Archive for October, 2008
October 29th, 2008 at 09:29pm
Under General
No matter the industry, there has always been conflict in the supply chain. That, I believe, will continue to be true. More times than I can remember, I have presented my keynote presentation titled, The New Era of Manufacturer/Distributor Cooperation at either manufacturing or distribution association meetings.
While doing some research concerning this issue, the partners are satysfied with the level of good communication between them. But, that is rarely the case. With communication and collaborative relationship, all partners will definitely improve.
To build efficient and productive relationship with any supply chain partner, important thing that will definitely help to improve the level of communication is an ability to understand a value that your supply chain partner has to receive from that relationship. One good example of this is that a procurement department can be in position to believe that a supply partner could lower the price in such way that they can not make any profit. This is simply crazy.
Your partner will see you as a great resources and a partner of trust and value if you make an effort to understand what kind of value your partner needs and help him to receive that value, which will improve the communication. It is best to put the energies you have at disposal into activities, services and similar tasks that will provide the value your strategic partner needs, but you should not give away the bank.
Supply Chain Improvements
Just-in-time inventory purchasing and supplying as exemplified by the famous relationship between Wal-Mart and Procter & Gamble has continued to prove successful. Another example are Dell Computers and Home Depot that have built a strong strategic alliance with the justi-in-time inventory that is so much cost saving. You could also apply this in your business. You can develop closer relationships with your supply chain partners.
You and your partner should share the same strategy, and that is a very important issue. The highest priorityis to promptly respond to any complaints and conflicts that arise. This is the bet way to earn loyalty and build trust in the strategy which will bring great results.
By writer
October 29th, 2008 at 12:32am
Under General
As your own small business entrepreneur, you are always looking for services that can help you in making your small business the best it can be. Fortunately, there are many business services that can help you get where you want to be.
Small business services that help the small business owner come in many different varieties. These services can help the business owner in looking like a much larger business to their customers and/or clients. They can assist employees be more productive and efficient. Or they allow a business owner to run a multi-million dollar company from anywhere in the world.
What allows these services to work is simply technology. This technology permits small businesses access to business services that, until fairly recently, were only available to large corporations.
A hosted virtual phone service is a great example of a business service technology. With this service, a small business can transform their existing phone service into one that is very much like a large company. With just a single phone number for customers to call gives a business owner total control over the call routing, ensuring the correct person helps the customer.
Online meetings are another good example of a business service. You no longer have to spend thousands of dollars to have a system that allows you to meet with a remote customer or client. All that is required to hold an online meeting with anyone, regardless of their location, is a computer and a high-speed Internet connection.
Pricing of today’s small business services is very attractive. These business services don’t cost very much money. The cost to make your business act like a large corporation is just pennies a day. The technology today gives you the ability to go up against much larger businesses.
To grow your business to its full potential, start using the available business services. Competing against much larger companies will no longer be the headache that it currently is.
By writer
October 27th, 2008 at 01:28pm
Under General
Programs that use the Internet to fax have been around for some time, but over the past few years they have really been pulled into the mainstream. organization. The needs for this are apparent: web faxing services enable businesses and individuals alike or just busy, mobile profesionals to view faxes pretty much anywhere on the planet. Whether you use the web-based services or simply let them go to your email, Programs that use the Internet to fax can make your business very convenient. With high gas prices and less people commuting into the office every day, internet-oriented services like this would be bound to get catch on the way they have.
Besides, don’t forget the costs of toner and paper and long distance phone bills with traditional methods of faxing. Specifically at the large company size, these charges can be cost prohibitive in some cases. Not only that, in companies where numerous people are always on the machines, the place of the actual fax machine has become an unworkable solution.
Internet faxing is a real viable option for businesses and individuals alike to seriously get more for less. And everybody can’t argue with the added convenience of being able to at last, toss that old fax machine and free up that extra desk space. Internet fax services have a few varieties, and there many to choose from, each having its own features, prices. So it is definitely worth it to read a few reviews if this is the direction you want to go. Some like MyFax and other internet fax services because of the low, and easy to understand monthly rate plans. Some include unlimited pages that you can send in each month.
Other internet faxing services have tiered rate structures that start at the casual user and go all the way up to the mass volume levels. Some include fax-broadcasting, that is, being able to mass distribute a fax to hundreds of people, all from one machine, at one time. Another thing to consider, some only work on the web while others simply shoot the faxes right into your email inbox. And some have the capability of doing both of these features
But still, there are some internet faxing services which work through a program that runs on your machine. Yet another reason why internet faxing has caught on as fast as it has is that these services are more and more to work with enterprise-level applications like Microsoft Exchange email servers. In many companies which adopt MyFax internet faxing, for instance, any person who works there can access a network folder in Outlook which contains every fax which has come in for the day. Some folders can have distinct phone numbers, to secure the recipient’s confidentiality, especially in business-critical or personal concerns. The support for muliple file-types has no doubt been a another immense benefit of internet fax services. Originally, Adobe’s PDF was the only format you saw. Now it’s likely that you’ll see BMP, Microsoft Word, as well as several vector graphic formats working on by increasingly more of these services.
This pretty much means internet faxing is now within reach of more and more people to whom it was originally closed off. Because of the unusual file formats and support in their organizations. For the cost savings, portability easy access anywhere you decide to take it, not to mention being able to free up office space by getting rid of that fossil of a fax machine, you really can’t go wrong with internet faxing And with all the options you have available there’s a program that’s right for any arrangement
By writer
October 27th, 2008 at 01:28pm
Under General
Taking credit card orders is vital to any business that wants to actively sell their own products on the Net. At the dawn of online business it was understood that accepting plastic was not a good idea, because it applying a dirt-world system to the digital world. Lots of businesses launched online payment currencies such as “flooz”, but the web-based currencies didn’t flourish. And so, roughly a decade on from the commercial birth of the Internet, still getting our plastic out of our wallets to buy on the web and so accepting credit cards when trying to sell goods online is still vital.
There are basically two ways to accept credit cards online. Let’s compare merchant accounts. Businesses can either go for a full merchant account, which allows them to process credit cards directly, or they can sign up with a third party payment service, who actually processed the credit card orders for the business selling the products. Getting a merchant account costs more initially, but has lower per item fees. Using the services of a third party service provider costs less initially, but has more expensive per sale costs.
The decision as to whether or not to get a full credit card processing account or use a third party service provider is simply a question of working out which would cost more money. Let’s look at two different business types and compare merchant account benefits…
In the main, established businesses who are already trading locally and simply want to expand online will be more suited to obtaining a merchant card processing account. Most likely, It’s most likely that they will already have an offline credit card processing account and will tailor that account to add the ability to do “MOTO”, which is “Mail Order Telephone Order” credit card orders and simply means that the card holder is not there at the time of purchase.
For one-person businesses starting out online selling new software or a new ebook, it’s important that they consider testing their sales using a third party payment service. The advantage to the new business is that there’s hardly any upfront cost which means they can test their business model quickly and easily. If the market is profitable, they can eventually look to reducing the per-item fees by applying for their own merchant card processing account. If sales are poor, they can quickly exit the marketplace without having expended much capital to get their own credit card processing account.
By writer
October 27th, 2008 at 01:28pm
Under Retail
Japan is well-known for cutting edge innovations that often go unnoticed by the Western world. But Sharp Corporation’s press release on 27 August 2008 cannot be ignored! Incorporated in its ionic air purifier, the Plasmacluster Ion Technology (more on this in a later post) has just been scientifically proven to be 99.9% effective in destroying the bird flu virus known as H5N1.
As we have been constantly reminded by the press, bird flu is the prime suspect to cause mankind’s next pandemic. Pandemic sounds terrifying. It is. That’s when a deadly virus turns totally global, in a very negative sense. The worst pandemic on record was the Spanish flu in 1918 which is believed to have killed 50 million people worldwide! World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed on 5 October 2005 that the 1918 Spanish flu was caused by H1N1, a bird flu virus.
Now that I have your attention, is it time to PANIC?
Not now. WHO data, updated as at 10 Sep 2008, shows the death toll to be only 245 since records were kept from 1996 when the H5N1 was first identified in China. So what’s the fuss? Scientists monitoring the virus fear that it may mutate into a form that transmits from human to human. As I write, there has been only one probable case of human-to-human transmission recorded in Thailand in September 2004. Without a doubt, there will be global pandemonium if the dreaded virus mutation happens.
Like other countries, Singapore (where I live) is conscientiously preparing for the worse (more on this in a later post). At the individual level, we should start making preparations too.
Ok, so what’s all this got to do with Sharp’s ionic air purifier. Isn’t it just another ionic air purifier? Yes, because it takes care of the usual pollutants (dust, dirt, smoke, dander, pollen, cuisine odors, pet odors, allergens etc) that contaminate the air that we breathe and live in. If there is really a tested defence shield against a deadly virus, why not? That’s what Sharp is claiming, get the all-in-one package with their Plasmacluster Ion Air Purifier.
If you’re value-conscious like me, the obvious question would be “yes, that makes a whole lot of sense but at what cost”? Here again, Sharp claims that it’s at no extra cost! Sharp asserts that it is cheaper than any other ordinary ionic air purifier when measured over 5 years. Now, that’s value for money! But, how is this possible in this nothing-is-for-free world?
Yes, its possible, claims Sharp. For instance, in its Plasmacluster Ionic Air Purifier Model FP-N40CX, Sharp contends that it is undoubtedly better value for money as there is no filter replacement costs for the first 5 years. At first sight, the typical competitor’s upfront cost of US$160 looks cheap compared to Sharp’s US$399. But add in the annual replacement filter replacement costs of US$100 and the total outlay for the competing ionic air purifier comes to US$560.
Since I have only started on this study, I would greatly appreciate any feedback on the numbers quoted by Sharp. Do let me know if you have recent actual data.
Meanwhile, I’m going to scrutinise intently the Sharp Plasmacluster Ion Technology. Especially since bird flu is still not quite at pandemic proportions.
Today is the day to get started. Personal panic does not fade. Imagine thousands of frantic people going from drugstore to drugstore looking for the same face mask. The N95 mask was touted as the only effective weapon as a near-pandemic scare gripped Asia. It was the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) virus. Originating in Asia in 2003, it eventually infected 8,096 people around the world and resulted in 774 fatalities. Being well prepared is half the battle won.
Watch this space as we track exciting developments in our pursuit of safe, pure and clean air with nothing more than an ionic air purifier.
To easily receive updates on new articles, subscribe to The Ionic Air Purifier Blog today.
By writer
October 23rd, 2008 at 11:01pm
Under General
Free Criminal Background Checks – More important than ever.
The background check business is getting new customers like never before, not affected at all by the recession that everyone is so scared about. Doing paid or Free Criminal Background Checks have maybe come even more important now as you cannot afford to hire someone without the proper qualifications or hire a crook.
As a lot of people have been fired from their current jobs more and more people are also looking for a new job resulting in a lot more applications and a lot more screening. How can you make sure that the guys you wish to hire do not have a criminal record?
Do Free Criminal Background Checks to ensure that all new employees meed the qualifications needed.
There were recently an article in The New York Times about a Texas company that incidently forgot to do a criminal background check on a new IT- worker and they regret that now. Two and a half month after he got fired, he sold more than 7 million usd worth of business information to a competing company for 250 000 big ones in a suitecase. The whole incident was discovered when the competing company started to make similar products as the original company did except they should not know HOW to do it.
When the company that hired the guy did a Free Criminal Background Check on him later on they discovered that he had been convicted for fraud in the past.
Free Criminal Background Checks – Know Who You Are Dealing with
Also in your private life make always sure that you know who you neighbor realy are and who you are dealing with. When you let your kid drive with other kids parents off on a school trip do you know that this person is not a reckless driver with a drunk-n-drive record? Do you know that the kids are in good hands at the camp and that they are not being take care of by a pedophile who “accidently” happened to be working as a volunteer at the soccer camp for the summer? Have you made sure that your nanny is not convicted for violence or that you gartner is not a thief?
The list goes on and on and on… Material things can in most cases be replaced but no people. Do not go on a date with a stranger without doing Free Criminal Background Checks first. Do not let your kids be around people that you have not checked yet…
Just so you can have a good nights sleep…and Your Company’s Security.
By writer
October 23rd, 2008 at 11:01pm
Under General
If you are a business owner, it can be virtually impossible to monitor your employees all the time. There maybe times when employees indulge in theft and you would not even know of it! This is where installing security cameras can help in preventing employee theft.
The large-scale of employee theft
There is a widespread concern over the presence of employee theft. It shows up in grocery stores, large corporations and even in high scale businesses and industries. It’s a staggering fact, but around 95% of business suffers from employee theft. Employees are known to steal product inventory, cash, sensitive and critical data, and also customers. This risk is enhanced by the simple fact that employers do not have the means to monitor employees in a round the clock manner. This makes it really hard to know the amount of employee theft happening within a business. Many managers do not even know that their employees are stealing things. In such a scenario, having security cameras can help a lot in preventing employee theft successfully.
Admitting to the problem
Firstly, managers and business owners would need to accept the fact that employee theft is indeed taking place in the company. Secondly, many people mistakenly assume that simply because an employee is getting a good remuneration that he or she will not steal. Often, well-placed officials are exempt from any suspicion of employee theft. Managers often assume that company customers indulge in theft. They also believe that employees are supposed to report any such thefts to the respective authorities.
Security Camera Installation
The installation of security cameras is a great way to prevent employee theft from occurring in your workplace. Doing so, places employees on a constant monitoring. Business owners now know what is happening in the organization throughout the working hours. Some employees may resent such a move by the company but in order to protect company assets, it is essential to install such security cameras. Another reason why such cameras work in preventing employee theft is that they function as a deterrent. Once employees know they will be watched on camera, they are less likely to indulge in employee theft.
Minimizing entry and exit points
One of the best ways to extract maximum performance from the security cameras is by sealing off as many entry and exit points as one can. If you provide too many entrance and exit points, it can make it easy for an employee to leave after committing a theft. By reducing the number of entrance and exit places, employees know the office is under a high security system and that escape is impossible. This way, a company can begin preventing employee theft.
Exit points camera installation
It is important that security cameras be installed at the exit points. Employee theft is less likely to happen when security cameras are monitoring the entrance and exits. There have been several technological advances in the sphere of security cameras. Hence, investing in some of the latest cameras can help in successfully preventing employee theft.
By writer
October 23rd, 2008 at 11:01pm
Under Sales
A common expectation among new voicemail broadcasters or concerns debating working with pre-recorded telemarketing is that most of their calls will turn out to be good leads. The majority of the time this is false. Even so, despite the fact that a minority of responses prove to be qualified leads, voicemail broadcasting can be employed fruitfully in many instances, given a deliberate approach and well-grounded business systems.
If a telemarketer is sending a script to live-answered telephones exclusively, and accepting press one live responses to sales staff, we’ve seen many successful broadcasts that obtain only a 15%-25% “long call value”. (Here a long call is specified as a call where both parties are on the phone at the same time for a minimum of 1 1/2 minutes.) And this is not to mean that every one of the “long calls” prove to be classified as good leads by the broadcaster. Far from it. Some broadcasters have revealed that often only 1/2 or sometimes less of the long calls are good leads.
This is why it is essential that a concern debate their business systems deliberately as they plan a voice blasting program. For example, if their average cost for a “long call” is $25, and 1/2 of them are worthwhile leads, and they can ultimately sell 1/4 of the good leads, then the cost of a deal for them is $200. If the profit for a single sale is not substantially more than $200, their own business measurements may make it impossible to utilize voice broadcasting profitably.
These numbers will vary radically among different types of businesses, and are affected by both the pitch as well as the target dialing list. For example, the hypothetical business “Wonderful Web Widgets”, who desires to sell website services to small business, would be making a mistake to dial a broadcast to an “all businesses” list, because such a list would include large concerns (which they’re not targetting), in addition to a lot of small concerns that dont feel a need to have a website.
Why send a pitch to beauty parlors and accountants if these types of businesses aren’t normally interested in websites? This only raises the cost of the reduced amount of qualified leads that are received.
Another thing to consider is the mode of the broadcast campaign. The example above was about a live delivered message. How about answer machine / voicemail campaigns?
For most industries, the response value for the live delivery – live transfer broadcast is between 0.6% and 1.0%. Which means that for every 100 calls delivered to a live answered phone, there is less than 1 transfer.
For a program that leaves messages on voicemail, the numbers will be a whole lot less, because the listener must have enough involvement to record the callback number, and finally dial it back, requiring much more work than simply “pressing 1″ while listening to a live script. These results are impractical for us to track, since the calls back to the telemarketer don’t utilize our broadcast system, but telemarketers who use this method have confirmed to us that the call back ratio is often 1/4 to 1/3 of the live transfer ratio for a like pitch.
For a businessperson considering working with pre-recorded telemarketing as a lead producing system, the message is essential, the targetted list is essential, and the basic business systems are probably the most critical factor to consider when planning a lead generation program.
By writer
October 21st, 2008 at 09:48am
Under Employment
If you love to work with your hands, perhaps you should be in a profession that does exactly that, such as massage therapy. In fact, the US Department of Labor has established in their latest report that there is call for for such professionals for the predictable future. If this sounds appealing to you, then you need know how to become a massage therapist.
Those who wish to become massage therapists should enter in a program that is licensed by the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork or NCBTMB. To become a licensed professional, you must complete at least five hundred hours of schooling including studies such as ethics, anatomy and physiology among others.
If you happen to study massage therapy in a school that is not accredited by this body, you will not be allowed to take the national certification exam. This may prevent you from practicing in states that need this prior to employment, which is why you should check first to see if the school you plan to enroll in is in the program.
If you do mange to find work without getting a license and are caught, you will be fined and could even be banned from practicing again.
The advantage of enrolling in a program under the NCBTMB is that you can apply for federal financial assistance if you don’t have the monetary resources to pay for your training.
But the big question is how much do massage therapists make? One research group has pointed out the median salary is $45,611. The report also says that half of those working make between $36,930 and $55,920 as this alters with experience. If you are new, you will likely just have one or two customers a day while more experienced people will have more than 5. This isn’t bad because massage therapy program can go as high as $12,000.
If you are serious about engaging this as a career, ask yourself some questions. Are you patient? Are you client oriented? Do you really want to help the patient? If your response to all three questions is yes then the next thing you have to do is find what specific interests do you have.
Just like medicine, massage therapy has several specialties and these include sports massage, clinical massage and Swedish massage this is but to name a few. While you will hopefully learn all of these in your schooling, you should try to get a clear idea of which one you wish to specialize in after your graduation.
It is a good idea to visit massage parlors and speak to those who are already employed there. You could also do some research online as there are articles that have been published and plenty of websites about the profession.
Once you get your degree and the license, you have the choice of working for somebody or starting up your own establishment. This will be easy if you had the capital since you will need to purchase your own massage table, chairs, pillows, sheets and lotions. But if you wish to learn first, then go find work, learn the tricks of the trade and then set up shop.
Now that you know how to become a massage therapist, the ball is already in your court. The right attitude will get you through school because with that you will be able to understand the techniques in helping a client.
For further Free information about Massage Therapy Jobs or Massage Therapy Schools try visiting Massage Therapy Tips…
By writer
October 21st, 2008 at 09:48am
Under General
One of the most difficult parts of starting a new business is looking for a supplier to wholesale drop ship for you. When developing your business plan you need to carefully consider several things. The future success of your business should be your biggest concern. You want to decide which of the wholesale and drop ship suppliers can meet your needs, and at the price you want.
One of the first and most important things you should look at when searching for a wholesale and drop ship supplier are the prices for their wholesale products. The wholesale product suppliers should be willing to sell to you at a price that you can mark up, in order to make a profit, yet still effectively sell against your competition. One of the major factors will be the number of items you will be selling. If you are able to sell large quantities of a certain item, then you will easily be able to secure a lower price from your wholesale drop shipping supplier. This is going to be a big point as you grow your business. Do not let your supplier accounts get stagnant. Be sure that as you increase your purchases of drop ship items from wholesale suppliers, you ask for significant price reductions in return. Using this method, you should be able to increase your profits as you grow your business.
Another factor to consider is wholesale drop shipping costs. Think about your target market. If you are selling locally, then your shipping costs will be lower. You may even be able to get your supplier to wholesale drop ship the items for you at a price that is included in your purchase price. However, if you are selling globally and many products are being shipped internationally, then you may be looking at some pretty hefty shipping charges. Wholesale product suppliers are not willing to eat the cost of international shipping.
Finally, when searching for a supplier who will wholesale drop ship for you, you need to consider whether they will accept returns and refund monies to you. Many drop ship wholesalers will not accept returns and those who do, often only refund in the form of a credit for future purchases. This will eventually affect your cash flow situation, so you need to be extremely careful when choosing a supplier. Another factor in accepting returns is where the customer will return them to. You may want to be sure that you have things set up so that the customer can return the product directly to the manufacturer, thus eliminating you from the equation.
If you pay attention to the news, especially the financial news, then you know that today’s economy is significantly worse than it was last year. This downturn in the economy means that business owners have to be smarter about their expenses. They have to watch and carefully stick to a budget. Even drop shipping rates are under close scrutiny. If you are a business owner then you need all of the information possible on your shipping needs. Thankfully there are plenty of books and programs out on the market today to help you.
To gain the knowledge you need: “Click Here“
By writer
Previous Posts