Thinking Big - A Fundamental rule for your business planning

Thinking big combined with good planning and proper implementation can bring you huge rewards. It’s no more an option; it has become a must in today’s business world. Gone are the days when you were able to earn reasonable profits while staying in your comfort zone. Now you need to break the shackles and go all out if you want to succeed. If you don’t, you will soon find some large enterprise running over your business.

Your business is what you think of it:

All huge and truly successful businesses have one thing in common. Each of them has someone with a great vision at their back. Someone who managed to think ahead of others, who was able to visualize something huge in his mind and then transform that thought into reality. If you want your business to get big, you need to think big. Good positive thinking attracts riches.

Set goals that challenge you:

Many times, we are afraid of disappointment which will come our way in case of failure. This fear alone makes us aim for smaller targets instead of going for something big and rewarding. Making unrealistic goals is no doubt, a bad idea; the thing is to set a big enough goal that it challenges you. Challenge yourself to go and accomplish a little more than what you think you are capable of.

Innovative Ideas:

Some new value added to your product, innovative outlook, or some distinctive marketing idea can increase your clientele to a great deal. As soon as you start thinking big, you will find new innovations coming into your mind. New idea is a product of free mind; you can never embark upon any bright business idea if you keep thinking on same old lines.

Thinking big & Investment:

Negative thoughts often drag people into saving mode rather than investing, thus depriving them of all the profits that might have come their way from that investment. By thinking positively, you will be able to foresee the opportunities and obstacles lying ahead. You can plan to tackle the upcoming problems and invest more into opportunities.

Thinking big is thinking global instead of local. It’s like painting a picture on a bigger canvas. It protects you from unconstructive and limited style of thinking which has been the biggest obstacle of your way to prosperity. By changing your thought’s pattern you can change your business fate in no time.

Rate of Exchange explained for Import & Export Business

If your export business is performing well in domestic market for some time, you should be thinking of expanding it to the international market. Not only it can provide you with more profits but selling more units will also help in bringing down the cost per unit. Reaching out to global markets can be your way to prosperity which you have been dreaming for. But before you expand your business to outside markets, you must understand that domestic trade is quite simple when compared to international trade, which brings many new factors into play. Exchange rate is probably the most important one, you must understand what is it and how it can disturb your profits before you go through the pricing process. Let’s start with a basic definition.

Exchange rate:

All major countries have their own currencies. When you are selling to these countries, your sellers will be willing to pay in their own currency, while you can demand for a payment in your own currency. The buyer must then go to his bank and have his currency converted. This conversion will be done at foreign exchange rate. Rate of exchange is the value or price of one currency in terms of another currency. Rate of exchange is also a very important factor of the economy, having an impact on country’s overall imports & exports.

Forms of exchange rate:

Two methods are used to determine foreign exchange rate.

i) Floating Exchange rate
ii) Fixed Exchange rate


Floating (or flexible exchange rate), the one widely used in most parts of the world; let the markets decide by means of demand & supply, at which rate the local currency will be converted into other currencies. This type of exchange rate is often fluctuating, and the exporters need to be secure that some dramatic change will not shrink their profits to an undesirable level. Forward exchange rate (estimated exchange rates for some future supply) should be carefully calculated when pricing. Normally exporters come up with a cushion to secure their position in case of sudden change in exchange rate. Fixed exchange rates are decided by regulatory authorities to achieve their economic goals.

Providing the lowest cost possible is vital in international trade, so you cannot shift the whole burden on buyers. Thus, it is necessary that you observe your target market carefully, past fluctuations in its exchange rate and economic stability before you finally decide on prices of your products and services.

Questions to ask before you pick out your dropshipper

Dropshipping is what most people are looking at, when starting an online business. Because of its low cost – low risk features, it is indeed a safe bet for beginners. In order to get started, you need two things,

a) Internet Marketing Skills
b) A Genuine Dropshipper

If you are planning to go for dropshipping business, we can safely assume that you have got the right skills needed for online marketing. That leaves us with second requisite i.e. a genuine dropshipper. Good thing is that a simple search at Google will fetch you hundreds of results for your desired product’s dropshippers, and the bad news is that most (if not all) of them will turn out to be scammers and frauds. High demand for dropshipping suppliers has attracted the imposters into this area and many new comers are trapped right away. However, if you are reading this article, you will hopefully be able to differentiate between genuine dropshippers and scammers. Next time when you search for a dropshipper, be sure to check out on these things before you pick one.

Business age:
A real supplier will be able to provide its business history and experience. Someone who is in business for many years is less likely to be a fraud. Be cautious of those having no past experience of wholesale or dropshipping business, they may find out in the middle that the profits are not sufficient and would be looking to quit suddenly, leaving you in dismay.

Try the product yourself:
If possible, place a small order with that dropshipper for yourself. Don’t ask for a sample, because the fake one can easily trick you by presenting a sample of high quality. By purchasing yourself you can determine the quality of product they deliver to their customers.

Business location:
Try to find a dropshipper who operates from some area near your targeted market. This will help in keeping the shipping cost under check; otherwise shipping cost will eat up your profit margin, or you will not be able to offer competitive price to your customers.

Product Range:
Ask for their complete product range. This will give you an idea of business size, plus you would be able to offer your customer a wide range of products without having a need of dealing with separate dropshippers for every product.

Nature of business:
Most genuine dropshippers are mainly wholesale suppliers or manufacturers. This is the reason why you can get the products on factory rates and sell them online for huge profits. If you are dealing with some middle man pretending to be a dropshipper, you will lose a part of your profit to him. He can just forward the order to original supplier and run away with your income without doing anything.

Do your own research:
Don’t just rely on the information provided by the dropshippers. Do some research on your own. Try to find some of their clients and ask if they are satisfied. As stated earlier, purchase something for yourself to confirm the quality and time they take in shipment. Compare the prices with other suppliers as well as retail prices.

You need to be patient and spend plenty of time in research before initiating your business. Still, if you are eager to start immediately, getting help from www.wholesalepages.co.uk and www.aidandtrade.com can be a good idea. Dropshipping business can be a stroke of luck for beginners; but one needs to be careful when selecting a dropshipper.

Conducting Market Research for your Drop shipping Business

Market research is often the most neglected part of dropshipping business. Business research provides you with the facts and figures you need when making those all important decisions. Your perception that some product is in high demand can be a possible cause of disaster for the business. Before you invest your money and time into some dropshipping business, it is worth investing some of that into market research. Having a concrete base of well researched figures is always better than starting on some false conception. Here’s how you can conduct a short and simple research for your dropshipping business.

Collecting data:

Usually, the basic research for dropshipping business is not that difficult. Data is readily available and you can easily assess the demand by observing the most researched keyword trends at search engines. Now it’s much easier to know where your customers are located, their age group and what exactly do they need?

Data collection can be tough for entrepreneurs who are looking to sell some product not really tried before on internet, you can’t really decide on what kind of reception will it receive from online shoppers. However, you can still find out a lot of data to help in your business planning.

Analysis:

Once you have gone through the data collection, now is the time to do some mind work. Free flow of information has made the research part easier; still you have to analyze and draw conclusions on your own. Keep in mind your goals and objectives and derive useful information out of this data. You can’t get the answers straight away. Start from arranging raw data in a clear and concise manner, mark out the variables which you can control and those which are uncontrollable; do your calculations, evaluate the risks involved and write down the conclusions in detail. Try to make these conclusions as unambiguous as possible.



Instructions for Dropshipping Businesses:

One can safely assume that you are a small business with a smaller budget if you are conducting research for your dropshipping business. Obviously low cost is the reason you have opted for this business model, so don’t spend heavily on your research work. There’s no need to hire some research specialist, just make use of freely available information on internet. Don’t involve yourself into complex research methods. As you are searching for information on internet, you need to be very careful about source of information and its validity.

No matter how attractive a business may look to you, don’t get started without checking on facts. Hasty decision making or flaws in research work can give way to business failures. Good research and thoughtful analysis will always payoff. Moreover, you can apply the information you’ve collected in your marketing strategy for even better results.