Planning and Executing an Import business

The high returns of an import business means that you will get a bigger return for your time and that you can start with an investment of less than $100. The further added advantage of such a business is that you can run it right out of your home and it has the potential of growing your wealth faster than in any other business.
Before you start an import business it is however recommended that you first carry out a market survey of the specialty product that you intend to sell. This will help you determine how many units other firms handling your specialty product are selling.

This survey should include asking friends and associates if they would buy a given item and at what price they would be willing to pay for it. Make sure you have a market for every import before you buy it. Never order an import until you know how many units you can sell and at what price.

For low priced products you may not have available dependable information and you will therefore have to trust your instinct. This you do by observing what is popular and selling today and by predicting what will be popular tomorrow and watching to see if your predictions are true.

Pick the ideal Import

The ideal import will usually be light, safe, cheap (not costly), shippable, quickly available, unique( not easily duplicated), solely available to you, smaller than competing items, simpler to use than others products.

In other words the product must be different and offer something different than what is locally available. No import will off course ever possess all these ideal features. It is therefore for you to weigh and get the most desirable.

Imports worth considering would include cotton cloth products like shirts, trousers, and other garments for children and adults in new and unusual designs. Peppers and spices form all over the world with unique tastes would be another success. Yarns and threads for the home and professional markets may also be popular and sell well. Art and craft from other countries as long as it offers something new may also be successful.

Read more: http://bizcovering.com/business/planning-and-executing-an-import-business/#ixzz1QQ8NajUE

The Concept of Pricing Your Products or Services

An appropriate pricing strategy can increase sales, increase profits, and separate your business from the competition.

The first thing that one needs to do to effectively price their product or services is to determine the total costs of the product or service in order to set the theoretical floor for pricing decisions. Material cost, labor cost, and overhead cost institute the total cost of producing a product or service.



Creative Pricing Techniques

1) Skimming Pricing: – Set initial prices relatively high to recover the initial capital spent, developing the product or opening the store. Feature on quality, service or uniqueness. Use this method only if you can capitalize on a current trend or fad.

2) Penetration Price: – Set initial prices low at first to quickly penetrate the market. As business develops gradually raise prices to a more profitable level. Feature or capitalize on low prices and convenience. Be careful however not to set your prices too low that the customers think your products are inferior.

3) Promotional Pricing:- Set special low prices to introduce new products or a new line. Consider two- for- one specials end of season sales. This method maintains traffic stimulate demand and make room for new merchandise.

4) Loss-Leader Pricing:- Select one item and advertise it at its lowest cost to create store traffic and sell other regularly priced items. Loss-leader pricing is only appropriate for items that already have low margin but can drive sales of accessories or related items.

Read more: http://bizcovering.com/business/the-concept-of-pricing-your-products-or-services/#ixzz1QQ6H1jCS

20 Ways to successfully Advertise your products or services

To run a successful business you must have a way or ways to make people know about your services or products.
In the early days or in the set up, your concentration should be more in public relations, sales promotions and personal selling than on advertising. To get results from your advertisement follow the following guidelines;

1) Know your objectives- ask yourself what you intend to achieve with your advertisement before launching out.

2) Remember advertising is salesmanship in print and the more you tell the more you sell.

3) Ensure your promotional efforts are measurable .

4) Remember specifics sell, for instance 29 is more believable than 30.

5) Use a headline that flags your reader down based on who they are or what their interests are

6) Identify with their problem or need, for example “being a caretaker is emotionally draining. It is almost a 24/7—”.

7) Hint at a solution, for example “now there is an easy way to—”.

8) Explain how you are going to solve their problem, for example, “at ABC we have —”.

9) Show them proof by giving specific results, when mentioning testimonials and mentioning a guarantee.

10) Articulate your point of difference or what sets you apart from your competitors. Shout it out from the rooftops, for example, “multicultural based—-” .

11) Offer free information like a catalogue. Describe the free information and why it is useful.

Read more: http://bizcovering.com/marketing-and-advertising/20-ways-to-successfully-advertise-your-products-or-services/#ixzz1QQ3jkDgo

Fun and Simple Ways to make money On Line

I have read of many ways and been introduced to many sites that offer insight on how to make money online. One of the ways that I have found easy and sometimes productive to earning money online is by answering surveys.
If you get good companies that constantly send you surveys and also pay, this can end up being a good way to substitute your income. The companies I mention here are professional and most of them will pay cash through paypal or by check after accumulating a certain amount of points.

Those that do not pay cash offer gift cards of various products or retail stores. For others, you can accumulate traveling mileage or get discounts in hotels or car rentals. Apart form the payment incentive, some surveys may also involve you receiving products like perfume, toothpaste, bathroom tissues, food products, among such to test and still get points for the your response.

Great Sites for taking surveys that pay

1) Synovate Global Opinion Panels

This is a world class marketing research firm that I have found to be consistent. With Synovate you earn points according the concluded surveys sent to you. The beauty of this company is that if you do not qualify for the survey you still get token points of about 100 for your time. Most surveys earn you about 300 points each and there are some that may actually earn you 1000 points. The minimum points required to redeem for cash is 5000 points which earns you $5 while 10,000 points earns you $10 and so on and so forth. The only downsize (at least for me) is that there are not as many surveys received. You can find more information about the company at
https://www.globalopinionpanels.com


2) e-Rewards Opinion Panel

This is one of those survey company’s where membership is by invitation only. Once a member, the company sends you surveys by email and if you qualify you get the full amount indicated and if not a little token for answering the qualification questions. The only downsize of this company is that there is no opportunity to receive the cash. You can redeem your currency by getting air mileage through the various airlines affiliated with the company and percentage discount with retail stores among such. If you are looking for hard cash this is not the company for you. For more information go to https://www.e-rewards.com

3) MySurvey.com

This is a consumer survey panel that has been in existence since 2001. It is part of “Lightspeed Research, both owned by WPP, one of the world’s leading communications services groups”. Membership is free and voluntary. With mysurve, points earned can be redeemed by cash, paid through paypal or by check. You can also accumulate points to get one of the items offered in the site or gifts cards. The downsize of this company is that the points awarded are very little. Most are 5 points but if you qualify for something more you may get between 30 -150 points. The minimum amount required to redeem for cash is 1100 points which is $10 payable by pay pal or check. You can get more information about the panel site at http://www.mysurvey.com

Read more: http://webupon.com/web-talk/fun-and-simple-ways-to-make-some-money-on-line/#ixzz1QPz9FrBb

15 Important terms and philosophies used in Managemnet

Certain qualities and attributes are necessary for one to be an effective manager. Whether one is managing people or resources, one must understand that management is never about one thing.

Not only must one understand human beings in order to effectively lead and manage them, but one must also understand different philosophies involved in management. In big corporations, certain terminology are used and as a manager it is important that you understand the meaning and philosophies behind the terms.

Important terms and Philosophies

1) Bottom line- This refers to the most important measure of success in a particular organization. This is taken from the bottom most figure on a profit and loss statement.

2) Break even point- The point where profits begin

3)Cash Cow- Any product or service that is highly profitable

4) DIRFT- Doing it right the first time.

5) 80-20 Rule ( Pareto rule) – this means that the majority of your productivity is accounted for by a minority of your activity. For example, 80% of your sales comes from 20% of customers.

6) Halo Effect- Tendency to evaluate a person’s overall qualifications or preference on the basis of a specific trait or accomplishment.

7) Marketing Mix- combination of the four P’s designed to meet the customers needs. These are the Price, Place, Product and Promotion.

8) Management by Objective (MBO)- A management philosophy based on the principle that performance should be measured by quantifiable objectives. It suggests that managers evaluate staff based on results rather than on how the results are achieved.

9) Managing by waiting around (MBWA) – A philosophy that suggests that managers should get out of the office and walk around talking to those on the line.

10) Mission Statement- A formal written statements that specifies the purpose of any organization.

11) Open- Door Policy- A policy allowing employees access to their supervisor or manager at any time without necessarily making an appointment.

Read more: http://socyberty.com/advice/15-important-terms-and-philosophies-used-in-management/#ixzz1QPwRaRno

The USA economy is not getting better

Every month as the government reviews the economy the first news is always that the economy is improving and has shown marked gains. Golden Sachs suggests that, “The United States can expect substantial acceleration in real GDP growth over the next two years to a 4% pace by early/mid-2012".
According to the bureau of Labor statistic’s report for February 2011, the unemployment rate for the whole of USA went down in January 2011 to 9% from a high of 9.8 in November 2010. This is surprising considering that only 36,000 jobs were generated, the lowest in four months.

The percentages given are government figures and knowing that they have to do damage control the figures do not always represent the truth. There are many people who have fallen out of the radar of unemployment because they stop reporting their unemployment status either because they have exhausted their unemployment benefits or have just given up after searching for employment for so long.

According to an Associated press report, “Job openings dropped sharply in professional and business services, a category that includes temporary help agencies. They also fell in construction, manufacturing, and in education and health services”. These are areas that normally require great education and are needed because they are service oriented.




Certain states are in fact reporting higher unemployment figures which again is just a tip of the iceberg of the reality in the ground. In California, where this writer is based, currently the reported unemployment is estimated to be 12.5 % up from 12.4 in the previous months.

House foreclosure have also continued to climb up even though we are told that the economy is getting better. According to an Associated Press (AP) analysis, “the nation’s economic stress inched up in December because higher foreclosures outweighed lower unemployment”.

Read more: http://socyberty.com/issues/the-the-usa-economy-is-not-getting-better/#ixzz1QPskoyGn

Walmart has many woes, and Customer service is Zilch!

WalMart, the giant supermarket appears to feature in the news a lot. After all it is one of the largest chain of discount stores in the United States of America. Its former chief Executive H. Lee Scott, on an interview with the New York Times said that running the chain is “like running for president of the United States" because of the constant scrutiny.


Walmart was started by Sam Walton in 1962 and as of today has many outlets in different countries operating under different names. According to Forbes report, as of 2010, it was the “largest public corporation by revenue”.

Walmart features in the news for many reasons, both good and bad. It is discussed in social medias gaining foes and supporters alike. Some support it for making the common person afford things that would otherwise be outside their domain while critics argue that the low prices have depressed domestic wages and exported manufacturing jobs to foreign countries which in the process has hurt Americans more than help them.

Complaints have been leveled against it for undercutting its business competitors by offering very low prices to the same products as its competitors. By so doing, Walmart was in effect pushing smaller business entities out of business.

Walmart is known to have grown stronger during the recession due to its low prices on grocery and other products. “The financial turmoil that strangled discretionary spending at many stores sent struggling consumers straight into the arms of Wal-Mart”. However as the economy picked up, the sales are said to have “flattened up”.

Labor Relations
The areas that the company has however featured more is on its labor relations. Walmart has been accused many times of exploiting its factory workers particularly those from developing countries. It is suggested that the only reason it is able to offer such cheap prices for its products is because of exploiting cheap labor in countries like China.

WalMart has also been accused of being racist against people of color and it has really been working hard to wipe out this image. More and more their commercials have employees who are of color which is of course aimed at showing diversity of its employees. This accusation emanated from a time when someone used a Walmart public address system and said “Attention Wal-Mart customers: All black people leave the store now.”

Read more: http://socyberty.com/issues/walmart-has-many-woes-and-customer-service-is-zilch/#ixzz1QPqDAmdT