Actual for You - Business

Marketing 101: Get Involved with the Process
Getting involved with the community is an excellent way to make your marketing efforts sizzle. Through your association with service and other organizations you will not only gain credibility but you will also gain a type of notoriety. Your involvement does not mean you have to say yes at every turn (no one could afford that much time) but it does mean that you should not say no each time you are asked. Strike a balance between what you can and cannot do for any organization. If they are short of help on a project and no one else is willing to pitch in, you can be the hero that helps to make it happen. With Rotary, I try to be at every event whether it is fund-raising, helping with projects, or attending social events. It is through my involvemen

tion facility is a jam factory, for example, then the chances are that most people in town will have obtained as much jam as they need because they work at the factory or have friends or family that work there. I am suggesting you go a little further down the road. Four or five miles radius from your store and beyond is more like it.

The Modern Viking - Adventurous Enterprises Have Long Legacies
Consider the following story, not as a paradigm for business ethics, but as a template for the cultivation of an adventurous spirit. We are the product of our parents and their parents. Our children's entrepreneurial success is largely in our hands.With bold and bloody hands, the Nordic chieftain took me up. Well, not me, but my progenitor, full 40 rungs below me on the ladder. He solemnly squeeze-shut his eyes to recite the ancient, potent lay:May thou, and thy sons after thee, ever wield the steely sword and ply the oaken oar. May ye always breathe in acrid smoke, sleep in clamor, die in battle.If he could squint his healthful eye and peer through flames unto th

If you are you running a small local independent store, you have no doubt experienced what the big regional/national chains can do to your business. They buy much lower than you do and also sell lower. Occasionally they will sell at a lower price than you can buy from your wholesaler. It is not uncommon to see private label goods from big chains being openly sold in small outlets. This article is not going to bleat about how unfair the situation is. It's not unfair. The big guys are using their muscle to attract customers and make a profit and that is what they are supposed to do. Stay positive. Forget your disadvantages and start to think about your advantages. One big advantage you have over the big chains is that you are a truly local business. You have local customers for sure, but do you stock local products?

The big chains have often toyed with selling products that are made in the locality. Some even have a small sales area dedicated to local products. They have never mastered the art of doing this and probably never will. This is mainly because their head office resource simply couldn't stretch to closing deals with individual suppliers on behalf of individual stores. As often is the case, the head office contingent is reluctant to allow individual outlets carry out their own buying negotiations. Just as local buying may be advantageous to the independent, the big chains see the opposite argument. Their great power lies in their ability to offer high volume to their suppliers in return for low prices and other advantages. By fragmenting volume lines into smaller deals, they will kill the goose that lays the golden egg. This is where you come in. Your independent local store will never have significant buying power so you do not need to play that game. You can play a quite different game that will leave the big guys standing on the sidelines looking on.

What I am suggesting is not easy. If it were easy then it wouldn't be fun, would it?! Just about every local store will have a production facility somewhere up the road. First rule: forget the production facility up the road. Why? Because, if it is a big employer in your town, then the chances are that the products they sell can be obtained from local sources other than a shop. If this (very) local production facility is a jam factory, for example, then the chances are that most people in town will have obtained as much jam as they need because they work at the factory or have friends or family that work there. I am suggesting you go a little further down the road. Four or five miles radius from your store and beyond is more like it.

Developing Efficient Meetings
How would you describe meetings you have attended in the past? Last Tuesday, I was facilitating a workshop on how to lead better meetings, and to start things off, I asked the group that very question. The answers that they provided were very similar to answers that I have received from hundreds of workshop participants over the last ten years.The first two responses were…“Meetings are looooooooooong,” and “Meetings are BOW-ring (this workshop was actually held in my hometown of Fort Worth, Texas – thus the Texas twang.)”Those two responses almost always come up when I ask the question. Others that also come up a lot are: Wastes of time, non-productive, confrontational, inefficient, repetitive, and a number of other negat

d to do. Stay positive. Forget your disadvantages and start to think about your advantages. One big advantage you have over the big chains is that you are a truly local business. You have local customers for sure, but do you stock local products?

Knowing How Important It Is To Choose The Best Incorporation Service
Incorporating a business is an absolute necessity for survival in the current business environment. Those businesses that have decided to resist taking advantage of the benefits of the best incorporation service are doing themselves a great disservice. In order to survive within the current business climate and within the legal environment businesses find themselves in, incorporation is an absolute must and seeking out a quality incorporation service would greatly facilitate the process.There are a number of reasons why an incorporation service would greatly benefit an individual who is conducting business. These reasons include such items as limited liability, tax breaks, a legal identity that is separate from one's personal identity, and

al suppliers on behalf of individual stores. As often is the case, the head office contingent is reluctant to allow individual outlets carry out their own buying negotiations. Just as local buying may be advantageous to the independent, the big chains see the opposite argument. Their great power lies in their ability to offer high volume to their suppliers in return for low prices and other advantages. By fragmenting volume lines into smaller deals, they will kill the goose that lays the golden egg. This is where you come in. Your independent local store will never have significant buying power so you do not need to play that game. You can play a quite different game that will leave the big guys standing on the sidelines looking on.

Web 2.0 - Sites From The Dark Ages
In the beginning, there were websites.Websites designed to tell the world that the site owner actually existed, and probably little more.Going back less than twenty years, to a time when the internet as we know it was nothing more than a seemingly insane dream, websites were most often created with very little thought given as to what they were actually supposed to do.And, you know what?That is still how the vast majority of sites are created!Most websites suck - sorry to say that, but it is true, and I am willing to bet that, if you have your own site, that yours might be amongst this group of ‘suckers’!See if you recognize yourself in this picture. I know that I do!You set out to create your own

nificant buying power so you do not need to play that game. You can play a quite different game that will leave the big guys standing on the sidelines looking on.

Managing Reality - Learning to Love Our Mistakes
Too often I see and hear the impact of leaders not managing what lies in front of them. Rather, they manage what they would like to see or imagine is there. The consequence is usually underperformance. Characteristics accompanying it include crisis management, poor and late decision making.When leaders manage what they would like to see, they filter and interpret data to support conclusions already made in their own mind. The Iraq war is an obvious case. People from a wide variety of leadership roles, filtered and interpreted data to give the predisposed conclusion required to take their favoured action.In business, non-profit organisations and government, we do this every day. We begin a project with a view to what we want to achie

Once you have identified the producers that are in your area, contact them and just put the idea to them that they can have another outlet for their goods. Transport costs would be negligible and they would have a great place to try out new products and ideas. Sometimes goods are produced that, for whatever reason, are not wanted by large customers. You may consider selling these goods. I am not suggesting selling sub-standard goods. In fact, this would not be a good idea. Often products do not meet a large customer's specification but are actually fine. They just do not happen to be the right shape, or color or are unwanted for some other innocuous reason. It is very common for producers to over-produce. Sometimes it is more efficient for them to finish off a production batch, leaving some goods over. In these situations you will be probably be able to negotiate some good deals. If a producer wants to test a product's selling potential you may be able to negotiate a sale-or-return deal.

Many producers have a shop attached to their premises where these kinds of products are sold. Many others, however, do not. You would be either adding a new outlet for them or would possible replace their current outlet, depending on their situation. It costs nothing to ask. Ok, then it does cost. It costs you a lot of time, and your time is precious. The time this takes, however, is your investment in the company. Like any investment, it may yield disappointing returns. On the other hand, turning your store into a showcase of local products may bring some or all of the following results:

i) Bring your store the attention of the staff and management of the producers whose goods you are selling. You may win some new customers ii) Give you the opportunity to merchandise products that other stores do not routinely sell iii) In many cases you would probably be able to offer bargains that other stores could not match iv) You would be able to demonstrate your environmental credentials by featuring products that have not travelled far distances v) Although many products you try out will not take off, it is inevitable that one or two will stick. You could then become a valuable outlet to your supplier and may become a niche retailer for certain products

Some of you may like the idea selling a whole range of local products. Other may be less enthusiastic. If you are a food shop and you have found a great source of fresh carrots that are better than those you were buying previously from wholesale and you can ac

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The Restaurant Industry is abuzz with the concept of online ordering and the benefits that it brings. So, how do you go about offering online ordering to your customers?

Advertising, direct mail, web sites and telesales all have their place but nothing beats the face to face interview. The first challenge is, of course, getting to speak to your prospect and arrange a meeting.

You have a great product or service, but your revenues are still below your cost. How do you get sales to exceed revenues and allow you to live the work at home dream?

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Actual for You - The Small Retailer's Survival Guide - Part 2 - Go Local!

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