited regularly to ensure that they are as healthy as possible.
Quality System: deliberately listed as the last area to be regularly audited, this is an audit that should be carried out in addition to all the individual audits listed above. Whether an organisation has an externally certificated quality assurance management system, or an internal only system, there should be quality criteria set for every critical activity, event, stage, and process, from the starting point to the final point of the supply chain from the earliest stages of design and supply activity to the point where the product or service is in the hands of the final, end-user customer. Quality criteria that describe required quality levels, performance levels, and outputs, are essential to the success of any organisation. The quality system, including the internal and external auditing processes, should be audited to make certain that it is performing as intended that is, assuring that the required quality standards are being met, and of course, continuously improving.
Effective auditing will bring a number of benefits to the organisation. The first group of benefits are those where obvious weaknesses or problems are identified, including: identifying where immediate improvements could be made; identifying emerging trends that may signify corrective, defensive, or offensive action is needed. The second group of benefits are more subtle, and include: identifying the actual situation, rather than what is perceived to be the case by management or specialists; increasing the pool of knowledge that individuals and teams can learn from; ensuring that the operational activity is, as intended, supporting the strategic objectives: establishing a culture that expects performance to be regularly audited and evaluated: establishes a culture that is driven by continuous improvement activity.
Unless an organisation continuously audits and evaluates its performance in all key areas, it cannot know for certain where poor performance is occurring, and it cannot take corrective action because it is not aware of the problem, or it does not have sufficient information on which to base appropriate action. Rigorous, regular auditing will provide a flow of valuable information that the organisation’s management can use to decide on operational changes that will improve performance in critical areas. Applied across the whole organisation, this will provide the strategic objectives with a stronger foundation of support, and ultimately more chance of success.
Auditing Business Performance | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Yellow Pages India has
become a need for new and old occupational to progress and churn out more money.
It also helps in cutting more time that is while looking for the wanted news
conventionally. Yellow Pages
India is an authentic corporate key on the internet currently as it and
assists in more professional deals. All one has to do is type the name of the
institute or sector that one needs, and its makes done your search with the
target results of the business firm or institution you was looking for! The
specifics will be there at the tick of the mouse. It offers a door to many
industries, including show business, sports, technology and as well as free
guide of assorted further businesses.
In yellow pages India, one
can find info of all the kit that one is looking for. One just has to send in
the request to the provision provider through a short code. The message will be
to the use giver and you can get the intelligence instantly. Such is the power
of communication that it does not takes more than few minutes to get admission
to information of any kind around any room you want. The basic idea of all this
exploration rite providers is to allow you to be in control of a location,
somewhat then a state of affairs control you. In fact, it provides evidence on
hotels, shops, travel agents, restaurants, cinema complexes, hospitals,
educational and fitness centers.
The pallid page mass have made clothes simple and one trust, that lack of
knowledge almost a clear thing will not ever be an young. After all, this is all
so easy for you and you do not even need to make huge for this. Yellow are not
printed in milky pages in the traditional way anymore but are also as long as
through a clack of the mouse or numbers for reaching out to people
straightforwardly and efficiently. Portals like wan India have made life and one
does not have to contribute those opaque habitually printed manual anymore as
one can get communication at the command of a button.
Yellow Pages India | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Creating your own products is not difficult. However, it does take a little time to get it done, create a sales letter for it, work on the site, test it out, etc.
Since you may be short on time (and money), one method you can use is to start by looking for existing products that you could acquire resell rights to or become an affiliate of.
You can go and browse through their Marketplace for a product you can affiliate with. I like clickbank because they automatically (and instantly) transfer your commissions into your account. You don’t have to depend on the product owner’s schedule to receive timely commissions. And, you can become an affiliate of all of their products at no charge.
You could also go to (or even Yahoo) and search for sites selling recipes, recipe books, cookbooks, etc. and look for sites you could affiliate with. It would be to your advantage to work with sites/products that offer a generous commission (at least 50%.)
Tip: As you look through these sites, pay attention to how professional the sites look, how convincing the sales letter is, and also how soon after the sale they send out commissions. If you personally feel good about the site, see some great testimonials, and feel that you would want to do business with that company, you’ve probably found a good business to affiliate with.
(Let me also point out here that if you do have some experience with creating your own products, feel free to do so. It doesn’t have to contain 100 pages. It can be only a few pages, as long as you provide solid, valuable information.)
Finding Your Niche
When trying to figure out which niche to go after, the questions you want to ask yourself are…
What do I love to do the most? What am I most passionate about in life?
What subjects do I have strong emotional feeling towards?
What am I naturally good at or have an instinct for? (Provided it’s something you enjoy doing!)
If I were to wake up in the morning and choose to do one thing, what would that be?
What would express my creative intention and bring out the best in me while doing it?
How can I benefit myself and others if I were to express my creative intention?
To some, the answers may come very easily. And for some of us, it may require a little bit of soul-searching and self-discovery to get there.
If you’re having a hard time finding the answers, just get your mind going in that general direction by pondering on the above questions, especially before you go to bed at night (and until you fall asleep.) The power of focus is such that it will get your mind working in the background (while you’re sleeping) to bring the answers to you.
For now, you can simply start by asking…
“What are my favorite hobbies, interests, activities, etc.”
Or…
“What are some things I don’t know yet but have a burning desire to learn more about?”
Start a list and add all your favorites to it.
The Simple System For Finding A Killer Product And Identifying A Hot Niche! | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Only 10 fingers: count the stuff you’ll do with your PSP’ system. PsP games and downloads can be a very good way to get new
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IPhone Nova – Your Number One Source For IPhone Downloads | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | As you may know, I spend a great deal of time coaching and helping others build their virtual businesses. But the one thing that never ceases to amaze me is the lack of patience 80 into 0%. I don’t know – but I am going to give it a try.
The best way to begin training people is to relate a story to them they can identify with. So here goes . . . In 2003 a person (let’s call her Joan) paid me to set up an online web design business for her. I had experience in setting up the web design business named YouOnLine.Net back in 1998, plus I am on the internet 10-12 hours per day so I can keep up with new developments. Therefore, Joan knew I had the expertise to do the job right.
I spent a little over two months setting up Joan’s business. From securing the domain name and SSL certificate to programming the HTML for the shopping cart – I did it all. In fact, on the day Joan chose to open her business, it would be fully functional and making money. Joan was happy, I was happy and I went back home feeling good about a new business being birthed and born.
But three weeks later (without warning) Joan hired an attorney who sent me a letter demanding all her money be returned. What happened?
After going through weeks of litigation (where the Complaint was finally dropped) I discovered that Joan had in her mind that she was going to make at least $5,000.00 per month. But when she only made $1,200.00 within the first three weeks she freaked out and thought the business was not going to work.
But Joan knew deep down that she was to blame for this decision. How do I know? Because Joan never contacted me about the problem. If I had done something wrong, Joan would have called me in a hot New York second. Instead, she chose to take the ‘sheepish’ way out, regardless of who she hurt in the process.
However, this is only one example out of thousands. Yes – many people I work with and coach rarely understand the process of developing, building and growing a company. For some reason many people starting their business for the first time have this misconceived notion they will immediately make $1,000s of dollars without lifting a finger. I even had a customer call me on the phone and say: ‘I bought your book but have not made any money.’ I asked her if she read the book. She replied: ‘No. I didn’t know I was supposed to read it. I just thought I had to purchase it.’
Let me give you a little insider piece of wisdom: The infomercials are really giving true information. The only thing they don’t tell you is that in order to make that kind of money, you must invest time, dedication and long hours building your company.
Here is a true life example of something that personally happened to me: One day I wrote a 15-page Report and converted it to PDF format. I sent out an announcement to my newsletter list and in one day, I made $6,000.00. I was shocked and overjoyed at the same time. However, I have not had that happen again. So I could go on television and say with all truthfulness ‘I made $6,000.00 in one day.’ But what I don’t tell you is that I had been in the web design business for over 3 years and it took me that long to build up a newsletter list of people who would buy my Report. Hopefully my story will help you to look at infomercials for the truth they are, and the truth they are not.
What a Business Really Is
A business is similar to birthing a child. You first decide to have a business, and then you decide what type of business to start. Then you spend time researching and reading everything you can find on the topic that relates to your business.
Next, you obtain training in the type of business you are going to start. You need to know your product or service before you can sell it. This means joining organizations, networking with others in your field and/or working for an employer in the field so you can understand the inner workings of the business.
Next, you purchase the right computer system and internet connection to run your business, give your business a name, secure a domain name and get your entire business set up before you open.
Finally, when you do open up your business it is very rare that you will make any money within the first 4-5 months. Of course this depends on the type of business you decide to open, and if you have a customer base in place to market your product or service to. If you do not have a customer base, it can take awhile before you make any money.
Joan’s Mistake
Where Joan made her mistake was in not understanding these simple rules. Although I provided Joan with URLs to organizations and other free information, she did not research them. Why? Because in all actuality, Joan was not looking for this type of business. She was simply looking for a way to make money.
Unfortunately, Joan had absolutely no idea of the gold mine she actually had. I had spent two months building her a functional business. Her first month brought in $1,200.00. That is amazing!! If you ask anyone who started a business how much they made their first month, even the best of them never made $1,200.00 the first month.
What Joan did not take into consideration was that her name was ‘unknown.’ People today are smart. They don’t purchase from a company unless they trust them. Joan had spent no time building trust with her potential customers, yet she still made $1,200.00 her first month. I wondered what in the world Joan could be upset about. She should be celebrating. But Joan didn’t look at it that way.
Are You Like Joan? If you are, you need to identify with your shortcomings right now. Then if you choose to continue being like Joan, it will be your own fault when you do not succeed in business.
One Last Thought
If you decided to become an Elementary Teacher, you would think nothing about spending money to attend college to obtain the degrees you needed. You also would not get upset if you had to start at the bottom and work for a lower salary when you begin your teaching career. Right?
If you decided to become a Paralegal, you would think nothing about spending money to enroll in a class to get your paralegal certificate. You also would think nothing about beginning your career working at the bottom until you received more on-the-job training. Right?
So if most people have the willingness to invest money and time into a career they enjoy – why do most people believe starting a business is any different? Answer this: Who do you know on the planet earth who started a business from the ground-up (with less than $500) and had a thriving enterprise making $5,000 per month within the first three weeks? Realize the truth: it is impossible!
Prayer of Relief
I pray this article helps to open your eyes to the truth about starting a business and give you the encouragement you need to build your business into a successful enterprise.
How to Take Your Small Business Past the Next Level | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | If you haven’t heard the word ‘niche’ being batted around by Internet Marketers then you haven’t been listening. Finding a niche has become the antidote to competing in overly saturated online markets.
What is a niche?
According to Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary a niche is described as “a place, employment, status, or activity for which a person or thing is best fitted… a specialized market”.
Have you noticed that despite the closing of many businesses in these harsh economic times, the local hobby train store is still around? That the ‘hole-in-the-wall’ eatery is thriving? Or that trends such as scrapbooking can start with a bang and still close within a year when four similar businesses start up in the same area?
The online business world reflects the same trends as experienced in the offline world – often with faster turnover and startup rates. Those who promote a product or site that targets a small, select audience can tap into a market that is otherwise not being served. Despite the limitations of the client base, the targeted nature of the business creates a devoted and active market – the aim of any business.
HOW DO I FIND A NICHE?
Finding a niche requires diligent research. Whether you have access to software that harvests and sorts information or you take a manual approach you must first start with ideas.
With a pen and paper (or computer, if that’s more comfortable) brainstorm a list of businesses, products and industries. Create a list of keywords and phrases you think would be used by individuals looking for these items online.
Use a software program such as Wordtracker or a free resource such as the Overture Keyword Selector Tool to find keywords for your niche that have a high amount of traffic.
Although a program like Wordtracker makes it easy to find details such as how many sites compete for that market, you can also do your own research.
Concentrate your attention on question phrases such as “how do I…” or “where can I…”. These questions will clue you into potential markets that need servicing.
Next, look in Google Answers. Type one of your keywords into the search area. What questions are being asked and how much are people willing to pay for answers? If you find a group of keywords with a high number of questions then enter these words in your browser’s search engine.
What sites come up? Do they provide answers or solutions to the problem? How are they making money? Can you see an opportunity to service these individuals?
Finding a niche can open the door to a profitable online business. Research the market and be certain that your product or service is valuable to this group. Find forums or groups that target this audience and pay close attention to their concerns.
If you can help these people you WILL make money. The best of both worlds!
How do I Find a Niche? | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | When it comes to displaying items at a trade show, you have many options from banner stands, literature stands and pop-up displays. You may choose to use more than one type of trade show display unit since each one can be used together to give a more full effect and useful information.
Banner Stands
Banner stands come in an array of sizes and designs. the majority of banner stands are portable are designed to be set up in very quickly and have a practical existence for several trade shows as long as they are treated properly. Deciding on which type of banner stand is best for you is to decide among the varieties available. The main types are retractable, spring back and telescopic.
Rollable banner stands are great for creating a floor standing photo mural. This type has hardware that allows the graphic image to be seen from the floor to the top of the image. The main selling point for this type is that from the front of the stand all your potential customers will see is the image. All of the hardware is either hidden or a small portion is at the top or the bottom of the stand. Therefore, the hardware is not what is noticed by visitors to your display. The rollable display can also be attached side by side with other rollable banner stands to create a much longer imager that can be as long as ten feet or more.
Retractable banner stands may be better if you are seeking durability. The graphic in this unit is rolled in and out of a metal housing, which is at the bottom of the display. With retractable banner stands, the lamination is on both sides this will aid in preserving and protecting the image from any type of damage.
Literature Racks
Literature racks also come in many different styles, designs and sizes that will enable you to fit all of the literature that you would like to offer to potential customers. Most of the time trade show literature racks are silver or black and have 3 to 5 pockets. A few larger ones are similar to a magazine rack that you commonly see at the grocery store holding comic books.
The most popular literature rack is probably the Zed Up. This great literature rack has a shelf system that can be folded down and put into its own bag for transporting. The main reason this type of literature rack is popular is that you do not have to remove the literature when you are ready to pack up. There are two sizes of the Zed Up, one with 3 pockets that will hold single brochures and another that will hold larger quantities of literature in each pocket.
You may desire a more sleek and modern design which would be the Slope literature rack. It is also very easy to transport by just folding the rack flat. It has 3 pockets that will hold literature 10 inches wide by 57 inches high and 16 inches deep. The slope has its own carrying bag as well for easier transport.
Pop-up displays
There are quite a few different types of pop-up displays that you can enjoy using for your trade show needs. There are five fashionable types that most people prefer which include the Standard Pop-up Displays, the Photo Mural Pop-up Displays, the Fabric Mural Pop-up Displays, the Commercial Pop-up Displays, and the 3-D Style Pop-up Displays. Each one has their own unique qualities and style to enhance your trade show experience.
The commonest is the standard pop-up. These are normally around 10 feet wide with a curved design. They are usually made with lightweight aluminum frame, PVC or steel channel bars, individual aluminum, or Velcro fabric panels.
The photo mural pop-up displays are pretty much like the standard pop-up displays except they use photo mural panels instead of the Velcro fabric panels. The photo mural pop-ups draw more attention because of the large format graphics that they use.
With the fabric mural pop-up display, you do not have to worry about set up as much. The mural is attached to the frame, which makes setting up faster and easier than with the standard or the photo mural style. This type also weighs less than most standard pop-ups on the market today. You can choose from a curved or non-curved design and most come with their own carrying bag.
Commercial Pop up displays may be what you need, but they are a bit more expensive. This type is sturdy and can take a bit more mistreatment or mishandling than other units can.
One of the newest pop up displays on the market today is the 3-D Style Pop-up Display. These are similar to the fabric mural displays in that the fabric image is attached to the frame, but you can choose from different shapes such as square or round. Set up is easy and quick.
Everything Displays, Inc. is the publisher of this article and is a leading provider of trade show displays, exhibits, booths and accessories, with one of the largest product selections on the web in the industry. Permission is granted to reprint this article, either online or in written publications, as long as this resource box and the link to are attached at the end of the article.
Introduction to Trade Show Displays | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | It is not surprising at all when many foreign investors complained when they do business in China. Many wondered why their years of experience in the business world could not be applied in China immediately. Doing business is about building mutual trust and benefit amidst establishing relationship with people. If you do not understand your counterpart well, it will be quite difficult to establish good cooperation with him/her. An old Chinese saying goes: know yourself and your enemy well and you can fight a hundred battles without any fear of defeat. This greatly emphasized the importance of knowing and understanding your counterpart.
Modern economic model differ greatly from the traditional one, whereby people in the past ‘fight’ till the last man standing. Today, people seek to achieve a ‘win-win’ situation, and pursue long-term trade cooperation under a fair and healthy competition environment. Understanding factors such as China’s history, humanity and culture will be the key to investors’ success in China. As Western thinking and China’s traditional values do differ, encountering the culture differences is therefore inevitable, thus a better understanding of the cultural differences is necessary when doing business in China:
1. Learn how to handle Guanxi (relationship)
In China, Guanxi (relationship) is a complicated field. Establishing relationship with others does not mainly deal with achieving own self-interests or personal goals. A special feature of doing business in China will be that Guanxi (relationship) in China will have to include relationship with the government body, investors, partners and even relationship with your own staff. China government plays a large role in administrating the investment in China. This is because China is a socialist state; the economy is still largely controlled and managed by the government, so when doing business in China, it is important for foreign investors to learn to coordinate with the China government. At the same time, seeking a suitable local partner may be a shortcut and helping hand in developing your business in China market.
2. How to prevail over competition
China, at the moment, can be said to be a big, open market, and the ability to prevail over competition is a very important issue today. Investors should fully realize and maximize one’s advantages. Some investors are afraid that the China’s imitation products will hurt the sale of their products. Even though this symptom is worrying, however in a free and competitive market, it will always be one that has the superior quality that will not be afraid of competition and will prevail eventually. China market is constantly undergoing standardization, and the China government has vowed to protect the quality of the market.
The Vice-Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation had previously stated in his speech that being a member of the World Trade Organization, China government will continuously rectify and standardize the economic structure of the market, and will persistently crack down illegal acts of producing counterfeit products. Technology level in China is still relatively lagging behind, thus foreign investors should fully make use of their advantages in technology and expertise to produce high-quality products and services. One should not be over worried about the negative impact brought about by new counterfeited products. Continuous development of one’s technology and emphasizing on innovation will be the key to success.
3. Route for Investment
There are three options to take when make investments in China, mainly: wholly foreign-owned enterprise, Chinese-foreign cooperative enterprise and Sino-foreign joint venture. Which option to take will have to depend on factors such as the investors’ investment direction, investment environment, and the amount of investment to be undertaken. Generally speaking, wholly foreign-owned enterprise require examination and approval from many government bodies and this process can be quite hassle and time-consuming. Government procedures for establishing Chinese-foreign joint venture and contractual joint ventures will be even more and the process will require even more from more government bodies. Thus Sino-foreign joint venture appears to be the ideal investment option as less governmental procedures and authorization time will be required. Possibility of encountering hiccups will be smaller.
How to do business in China | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Different from most of our articles telling you what to do with your business cards, in this article we will discuss the business card No-No’s:
Things to avoid doing with your business cards:
- Do not use ‘free business cards’. There are a few companies around offering FREE business cards (by putting their logo on the back of your card). This is a priceless way for them to promote their company through you and your new business cards. Unfortunately there are very little benefits for you. While you may get free business cards, these business card will more than likely give the impression of cheapness and amateurness – not being able to afford proper business cards. Would you wear a free business suit that had a mcdonald’s logo on the back? If no, then don’t do the same with your business cards.
- Do not use a template. There are a number of online business card shops that offer templates for business cards. Choose a template, enter your contact details, order your business cards. While it may sound easy, you will get a generic business card, that does not use any clever business card marketing techniques and will do nothing ‘extra’ to promote your business. Be unique and get a custom design done that highlights your business and can be used as an effective marketing tool.
- Do not make a magnifying glass a necessity for reading your business card. Not everyone can boost having 20/20 vision. Consider this large percentage of people when you are designing your business card and try to make the text readable by the majority of readers.
- Do not use colors that clash. Choose colors wisely. Colors used with other colors can sometimes clash and become an eyesore and difficult to read or look at. Some colors go together and some colors don’t. Do your homework and find a color wheel or a color matcher/chooser online to help you find compatible and eye pleasing matching colors.
- Do not use some else’s business card or a corrected business card. Scribbling your details over your old details or on someone else’s business card and then giving to someone could reflect very badly on you and your company. Doing this could give the bad impression of being cheap and not being professional. Make sure you have enough of your own business cards and if you do not have your own, get them!
- Do not forget to proof read your business card before printing. Having the wrong information on your business cards can be misleading and can result in lost business. Proofread your business card details before you submit them. Double check, triple check, make sure 100% before printing that the details are correct. This simple thing could save a lot of money if you can avoid needing to reprint 1000′s of business cards with the wrong information.
- Do not print your business cards larger than standard size. I have seen business cards that are printed larger than normal as the people maybe looking to make their cards stand out and make them more memorable. While this may sound like a good idea, it could result in your card not being able to fit into business card filing systems or easily into wallets. This is best avoided, so stick to standard or smaller sizes.
- Do not neglect the material and paper that your cards are printed on. A lot of attention is paid to the design and colors of a business card and the same attention should be paid to the paper and coating. Thin papers give the impression of cheapness and leave them vulnerable to wear and environmental factors. Choosing good paper of at least 250GSM together with either a laminate or some kind of coating will ensure that your cards last a long time and give the right impression.
- Do not print your business cards yourself. While not always the case, we see far too many amateurish home printed cards which give nothing but a bad impression to the receiver. Getting your business cards printed professionally is not expensive and the difference in results in most cases will be a world apart.
What Not To Do With Your Business Cards! | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Demographic information is easily accessible and it is based on information collected by the Census Bureau. If you are conducting research to start a new business or to enhance your marketing strategies then you should use this information to your advantage. It will help to ensure your efforts are going to be a success with your target market. Failing to use demographic report data can cost you time, money, and sales.
There is a significant amount of data you will be able to use for your marketing plan with a demographic report. It is going to tell you the ages of the people in that area, their level of education, and their income range. What you are marketing has to be something that these people are going to want. Taking their demographic information into account can help you find the right way to promote it by appealing to their emotions.
Rather than investing your time and money in a new business, opening the doors, and no one comes, you need to use the demographic information that is available. It will provide you with significant information on the trends and lifestyle of those in the area. This is even more important if your business sells goods or services that are considered to be luxuries instead of necessities. If the demographics tell you this is an extremely poor area then chances are not too many people will be coming to purchase what you have to offer in that area.
This is why you find certain types of businesses are able to thrive in any given location. They have the demographic information and they use it for effective marketing strategies. You will also find that some locations have one failed business after another. This isn’t due to a lack of skills or dedication on the part of the business owner. The fact is that the demographics of the area just aren’t parallel to the types of businesses being offered.
The use of demographic report data for marketing purposes has declined in recent years due to the popularity of online businesses. Since they are selling goods and services on a global scale, it doesn’t matter about the demographics because they aren’t selling in a particular area. They can sell it to someone that is 100 miles away or 10,000.
However, for traditional businesses that rely on people in the area being able to come in to make a purchase this type of information is very important. Starbucks is one of the leaders in the coffee industry. You may have noticed that their locations are always extremely busy.
One of the main reasons for this is that they engage in demographic report data analysis. They know the age group of those that are likely to drink coffee and they know the locations where those in that age group are likely to work. These are heavy foot traffic areas too so they can get sales from people going to work or taking a walk on a daily basis.
The Advantages of Demographic Report Data in Your Marketing Plan | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Creating an effective marketing message usually calls for a three-step approach. Define your audience, define your goal, and define your message – in that order.
1. Define your audience
Who are you marketing to? Who are you hoping to motivate and persuade? Sure, you want to get more clients – but get more specific than that. Go beyond the obvious. Take notes about each client you work with and then compile the notes. Review them prior to each marketing project you undertake.
Create a mental picture of your typical prospect. What do they look like? What do they want? What concerns them? What satisfaction do they seek? When you can answer all of these questions, you can move on to the next step, defining your goal.
2. Define your goal
Under this step you might add the steps of clarifying and simplifying your goal. The clear part is obvious – a clearly defined goal is a goal more easily attained. Simplifying doesn’t mean making your goal trivial but rather just reducing the goal to its purest form.
Strip away anything that’s not critical to the precise objective you want. If you have several goals for your marketing message to accomplish, you haven’t simplified enough! Boil it down to one specific action (like the example that follows later).
3. Define your message
Based on your audience and your goal, what must your message do to bridge the gap? What should you say or write to get your audience to move toward the desired action?
With a simplified process, all the fundamentals are there. Now it’s time to get specific. Let’s look at how these factors might come together to drive an actual message geared toward an actual audience.
Let’s say you’re a realtor, specializing in representing home buyers, so your audience would obviously be people shopping for homes. You’ve done some research on homebuyer demographics in your area, you’ve got a good mental picture of your audience, and you’ve made a list of things that are important to them.
Now it’s time to define your goal. Here’s the key to goal definition. Don’t confuse your ultimate goal with your message’s goal. In other words, don’t define a goal that your message can’t deliver. Instead, go for the low-hanging fruit.
Let your message do what it’s good at. Let it move the reader one step closer to a larger, more ultimate goal. That’s what marketing messages have been doing effectively for decades, moving readers toward specific, achievable actions.
For instance, if your ultimate goal is to gain a new client, the goal of your messaging might be to initiate first contact (a phone call or email) from that prospective client. This would be an excellent messaging goal for two reasons:
‘ 1st, it’s a goal your message can actually accomplish.
‘ 2nd, it’s a goal that can support your overall goal of client acquisition.
Here’s why: Surveys have found that 74% of people shopping for a real estate professional go with the first one they call. That means if you earn that first call from a prospect, you have a 74% chance of turning them into a client.
Think of it this way. You’re not selling a coffee maker. You’re selling the services you provide – services that have an impact on the finances and ultimate happiness (or unhappiness) of your clients.
Words on paper can sell a coffee maker. Words on paper cannot sell your prospects on your ability to deliver. Words can, however, sell your prospects on the next step they might take (in this case, calling or emailing you). After that first contact, there’s plenty of time to show them your ability to deliver.
Give your marketing message a break from unreasonable expectations. Let it do what it’s best at. Let it move the reader forward in your ultimate plan.
In Direct Marketing, Aim for the Response | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Keeping in touch can dramatically increase business, when done properly.
It’s a fact that your customers are your best leads. This means that the most likely people to purchase your products and/or services are the ones who have paid for them before. It’s also a fact that it costs far less money to keep a customer than it does to go out and get a new one. These are the two reasons that using direct mail to keep in touch with your customer database is a must. There are a few principles to follow when marketing to contacts in your company database that can maximize your bottom line.
Rule #1 – Collect all of their information. It sounds like a no-brainer but you would be surprised. The more information that you have on your customers, the more likely it is that you will be able to get in touch with them to let them know about specials or to remind them it’s time for their next service. Also, don’t neglect to ask for your customers’ email addresses, most everyone has one and most will give it up pretty easily.
Rule #2 ‘ Don’t treat your customers like prospects. Make sure when you collect the information in your database you differentiate between people who have placed an order in the past and people who have not. Customers want to feel like you are paying attention to them and when they have placed a few orders with you and are still getting your “10% for First Time Buyers” postcards they tend to feel unappreciated. Bottom line, if they don’t qualify for an offer you are sending out, don’t send it to them.
Rule #3 ‘ Don’t let your designs get stagnant. When you are mailing to databases of people that you have never spoken to before, it is OK to send them the same postcard multiple times. It helps to increase recognition and will eventually increase your response rate. Dealing with customers and prospects that you have already spoken to (meaning they already know most or all of the details of your business) you need to mix things up a bit. Your mailings should be attention getting and informative. If you have started offering a new service recently, a piece designed to let your database know about it would be a smart move. The main point is to keep your company in the front of their mind and to keep them reading your promotion.
Being great at what you do is not always enough to keep the customers that you have earned. With all of the competition out there today you need to be constantly reminding your customers that you are the best at what you do. Direct mail is the best way to give them that reminder.
Always remember to keep mailings that you send to your database informative, attractive and most of all current. Personalize everything that you can and make sure that what you are sending to a past client actually pertains to them or their company. Anything less and your customer may start to drift, and the only people that are going to be happy when that happens are your competitors.
Rules of Thumb for Marketing to Your Past Customers | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | There are many ways to promote your business online. The difference between online marketing and offline marketing though is profound.
Although advertising can be very effective offline, it isn’t nearly so effective online. The reason why is that most people surf the internet looking for information. They aren’t usually interested in advertising unless the product or service in question can solve their problems.
There are five strategies that you can implement in your business that will not only create a content strategy for you but will also create a very effective marketing strategy. This strategy will only require a few hours of your time each week.
1. Articles
For those who have read my work, you know that articles not only brand you as an expert but are also a way to create quality content for your site, and search engines love content.
If you don’t like writing, or don’t write, you can find quality articles to post on your site. The larger your site, the more likely you will be found in the search engines.
Here are a few article directories you can use:
2. Blogs/RSS
Blogging is another way to create content for your website, and by using RSS, you can easily distribute your content.
Most don’t understand what RSS really is, or how it can most effectively be used to drive traffic to their sites.
Basically, RSS is a form of code that’s very search engine friendly. With RSS feeds, which you can add to your website or blog, you can create content that updates itself. Because of this self updating, the search engines will spider your site more often, raising your rankings.
Once you’ve built your blog and added several entries, you need to “ping” it to get it listed. Here are two tools you can use:
3. Press Releases
Press releases are news about your business. Press releases are also an excellent way to get high rankings for your site because you can create content rich press releases and submit them to press release directories. Many of these directories are high traffic.
Here are several sites that accept press releases:
4. Search Engine Optimization
Optimizing your site for the search engines means creating keyword rich content, exchanging links with other sites, submitting your site to directories, which create backlinks pointing to your site.
You can use tools like Web CEO, , to help you optimize your pages.
Although submitting the search engines is often unecessary, since most search engines will spider through to your site from another site, you still need at least one link pointing back to your site so that your site gets spidered.
Submit your site to Alexa, Not only will this make sure that your site gets spidered, you’ll be able to compare your site to other sites, as well as get statistics on traffic to your site.
5. Free Ebooks and Reports
By writing and giving away free ebooks and reports, you give visitors an incentive to visit your website.
You can also submit your ebooks and reports to ebook directories for free.
If you make your ebook brandable, which means others can place their links inside your ebook, your ebook becomes viral. You give others an incentive to share your ebook and spread it across the internet.
Once you implement these content strategies on your site, add streams of revenue to your site like Adsense and Virtual Portals. These sites will allow you to monetize your site.
Although adveritising, like pay per clicks, can be effective in promoting your website, it can quickly become expensive. By focusing on creating quality content for website, and then promoting that content, you can continue to drive traffic to your website for years to come.
5 Ways to Create Content to Drive Traffic to Your Site | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | IT marketing requires knowing lots of people and getting them to trust you. One way to do this is by joining and becoming active in a couple different types of organizations. In this article you’ll learn the three different kinds of organizations that most computer consulting businesses do really well in.
Don’t join more than one of each, but look at each of these categories and figure out where your best fit is.
o General Business Organization
This could be a chamber of commerce. This could be Rotary or Kiwanis. It could be a group like Le Tip or BNI or a lead club. The whole idea here is it’s not really targeted by industry or occupation. It’s just a group where you’re going to find a lot of other small business owners and managers.
o User Group.
If you find that your store wants to specialize in installing Windows-based networks, you may want to look around for a Windows server type of user group. If you have someone on staff that wants to specialize in security, you may want to look for a security user group. This allows you to go out and meet people who have similar interests that are either consultants or like-minded IT professionals.
o Targeted Business Organizations/Trade Groups
This category represents the clients you are seeking after. If it is in the medical field, you may be looking at medical organizations. Find out what kind of events are coming up, if there’s an expo, and if there’s a newsletter that you should be reading.
IT Marketing: Become Part of a Niche
The whole thing with IT marketing by way of referrals is becoming more active. The more you can become part of a niche, the higher the quality of referrals. Remember, this is a people business. It’s about who you know. It’s not what you know.
Of course, when you’re selling technical services such as LANs and WANs and Wi-Fi and security and VPNs and client server database development and web-based applications, you must have technical expertise.
IT Marketing: It’s about Relationships
But what’s going to make or break your IT marketing relationships isn’t going to be how strong your technical skills are. Even if your technical skills are really just mediocre, relationships will get you through - relationships with partners, relationships with subcontractors, relationships with other vendors that you can cross-refer work to, and by all means, relationships with people who can send business your way.
The Bottom Line on IT Marketing
Personal referrals are great for your IT marketing efforts. To get more referrals, you need to know more people. So join organizations in different categories and see more referrals through your IT marketing.
IT Marketing: Join Organizations to Build Relationships | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | For most people each day is just like the last, with the sun rising in the east and setting in the west. For busy people time flies fast but for some, each day is a constant waiting in emptiness. When the calendar was not yet introduced people count days by tally just like a prisoner’s tally on the dungeon wall. Luckily today, there is no more need to carve lines on the wall just to keep up with days. Calendars are now available to help us carry on with each passing day.
As every new year starts you would need to dispose of your old calendar and buy a new one. As they say, out with the old, in with the new. Calendars have been indispensable to many people since they were first used. They help keep tracks of appointments and special dates. For business owners, they can give out calendars to their customers each year as part of their marketing strategy. Nevertheless, some businesses are concern with the cost of printing a calendar especially if it involves a lot of color. With the printing technology today, a business owner need not worry about the cost of printing a calendar anymore. There are machines and technologies available nowadays that make calendar printing faster, easier and more affordable.
So when designing your calendar ask the following question: how many colors will you utilize? What pictures will you use? How much is your budget? Answering these questions is important because it will tell you how to approach your calendar design more effectively. A professional can also help you in the designing process. They can tell you what design fits your image and your budget. Remember that people will see your calendar for a long time so making a good impression is very important.
Thus, when considering the overall look and feel of your calendar, design it with utmost care. Do not overdue the graphics. If you have a logo, use it in the calendar. Full color photos are always a good idea and unless you know what you are doing, it is better not to design your art work. And when it is time to print your calendar, make sure that you are dealing with a reputable and knowledgeable company.
Remember that calendars are a good way to attract customers especially if your calendar is unique and attractive. It can help build good relationship with your current and new customers. So take advantage of this opportunity to keep customers and attract prospects.
Calendar for Businesses | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | In Financial Accounting – Reporting for those outside the business, the 3 most important financial statements, relevant for budding entrepreneurs are:
1. The Statement of Financial Position or the Balance Sheet
2. The Statement of Income or The Profit & Loss Statement
3. The Statement Of Cash Flows.
The Balance Sheet shows the business’s assets, the liabilities, and the equities of a business. It is a ‘snapshot’ of the business economic resources at a certain date. That is why when you see one, it says something like, The Statement Of Financial Position as at dd/mm/yyyy.
Unlike a Balance Sheet that is a ‘snapshot’ of economic resources, the Profit and Loss Statement is a summary of the flows of earned revenues and incurred expenses of a business for a period of time. That is why when you see one, it says something like: Profit & Loss Statement for the year 200X.
The Statement of Cash Flows summarizes the ‘cash’ effects of the activities of a business for a period of time. These activities can be operating, investing and financing. The keyword that I would like to emphasize in the above definition is the word ‘cash’. It only records activities that involved the transfer of cash.
I can summarize the above even further:
1. Your Balance Sheet shows you what you own and how you acquired them (borrowed from others or contributed by you).
2. Your Profit And Loss shows you how much you are expending each period and how much you are earning.
3. The statement of Cash Flows summarizes the exchange of cash in your operating, investing and financing activities.
I personally feel that for most freelancers, when starting a small business, attention should be placed on your Profit and Loss statement because that is your record of how much income is coming in and how much expenses is going out. Take a look at the revenue items there to know which activity is bringing in money and take a look at the expense items to see which ones are costing you the most and ask yourself whether those expenses are really necessary. Are there ways in which you could cut your costs?
Costs are what any entrepreneur has to control at the start of every business. No cost item should go by unnoticed or unmonitored. Their existence must be justified. Every dollar counts. Every dollar that gets tied up in one thing is a dollar that could otherwise be used somewhere else.
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This article was written for OrangesAndLime.com, to help creative individuals ‘ artists, musicians, designers, illustrators and entertainers ‘ build their own freelance businesses. Please note that this article serves as a guideline only. You should still seek professional advice regarding the matter because laws and practices change over time and they differ from country to country.
Understanding Financial Statements | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Everyone needs to network: entrepreneurs, small business owners, job seekers!
But does everyone maximize the benefits of networking?
The purpose of networking is to build relationships so you will get leads from someone you know, or from someone who knows someone you know. When you attend a networking event the purpose is to meet business people from various industries to get exposure.
What networking is not?
Networking is not a numbers game; you need to focus on quality and not on quantity. Some people think that they had a successful event when they have collected 30, 40 or more business cards, but they are missing the real point. How many of these 30 or 40 people will you be able to follow-up? How many of these 30 or 40 will follow-up with you?
What is the purpose to collect a huge number of business cards that will end up in a shoe-box on one of your shelves?
Networking is not a place to sell. You have to be prepared to give your elevator pitch to introduce yourself, not give a sales pitch. If you attend an event expecting to find a client to close a sale right away, chances are you will be very disappointed. Furthermore the other attendees might not appreciate your attitude.
What networking is?
Networking is more than just shaking hands and collecting business cards.
It is about building relationships and being committed to help other business professionals.
It is about the quality of your contacts and not the amount of your contacts.
It is about consistency. The best is to belong to two or three groups, attend their events regularly, get to know the other members, and in exchange they will get to know you and trust you. When you see the same people over and over you develop a strong and relationship with them. The benefit of building relationships with a committed group of people will result in new leads for your business.
It is about patience. The benefit will not appear overnight, and this is why you need to follow up with your contacts. Networking is like dating, one meeting is not enough to know someone. It will probably take some time, some meetings, some lunches or some drinks before you really start doing business together.
Here are some tips on how to maximize the benefits of a networking event.
‘ Be prepared when you attend a networking event. Know your goals. Are you looking for leads, partners, new clients, services?
* Bring your business cards and a pen to take notes on the back of the cards you receive.
* Have an effective 15 to 30 second elevator pitch. Learn how to sell yourself before your services or products. People want to hear about you first and when they know you and trust you, they will buy your services or refer you to someone else.
* Have a brochure and/or a web site. Some people will probably want to hear more about your business later, so give them the opportunity to get the information they are looking for.
* Meet people, ask about their business or services. Be curious and ask about them. people love to speak about themselves, so ask questions and listen to their answers.
* Be a problem solver. people will be more interested in you if you tell them how you can solve their problem instead of just hearing your story.
* Go to people; don’t wait for them to come to you. Some people are very shy, they will be very happy if you make the first move.
* Go to events with a friend, a colleague, a client, and introduce people to each other.
* Send a thank you note or email to your new contacts. Thank them for their time and reintroduce yourself in a few lines. They met lots of people during the event and your business card doesn’t say everything about you. So it is good to reinforce your introduction.
* Give them the link to your web site. Tell them about your newsletter, if you have one. This is the best way to stay in touch on a regular basis.
* Schedule follow-up meetings with the people you had a good connection with, or if you think that you can help each other.
* Do it again and again. You will see that networking can expand your contacts, which will definitely help grow your business.
(c) 2006 Biba F. P’dron
How to Maximize the Benefits of a Networking Event? | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | As an entrepreneur, who are thinking of going into business, or who is already conducting business, you have to start learning about the basic concepts of Accounting because they are the concepts that are used in reporting your business activities to the government come tax time. It is time you must know about one of the most fundamental concepts in accounting.
Accountants process data into documents called financial statements. It is the accounting equation that is the basis for the entire accounting system.
So what is this magical equation?
The Accounting Equation is:
ASSETS = LIABILITIES + OWNERS’ EQUITY.
In crude definition,
ASSETS are economic resources of the business that are expected to bring benefits for the business in the future.
LIABILITIES are economic resources borrowed by the business from another person or an organization.
OWNERS’ EQUITY is the economic resources that was contributed by the owners of the business to the business.
One way of thinking of this equation is that the left side is what the business has including its money, equipment, building, land, furniture, etc… The right side indicates where these assets had come from. Were they borrowed from parties outside the business, or were they contributed by the people who own the business.
The other version of this equation, that you might bump into is the:
ASSETS – LIABILITIES = OWNERS’ EQUITY.
In other words, if the business’s assets pay off all its liabilities, you are left with a figure that indicates the economic resources that belongs to the business’s owner.
It is pretty much the same thing, a concept of transposition in algebra.
If you take a look at a business’s BALANCE SHEET – or what is now modernly called as A STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION – you’ll notice that all the items in there are arranged following this accounting equation in either one of its versions.
Of course in a BALANCE SHEET, it is written vertically, instead of horizontally as it is in the equation.
You’ll see the items arranged somewhat as:
ASSETS XXX LIABILITIES YYY OWNERS EQUITY ZZZ
Where, XXX = YYY + ZZZ.
So, next time you see a balance sheet aka statement of financial position, take the time to recognize this logic.
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This article was written for OrangesAndLime.com, to help creative individuals ‘ artists, musicians, designers, illustrators and entertainers ‘ build their own freelance businesses. Please note that this article serves as a guideline only. You should still seek professional advice regarding the matter because laws and practices change over time and they differ from country to country.
The Accounting Equation | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | It’s a dog-eat-dog world. You must be prepared for anything when deciding to open your own practice or small business. And once you become a business owner, you need to know how to make your business grow.
“What keeps business owners, practice owners and partners up at night is likely the challenge of managing and growing the business,” says Steven Stralser, clinical professor at Thunderbird: The Garvin School of International Management and author of “MBA In A Day.”
In his book, Stralser addresses business professionals who have extensive training in certain industries but want to learn the skills necessary to manage businesses of their own.
Packed with examples, helpful anecdotes and real-world case studies, this straightforward guide gives readers a comprehensive business education without having to spend the time and money on graduate school.
The book covers essential principles and concepts taught at today’s top business schools. Topics include negotiation, accounting, marketing, effective communication, information technology and leadership.
Stralser offers the following tips to help your business grow.
* Focus on existing customers. With advertising and other marketing costs, finding new customers can be expensive. Acquiring new business is important, of course, but so is keeping and growing your current clientele.
* Stay in touch. Offer more products or services to existing customers, clients or patients. They will respond with loyalty and future business. Think “greater share” of customers instead of “market share.” It’s simpler and more profitable in the long-run.
* Develop a Web presence. Developing a Web page puts information on your business right at the fingertips of clients or potential clients. And not only does accessing your Web site save them time, it saves you time as well.
For example, a client can have access to old reports from past projects. By having this information accessible online, you won’t have to take time out of your busy schedule to print and ship the reports to that client.
Tips on Building Revenue for Your Business | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | When you have only just started your own business, you will need a lot to learn, not only about what you are going to do, but about all the small details of running your own business. There is no one who you can count on making the right decisions but you. The tips below may be more than useful for all small business owners and make it more probable to bloom instead of going bankrupt (a sad end of 80% of small companies).
Profit margin
First of all, remember about the profit margin. All too often we forget about making money, fascinated by all the possibilities of running one’s own business. It is very easy to thwart otherwise successful business by taking too many loans, hiring too expensive lawyer or account office and generally spending too much money on less important matters. Remember: every business is about making money. Try to reduce your costs as much as possible and you will succeed. Buy an expensive car only to feel like a “real” businessman and you will never become one.
Hiring friends and relatives
The most delicate and potentially harmful matter in running your own business is the help you receive from your friends and relatives. At first, it is often what counts most – both for practical and psychological reasons. However many small businesses become reliant from the unpaid work of friends and/or relatives and it will sooner or later end. That’s why it is highly recommended to pay them from the very beginning (even if your loved ones protest) – this will let you keep an eye on the real cost of business and won’t turn you into blood-sucking monster that requires more and more but gives nothing back.
Internet
Internet is one of the most powerful tools in business. It is not only about eBay, but also about fast, reliable and cheap communication between you and your contractors and customers. Also, as the Internet becomes more and more useful for advertising purposes, having your own website is a must – otherwise you loose from 50% to 90% of potential customers.
Running a small business – a few tips to make your life easier | | | | | | | | | |  | |  | |  |
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