Archive for the 'Financial' Category

Opening a craft market shop

Posted by: arlene on Wednesday, 20th May, 2009

This differs from the weekend, outdoor, craft market in that it is an indoor shop that is basically a co-op for crafts and is open all week. These markets are becoming very popular. For crafters, it means that their work is constantly on display. Likewise, the consumer is delighted to have easy access to exclusive and unusual handmade articles. These markets are becoming increasingly popular particularly with tourists. ..more

The Art of Networking

Posted by: arlene on Friday, 15th May, 2009

Weblike connectivity is the secret of success in many industries where people spend less of their careers in a single organization and more in short-lived, high-intensity relationships. Entertainment is certainly one such field. But this pattern, some predict, will come to typify many or most fields in the years to come. ..more

What the Employers are looking for

Posted by: arlene on Monday, 11th May, 2009

Survey of American employers reveals that more than half the people who work for them lack the motivation to keep learning and improving in their job. Four in ten are not able to work cooperatively with fellow employees, and just 19 percent of those applying for entry-level jobs have enough self-discipline in their work habits. ..more

Competence Pay Most at the Top of the Company

Posted by: arlene on Monday, 4th May, 2009

CEO at a subsidiary of a South American conglomerate was promoted to another position, leaving six top managers vying to succeed him. The six fell into a competition that undermined their unity as a management team. The conglomerate called in a consultant to sort out the strengths and weaknesses of the six and thus help them come to a decision. ..more

Reasons for Small-Business Failure continued

Posted by: arlene on Saturday, 11th Apr, 2009

Focus on trivial issues

Sometimes the owner becomes so engrossed in tiny details or an irrelevant issue, that important issues are ignored or glossed-over. For example, the owner may spend days reading through computer magazines simply to choose a personal computer. The problem often occurs when the business is experiencing some kind of difficulty and the owner finds it uncomfortable to think about the difficult problems and resorts to solving a few easy ones. It is a way of escaping from troubling concerns while at the same time feeling that useful work is being done. ..more

Reasons for Small-Business Failure

Posted by: arlene on Saturday, 11th Apr, 2009

Ten major reasons why new businesses fail

Cash flow problems

This is the single most common cause of new business failure. Many businesses, even profitable ones, fail because they run out of cash — they go insolvent. Insolvency occurs when a firm is unable to meet its obligations such as salaries, creditors, interest payments and expenses. It is caused by cash flowing out of the business faster than it comes in. Although a firm can sometimes survive a period of insolvency by delaying the payment of its obligations, it is liable to be sued by its creditors or employees (or have its electricity or telephone cut off) at any time. ..more

Pay Attention to Business Conversion Rates

Posted by: arlene on Wednesday, 18th Mar, 2009

One way to keep focused on finding things that really sell stuff is to make conversion rates one of the key measurements that you track. Retailers do this by counting how many of the people who come into the store actually buy something. The fast-food business measures incidence, or the number of high-profit side items such as fries and drinks, that it sells along with the low- profit burgers and chicken. ..more

When a Market’s in Turmoil, Keep Spending

Posted by: arlene on Wednesday, 18th Mar, 2009

When a market is in turmoil, it’s particularly important to have good, clear profit and loss statements. That’s because you are going to have to decide at some point whether the market is suffering temporary problems or if it is going into a long-term decline and that you should get out. When a market, or an economy, goes into a tailspin, the first thing you should do is resist the temptation to cut spending. Not only should you keep spending in times of turmoil in order to keep from losing customers, but you should also realize that times of turmoil are great growth opportunities. ..more

Sales Representative: Negotiate the Best Deal by answering the Nasty Questions

Posted by: arlene on Wednesday, 19th Nov, 2008

Why those terms?

An extremely important negotiating question. If you don’t ask it at least once, you are not doing your job well.

If you have an impasse on one of those three things, you can always step back and ask to look at one of the other three elements.

If an issue is only producing disagreement and frustration, there is no sin in asking that it be postponed in order to allow you and the prospect to discuss something that you do agree on. Emphasize commonalities, and you will eventually be able to build up enough trust to move forward to the most difficult issues. ..more

Business Winning Strategy, make a deal

Posted by: arlene on Thursday, 23rd Oct, 2008

Defensiveness, mistrust, and vengefulness lift like morning fog from the interpersonal battlefield, revealing possible routes around the rock in the road. Both you and your other are now emotionally ready to join efforts in mutually searching for the best route.

Why does the Breakthrough happen? Ironically, it does not result from logical persuasion, rational thinking, or reasonable problem-solving, although we may think so at the time. Instead, it springs automatically from several psychological forces that converge to produce this significant but often unnoticed event. ..more

Organisational Sickness, Diseases that Erode the Competitiveness of Global Firms continue…

Posted by: arlene on Friday, 3rd Oct, 2008

Organisational Cancer

There are six cancers that affect the health of organisations. They are Change Paralysis, Score Politics, Havoc, Mission Drift, Stampede and Nepotism.

Organisational cancers are caused by the attitudinal and behavioural responses of business managers and their teams to the priority declarations, strategies, decisions, policies, regulations, value systems and practices originating from owners, chief executives, boards of directors, functional custodians (such as accountants and engineers) and strong individual leaders. ..more

Organisational Sickness, Diseases that Erode the Competitiveness of Global Firms

Posted by: arlene on Friday, 3rd Oct, 2008

Firms that experience poor or deteriorating global competitiveness generally suffer from a number of organisational diseases. These diseases originate from internal business management practices or are caused by the dynamics of the market and the intrusion of governments.

Organisational diseases can be explained in terms of the human body and its habitat. The human body is under constant threat of cancers, genetically encoded sicknesses, viruses, bacteria, toxins and injuries. When the body is poorly managed or maintained, ..more

From profit to performance, Marketing Logistics continue…

Posted by: arlene on Tuesday, 23rd Sep, 2008

In a process-orientated company, many of these new performance indicators used in benchmarking and elsewhere are non-financial. That is, they will focus management’s attention upon the truly critical areas of performance — i.e. those that drive profitability and align the business unit with its strategic goals. In the case of marketing logistics, we might expect to see metrics that capture such things as customer satisfaction, flexibility and employee commitment. Management meetings should therefore begin their agenda not with the financial review — that will come later — but with a review of non-financial performance indicators. These will necessarily differ between organisations, but may include: ..more

From profit to performance, Marketing Logistics

Posted by: arlene on Tuesday, 23rd Sep, 2008

Whilst there can be no argument that long-term, sustained profit has to be the goal of any commercial organisation, there is a growing realisation that if profit is the end, then we should spend more time examining the means whereby it is achieved. So many management boards begin their weekly meetings with a review of the financial position — in other words, before anything else is discussed revenues will be examined and costs detailed at some length. Ratios, production efficiencies — these are the currency by which the business is measured and therefore controlled. ..more

Business Managers, Know What Talents you are Looking for

Posted by: arlene on Sunday, 21st Sep, 2008

In the early nineties Gallup began work with two of the largest retail brokerage firms in the United States. Both companies wanted help in selecting brokers. And both of them defined the role in exactly the same way—the broker was not paid to be a money manager, doing financial analysis, picking stocks. Instead he was paid to be a money gatherer, identifying high-potential prospects and then persuading them to invest their money with his firm. He was a salesperson. ..more

Marketing and Serving the Global Customer part 1

Posted by: arlene on Wednesday, 17th Sep, 2008

One of the most striking trends in recent years has been the globalisation of markets, organisations and industries. Its impact can not only be seen through the global reach of well-established brands like Coca-Cola, Marlboro or Gucci, but it is also apparent in markets as diverse as computing, automobiles and consumer electronics. Nor is the trend towards globalisation confined only to products; we see similar transformations in services such as banking, retailing and satellite TV. ..more

Temptation: “Trust is precious—I must be Earned”

Posted by: arlene on Tuesday, 16th Sep, 2008

Even when they have selected for talent, some managers are hamstrung by their fundamental mistrust of people. This mistrust might be a product of some deep-seated insecurity, or it might be couched as a rational conclusion—”I think the human race is basically driven by selfishness, and therefore most people will cut corners if they think they can get away with it.” But whatever its source, their mistrust means that these managers are extremely reluctant to let each employee find his or her own route to performance. ..more

Ecommerce Strategies, online Business how to Sell Toys, Dolls, and Games

Posted by: arlene on Saturday, 13th Sep, 2008

The purchase incidence of toys, games, and dolls has been up and down since 2000, ranging from 45 percent in 2000 to 54 percent in 2001 and 50 percent in 2003. While children represent the core user market for toys, more adults are buying toys, not just for kids, but for their own playtime. Toys are popular adult collectibles, and more toy companies are recognizing that adults, just like their kids, want to play with toys. ..more

Casting Is Everything, How do great Managers Cultivate Excellent Performance so Consistently?

Posted by: arlene on Wednesday, 3rd Sep, 2008

Everyone has talents—recurring patterns of thought, feeling, and behavior that can be applied productively. Simply put, everyone can probably do at least one thing better than ten thousand other people. However, each person is not necessarily in a position to use her talents. Even though she might initially have been selected for her talents, after a couple of reshuffles and lateral moves, she may now be miscast.

If you want to turn talent into performance, you have to position each person so that you are paying her to do what she is naturally wired to do. You have to cast her in the right role. ..more

Internet E-commerce and Law of Business Divergence part 2

Posted by: arlene on Thursday, 21st Aug, 2008

According to one famous futurist, “Someday in the near future I’ll be watching Ally McBeal. I like the outfit she’s wearing. So I put my hand on the TV screen and she‘ll interrupt the program and say, ‘Faith, do you like what I’m wearing?”Yeah,’ I’ll say. ‘I like your suit.’ And she‘ll say, ‘Here are the colors it comes in.’ I’ll tell Ally that I’ll take just navy or black, maybe both. And she‘ll say, ‘No you won’t, Faith. You’ve already got too many navy and black outfits in your closet right now. I think you should try red this time.’ And I’ll say okay, and the next day the red suit is delivered, in my size, to my home.” ..more

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