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Selling, advertising and customers reactions

2012-02-09T18:29:00.000+01:00

Any product must respond to a cultural and industrial environment and any manager should take care of informing and educating customers regarding the utility, the way of use, and the qualities of the products. If you want to have a succesful company, you must advertise your company, so the customers can find out about it.
There are many ways in which a company can promote itself - magazines, newspapers, internet, television, leaflets, banners etc.

The acceptance of a product by a customer is based, in general, on the caracteristics and the quality of the product, related services and price.

Regarding how a customer sees a product there are three stages:
1. A first level of knowledge and informing: when the customer has already met the product, thanks to the notoriety of the product and then he gives a cognitive response.

2. A second level when the customer is expressing an opinion: the customer get acquainted with the friendly image of the product, the wrapper and will give an affective response.

3. The third level: the customer decides if he will buy or not. If he won't buy, he will chose another product depending on his needs.

Marketers know that this three levels: cognitive, affective and conative can't be always found in this order. In fact there are posibile many combinations.

Business quotes from some very successful persons

2012-01-22T00:37:00.000+01:00

You should avoid debt, you should have some savings and invest them.
Investing in yourself is the best thing you can do.
If you got talent you should do everything to maximize your talent. (Warren Buffett)

Take advantage of your opportunities!
We all had a wonderful education. That's part of the reason we are successful. I had great teachers.(Bill Gates)

You got to have passion. If you don't have passion you are going to fail.
No matter how smart you are, you need a team of great people. (Steve Jobs)

As a leader of people you have to be a great listener, you have to be a great motivator, and look for the best in people. (Richard Branson)

With each action you take you are building to a brand new future!
If you can't discipline yourself, you got nothing! (Tony Robbins)

You really have to know what you're doing. You need knowledge. It's a big advantage if you go to College. (Donald Trump)

The harder i work the luckier i get. (Gary Player)

Goal setting really did wonders for me.
We are affected by the environment in which we live. Why not make the environement better everywhere you go?
It is much better to give than to receive! Giving starts the receiving process!(Jim Rohn)

Does Your Business Still Work? Do You Need To Make Some Changes?

2012-01-18T20:45:00.000+01:00

This time we live in is seriously affected by the economic crisis. Many businesses have closed doors and many people have remained without a job, while other businesses have suffered big problems, but they are still struggling to survive.

How is the crisis for you? Have you managed to win the war against the economic crisis or you find yourself in one of the situation mentioned first?

If the economic crisis is giving you a hard time, then you probably should do some changes. A manager is making changes when the things aren't going the right way. The nature of change depends on the niche of your business and a manager should decide the changes after a very careful analysis.

The success of your business depends on the way you see the things around you. Life is not perfect, and this thing applied in business means that you can always improve something in your company.

A good manager is not the one who can have good results when is economic growth, but is the one who can survive when all the odds are against him. This means you have to fight and you have to search for the best solutions. I am aware of the fact that is not easy, but the power is in your hands and you just need to learn how to use it. Look around and learn from those who have managed to succeed in this hell and you will see that there's an answer even for your terrible problem.

Be careful how you handle the relation with your clients, your employees, the way you spend your money, the way you present your product, and other things. But even so there are moments in which you can consider changing the field of activity. Everything depends on the situation in which you find yourself.

So you see there is an answer for everybody and you can survive, you just need to learn and fight.

Don't waste your time! Money won't wait for you to make time!

2012-01-14T14:34:00.000+01:00

Time Is Very Important! In business Time is Money! This is why you need to learn to manage your time in the most effective way. You need to think what the most important things are. Do you really need to do something?(like reading your mail 10 times a day or jumping into an activity that will eat half of your time without doing some prospecting first) Even limiting your spending can help you save some time (and money). Don't spend your time searching for things that you don't really need!

In economy there is a principle called The Pareto principle, named after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto. This principle says that 80% of your unfocussed effort will generate only 20% of your outcome, while the 20% of effort will bring you the rest of 80% results. Prioritization - this is what you must learn to do!

Make a daily schedule (a PDA, Personal digital assistant, might help) and try to get the maximum from everything, but be sure you won't forget to have some rest. When you are tired your efficiency is lower. Even a healthy alimentation can bring you more energy and more can help your brain to process better information.

If you have something important to do be sure that you won't get disturbed by anybody, but also try not to work without break.

Time flies be sure that next year you won't say: "I wish I would have done that!".

If you will search on internet you find lots of information connected to time management so I hope you will find what you need and in the end you will get your job done without getting overstressed.

Life is beautiful, but is also short! Try to get the maximum out of it!

Elements of Advertising you can use in your business

2012-01-11T22:14:00.000+01:00

Advertising is the way in which you communicate with your clients. You present your product and you hope that the customer is going to bite the bait and buy your product.

This means that you should make a good enough presentation of your product. In advertising you can use music, images, videos, text, colors (every one of those things can have a psychological effect on your client). Another thing that you can use in advertising is making stories. A good story always has more chances to sell than no story or a bad story. In fact in the media, online and offline, advertisers are using something called Advertorial. This means that in a publication someone writes (but there are advertorials even for TV and Radio) an article about a product. The clients feel more connected to this kind of advertising and they are more likely to buy your product.

I can't possibly know what your product is, but what I know is that your advert must be strongly connected to your product. If you are selling products for kids your advert must be for kids or for parents (who have the money), so your advert must be cute or touchy or both (parents are very carefully with their kids). Every niche has a certain type of adverts that you can use. Search for other adverts. Search for the results of those adverts - how did those adverts had influence the customers. You think the same type of advertising will work for your clients? If not, you can innovate! What are the things that make your customer jump out of his seat directly in your shop?

Can you make a funny advert for your business? Or it would be better to make a more sober advert or a more elegant one? What is the average age of your customers? What is the level of education of your customers?

If you feel that the advertising is too much for you and you have money to spend, you can pay an advertising agency to do the hard work for you.
Good luck!

A leader makes things grow - A manager just manage things

2012-01-10T12:55:00.000+01:00

This leadership quote is one that every manager should know and should really pay attention to this quote, because being a leader doesn't only mean that you must be a great person or a business manager, but it means that you must be, a person with great qualities that makes everything around grow. You can't say that you are a leader if your results are lame. Yes, you can say that you are a manager, because you are managing a business or a institution, but you can say that you are a leader, because a leader should be excellent in his field. Also, making profit, won't make you a leader, because your business is more than the profit you make, your business also have employees who must be happy, and customers who must be content with your products and the ethics of your company. A leader must be followed by people. A manager has people around because he pay his employees to be there, while a leader will have people around even if he doesn't pay them, because the leader sets up a goal for everyone, and that goal is greater than some money. Sure money could be a very important stimulus, but leader is that person who can get to the mind of the person and make that person to fight for a goal, using more deep reasons than money.

Leadership means a spiritual connection between the manager and the other people involved in the business - employees and customers, and why not distributors.
This is the thing that will bring success and high performance in your firm.

Be a leader, not just a manager!

What is the goal of your business?

2012-01-09T16:30:00.000+01:00

Many entrepreneurs when they decide to start walking on the road of business they start with one goal - that is making money. Well, in the capitalist world making money it's a goal that almost everyone has, but in business you need to have more than one goal or better said you need to set up more goals in order to make the first goal real.

You want more money? You need to make more profit! How you get more profit? You get more customers, or customers that buy more! The main goal is to make money, while making profit and getting more customers are secondary goals. You may say that "My goal is to have sales of 10.000$ this month or to have 30% more customers. The dices are in your hand!

In business is very important to set goals, and visualize the whole process of making those goals happen, because in this way you will become more competitive and your firm has more chances to evolve.

Think about what your goals are write them down and post them somewhere where you can see them every day (in front of your mirror or at the office will be great). Why is it important to constantly see your goals? Because this way you will get more motivated to make them real. You need to take a positive mental attitude and think that you will work as hard as it takes to make it real, no matter how big your goal is. You must also be prepared to add or eliminate goals from your list, as time goes.

Setting goals is one big step that you need to make, if you want to become a successful person. Remember that you need to have patience and you need to work hard. Being a businessman is not as easy as it might seem, but is something that will bring you lots of satisfactions, if you do it the right way.

Use everything you have in order to increase your sales!

2012-01-08T12:26:00.000+01:00

In sales it is highly important to use everything you have to increase your sales. You have imagination? Use it! A certain type of customers is really attracted to this kind of presentation of product. You have a classic and elegant style? Use it! A phrase that I've heard in sales is: "Keep it simple, keep it elegant!", so why not take advantage of this? Are you representing an important brand? If yes, you can sure use this to make someone buy! Tell nice story, connect the customers to the values of the company and make it emotional.

There are lots of things you can use in product presentation and there are lots of things you can use in decorating your shop, restaurant, pub or even in selecting a location for a meeting.

Everything influences your customer and you must use everything in your advantage. Be careful with the way you look, the colors you wear, the way you gesture, the way you sit at the table, the way you shake hand. This all are things that have a psychological effect on your customer. Only by watching this things your customer might decide if he wants to make a deal with you or not.
Sure, in sales is highly important the verbal interaction with the client, so be careful with the things you say, even a word can trigger the buying appetite in the client or can make him turn around and leave.

So you see if everything is important in sales, you must use everything if you want a high level of sales.

If you want to succeed you must be persistent

2012-01-06T10:15:00.000+01:00

Sometimes when we start new activities, like a new company, a home business or whatever, at the beginning we are very excited, but as the things evolve the results don't meet our expectation. What do you do when the results aren't those you expected? You give up? You start investing more hoping that this will reinvigorate your business? Or you just keep going? Sometimes is good to give up, sometimes is good to invest, but sometimes is better to go forward and now I'm going to talk about this last situation. In life things can be hard and it might be needed a lot of patience and a lot of courage to go ahead with everything, but at the end all the hard work it is rewarded.

Now, there are two stories that come across my mind related to this subject: one that I've heard from a life insurance broker and another from a sales man.

First story was like this: Once upon a time, lots of frogs have gathered in front of the Empire State Building to participate at a competition of climbing on the building. And there was a small frog that everybody was saying that has no chance to win and as the competition started and the frogs were getting higher and higher lots of them were giving up. But that small frog was keep going. And the people that were watching the competition were saying to the little frog: "You will never make it!", "You are not good enough!", "You will fall!". But the little frog was keep going and the other frogs were falling, but in the end our little frog was alone on the top of the building, because she knew that must never give up no matter what.

Now the second story: Some time ago in time of crisis, there were two unemployed man and they were searching and struggling to get a job. After months of searching one of them just gave up on searching, because he was saying that if he didn't find a job in all this months he will never find, but the other one had done something else. He went to a company and begged for a job. "You don't even have to pay me!", he said, "just give me something to do!". And the owner said ok! And the man worked hard and for the next two months he was the employee of the month and the owner decided that he deserves a promotion and he also started paying him.

So you see, hard work and persistence are always rewarded and if you want to succeed this is the best way.

So you want to start a successful business? You must become an expert in your niche

2012-01-05T11:45:00.001+01:00

If you want to be a successful business man and build a successful company (or more than one) you must be aware of the fact that you are not going to do this if you don't become an expert in your niche. This whole process of becoming an expert must begin with the very first step you do in starting a business, this meaning from the moment you decide what type of business you are going to start. Why from that moment? Well, when you chose the niche of your business you must be sure that it's something you like. It’s lot more easy to become an expert in a niche you like and it's not only this - if you want to be your own boss, at least you must do something you enjoy doing. But even so you must be careful because the niche you love the most might be oversaturated and if it is so you must chose another niche.

After you have chosen your niche you must start a process of research and learning - this is the quickest way to become an expert. Read books, search for interesting articles on internet, search for innovations in your field, try to learn from experience that others have had on your niche.

Another step is to Target your customers - if you do this you are going to become specialized on solving a certain type of problems. And if you are an expert on solving a type of problems a big number of those who have that problem are going to come to you.

Becoming an expert doesn't mean only to get somewhere around the top of you niche. The process of becoming an expert means that you must always search for ways to evolve and grow.

Are you ready to be an expert and be a part of the group of those who are able to say: "I am a successful person!"?

Even a a small business should have a budget

2012-01-04T11:50:00.001+01:00

Even though the budget is essential for any small business, many small business owners can't see the importance of a budget and they don't even bother to do it, while others give up on doing it, because they aren't so much in the financial part of the business and they haven't start up a business for doing budget, but for passion.

The budget is as important as the business plan and the marketing strategy. Why? Well it will give you valuable information about your business: if your spending are those you expected, if your earnings are good enough and if you should do some changes or you are on the right way.

If you want your small business to grow, then doing a budget is essential. If you want to have control over your finances - doing a budget will help you. Doing a budget and reviewing (compare the projected budget with the actual budget) the budget before the end of the fiscal year will give you a really good outlook over your business.

Sometimes the things might look good to you, but having them on paper can give you another view. Let's say that the number of your buyers has increase a lot. You think that your earnings are at a certain level. But putting the things on paper can make you change your mind and show you that those buyers could have bought less, the taxes can increase and so on.

The budget is something you need and if you feel like you are overwhelmed by it you can ask for help, but don't give up on it, even though sometimes your prediction are a bit different from reality. If it happens so, you can always do some adjustments to your budget.

Nowadays the technology has evolved so much that you can find many software that can help you with all the hard work. Do not underestimate the value of a budget.

Do you want to make money online? Don't let yourself cheated by gurus!

2012-01-03T11:25:00.000+01:00

Since I've been online I've seen a lot of people trying to find The Holy Grail of Internet, a way in which they can win a fortune by doing nothing. People just don't get it that if you are at beginning of the road, without hard working you won't succeed. And where are naive people are also scammers. The internet is loaded with thousands of scammers (from all over the world) trying to sell you "pixie dust". Well the internet doesn't work that way. It is true that there are many people doing lots of money online, but it's also true that are millions struggling to get there and fail.
Some of those people winning lots of money online are working more and harder than you are working at your current job, this if you have one. Some of them have spend hundreds, thousands of dollars before they got on the top and are still spending now.

Don't let yourself cheated when you hear: "I've developed a system that will make you a fortune and normally I could sell it for 1.000 dollars, but I'm going to do it for only 30, 40, 50." or "You are going to win without working or spending". Not going to happen!

You can't buy luck from a guru. If you want luck you must create your own luck. Internet gives you a lot of possibilities to earn a living online. It's true! It really is! But you must work for this. You must make a careful planning. You must work a lot and have patience.

For any of the methods of making money online there is at least one person that can help you free of charge. There are lots of blogs out there loaded with step by step information on how to get on the top. You just have to search well enough and have patience. There are great opportunities out there and I know you have better things to do than letting yourself cheated by a guru.

Before acting, think well! You want to earn money, not to spend.

Train your employees to boost your sellings

2012-01-02T13:02:00.003+01:00

I don't know about you, but when I enter into a shop and I see a friendly environment and some nice employees I'm tented to buy more, and not only, I'm tented to return.

So if you are into the selling area you might be considering sending your employees to make some courses. An essential course in selling is the Psychology of the Buyer. If you figure out what is your customer thinking and why he is thinking that way you can tell him the right words, the words that will make him buy, and yes, to return and buy more.

You can also send your employees to some courses of Essential Selling Skills, and why not Advanced Selling Skills. This way your employee will learn how to handle customers and more, he will meet some others involved in selling and they can share some experience.

The courses that your employee can do can be different from a niche to another, because the profile of the customer changes from a niche to another. There are some things you need to know when you are selling ice cream, other things when you are selling web domains and others things when you are selling insurances.

In this article "You need happy employees in order to have a successful company" I've said that a manager should consider sending his employees to personal development courses. This kind of courses might have an extraordinary impact on your employees and your business so don't hesitate.

Remember: always keep a close look at your employees and your customers, because in selling this two pieces are by far the most important of all and your success depends on them.

The New Year is Here! Have you made your wish list?

2012-01-01T12:33:00.003+01:00

In my country is a tradition that when a new year begins you must make a wish list. Not like that one you make for Santa, a list with the things you want to do in the New Year, your goals. You can make one for your life in general or for a certain part of your life; what you want for your career, what you want in love and so on.

Doing this kind of list and trying to reach the goals on the list could really give the boost to make those things happen.

In business this might be called strategic planning and to be more accurate we may refer to this as medium term strategy (and is a bit more complicated to do than a wish list for the New Year). But it doesn't really count the name, what is important is the fact that this can help you improve your performances in the New Year.

For example I entered in the New Year with this new blog so I wish for the New Year to get a good my page rank, a decent number of visitors, to write better and of course to monetize the whole thing. You don't have to be very specific, but if you do want to be, try to be realistic - don't overrate or underrate your strength.

It can be fun to make a list so take a piece of paper and start writing.

I wish you a wonderful year!

Learn, learn, learn and you will win more, more and more

2011-12-31T11:27:00.002+01:00

Almost every person I know says that in life you are learning from the moment you are born until you die. Same thing applies in your career, or your business, you must always learn and try to apply the things you've learn in order to obtain better results at work.

Well you have two ways of learning: 1. learning from experience (yours or others) 2. Formal education (you know high school or university/college). Although formal education can give the basics for almost everything, only real life experience can give you the things you need in order to win a fortune.

1. If you are young or if you are at the beginning of the road on your field and you don't have experience try to learn from others experience. Not by going to them and say: "Hey, will you learn me that?". Observe the things they do. If they do something good keep in mind and do it yourself. If they do something wrong, remember that you must never do that. One of my friends works as a manager for a supermarket. Several times I took him with me at shopping at a rival company. What I've seen at my friend was that he was always analyzing and from time to time he was actually saying: "They are doing this better than us. We are doing that better than them. We should do that. I would never do that.". So you see, you can even learn from your direct competitor without him knowing.

2. Formal education can learn you a lot and at the end you will get even a diploma. Go to university courses and listen to your professors. Read a lot, not only specialized books but you can read also biographies of successful persons in your field.

Learning can really change your life and you should always pay attention to anything that happens around you. You know that phrase: Learning is Knowledge. Applied Knowledge is Power. Use that power and you will achieve great things.

Create a brand - create an identity for your company

2011-12-30T11:19:00.003+01:00

Branding your business it's one of the most important things when you decide to start a new business. A good brand can bring you a lot of benefits so it's crucial to create one. Just think of what Coca-Cola is (you know that company that made Santa Claus red), or Pepsi, or Nike, or Adidas and the list goes on.

And as I said "think of what it is", not just think of a name or a logo, but what it is, because a brand is the identity of your company and your company is more than a logo (think how many logos had Pepsi changed over the time) or a name.

In your brand will be written the history of your company, your hard work, your beliefs, the quality of your products and sure a good name and logo will help the customers to remember more easily your company.

For your customer even some lines on your product might mean a lot. Some time ago in college I walked on sheet of paper. On the paper were left some lines from the sole of my shoe, only lines, not a logo. One of my colleges found the paper and asked: Who wears Adidas shoes? So he knew that it was Adidas only by watching some undefined lines. So you see, your brand is way more than a logo.

Now you might think that: this guy is talking about Coca-Cola and Adidas, but I have a small company and I can ignore the brand, well if you think so, you can't be more wrong than this. As I said the logo is the identity of your company and even your small company has an identity and a good brand brings you more customers and what that means? More money; and at the end of the day this is what every entrepreneur wants.

Make a Careful Planning and you'll have Better Results

2011-12-29T10:16:00.002+01:00

Many people that haven't studied marketing not even a bit, but who have some money in their account are starting small businesses and fail. That's something not desirable for the small entrepreneur or for the customer. So let's see together why this happens:

First of rushing into a business you need to make a careful planning. Making a business plan will bring you more close to reality, offering you the information you need in order to see what your chances on the market are. What is a business plan? Well the business plan is that thing in which you'll set your goals and check if you can reach those goals and may also show you how your business will be seen in the eyes of the customers.

Developing a marketing strategy will help you to target your market. How is that going to help you? Well knowing your market will help you save a lot of money, because if you find your target market, you will know what products are more likely to be bought by your customers, you will know how to promote your products, and why not will help you find customers easier. This eventually means that you will be able to make personalized marketing. What's the point if 10.000 people are seeing your ad and only 500 are really interested in your product? How much money you will spend to market to 10.000 people? How much you will spend to market to 500?

Sure, sometimes a manager must make decisions based on instinct, but if you can make a careful planning - do it!

Can you really make easy money with a website?

2011-12-28T10:59:00.005+01:00

Everyone wants to earn money with less effort. On internet it is possible to win money with only 10-30 minutes of work per day, or even less. But the thing is that if you are not a genius or a person widely known, it won’t be that easy to arrive at the point where you can earn a living by working only 30 minutes per day.

To win money with a website it can be difficult if you want to do it all by yourself. Why? Well you need to know what design to use for your website (if you buy one or if you are going to build one yourself), you need to know some SEO (Search Engine Optimization, or maybe you want to pay a company to do that for you) and most important you will need to know how to write and what to write in order to attract and maintain your visitors(and yes you can even pay someone to write for you, but you want to earn lots of money, not to spend lots of money).

I've been online for more than 4 years, doing websites and so on, I've seen people earning hundreds, thousands of dollars with almost no effort, so yes, it can be done, but at the beginning none of those people was earning a coin without lots of work.

So work a lot, inform yourself and try to become ace on a certain niche. Do so, and the easy money will eventually come to you.

You need happy employees in order to have a successful company

2011-12-27T11:05:00.002+01:00

Every manager of small or large business must always remember this. The performance of your company depends on the performance of your employees. If your employees are overstressed and unhappy (because of the home situation or work situation), their results will be very low and it's up to you to find and solve the problems of your employees in order to get maximum performance from them.

Your employee must feel at work like in a family, and you need to make him to understand that if he wants to live better, "the family" must succeed.

Create a relaxing environment - find what are the small things that can keep your employees focused and relaxed, talk with your employees - you won't ever know how to help your employee if you don't talk to him in order to find out what is going wrong, give them positive feedback when they are doing things right and help them to develop themselves - send them to personal development courses and always keep them updated regarding the new innovations in your field.

Keep your employees emotionally connected to your company and always stimulate them intellectually so they become more productive.

Your company is your family and you are the householder. Only a happy family will help you evolve and you are the one that must maintain the family happy.

How to become a successful person

2011-12-26T19:21:00.003+01:00

Almost every person in this world at a certain moment asked himself how to become a successful person. Why? Well everyone wants money, recognition, fame, power (for himself or power to help others).

How can you do that? Well it isn’t very difficult, but it takes a lot of things from you.

First of all you need to relax, take a look around and see that the power is in your hands.

Search for the courage that is inside you and use that courage to begin the trip.

Make a plan - think about what you want to do, and in what you want to be successful.

Learn and always look for new information and innovation. Without learning you will never evolve.

Try new thinks in order to get yourself in front. More you try, more opportunities to succeed you will have.

Persist - you may not be able to succeed at the first attempt and sometimes it might take some time before you start wining, but if you persist, that will eventually happen.

How to be a better advertiser / increase your sales

2011-12-25T19:02:00.002+01:00

Many advertisers are doing very wrong things when they are trying to sell products. When you are trying to sell something, you must never think that you are selling a product, but you must think that you are helping others to cover their needs, and most important you have to show that you really care about the needs of the person that is in front of you or is watching your commercial.

Remember that the business is never about you, or your product, it's always about the costumers needs.

Show the benefits that your product is doing and try to become a friend with the customer.

Don't try to tell stories about your company, because if it's not already a big company that everybody that is interested about your field knows, they won't give a shit about your company, but make sure that you tell the name of it, because if the costumer is happy with the product they will return.

Budget of the European Union

2011-12-19T15:31:00.002+01:00

In accordance with the Treaties EU Budget must be well-balanced every year. Any expenditure must be financed from revenues collected or saved over time.

Till 1970 the communitarian budget was formed by the annual contribution of the members. After 1970 the budget, according to treaties is formed by:
1. own resources
2. Other resources

Own resources are formed from 4 types of resources: first 2 types, are called traditionally resources and are:
a. taxes from the common external tariff and are imposed on imports from non-EU countries.;
b. taxes on agricultural products imported from countries that are not members. Although these 2 types might look similar they are different, because the last type is not part of the Common External Tariff.
These 2 resources are 1/7 from EU budget.

The other 2 own resources are VAT and taxes calculated over the GDP of the member states (this taxes represent 75% of the own resources of the EU budget).

Other resources category represents: amounts remaining from previous years, other taxes, contribution of the states for different community programs, fine, penalty interest, various fees.