Evaluating business ideas before you put in your resources

All business ideas have something in common, all of them sounds great when they first come to your mind. It’s only after you start poring over these ideas, the loopholes start to appear and sometimes these ideas are rejected right away, others are postponed and only few of them gets “a go ahead”. So far so good, but at times trying these ideas (and eventually failing) means a huge loss in terms of finances or other resources. Sometimes, it just happens despite careful evaluation and pre-planning but most of the times it is a result of slipshod planning and little or no assessment. Given, that it doesn’t take anything but some time to carefully evaluate a business idea, it is a must to scrutinize an idea before you invest, no matter how eager you are to give it a go.

Idea evaluation should always be carried out by more than one person (especially if the person is also the originator of that idea). If it is an expansion idea, the head of all departments should come together and discuss. If it is an idea about starting a new business, you should contact the experienced persons in your friend and families and ask for their opinion. Ask others to come up with constructive criticism and write down all plus and minuses, don’t get too bogged down if you get negative opinions from most of your friends. Just compare pros against the cons and decide if the idea is worth giving a try or not.

Ideally the product or service in question must have some unique features; if the product is not unique then you must make sure that the demand is there. If the demand is not there and the product or service has no competitive advantage to boost, it will most probably be a waste of resources to launch this product. Make estimated figures of the start up cost and the cost of running the business and see if the idea is profitable or not, don’t start some business for the sake of it. There are many aspects to peruse, for example the size of market, barriers of entry, exit plan (yes every business plan must have one), profitability, target market, pricing, etc. Also, you must do a test run before fully launching your product or service to see the actual demand, doing this test run will also give you an idea about your personal capacity and the possible barriers.

Source:
Wholesale Suppliers Directory

Brand Name and Celebrity Image to promote business

Modern Marketing needs more than just developing a product, pricing it attractively and making it accessible in splendor shopping malls. Now a day’s, marketing is one step ahead than it was earlier. It needs to communicate with common people, address their inner fantasy world and attempt to inform consumers that your product (brand) is their ultimate choice. Many companies use known or unknown people to convey their message but how a message is delivered has a greater impact on consumers than the Brand name itself. Messages delivered by media icons or popular sources mostly achieve higher attention and recall that is why advertisers often use celebrities as their brand representative or spokespeople.

Brands are considered to have personalities and identified the characteristics like sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, ruggedness and zealous and consumers are likely to choose brands whose personalities match their own. So the choice of celebrity is critical that who is going to represent which specific brand. The celebrity must have high recognition, extremely positive high profile, immense likeability and high appropriateness to the product. For example, any sports personality has high recognition but due to involvement in drugs and rude behavior they have negative affect among youth and other groups. Similarly, many media images like Brad Pitt, Sindey Crafford, Britney Spears, Tom Cruise, Amir Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Brett Lee and Ronaldino are successfully endorsing a large number of products because they have extremely high positive rankings in recognition and likeability.

Athletes and Sports Personalities usually endorse sporty apparels, shoes, blazers, sport products and sports companies, health and energy drinks. Media icons represent brands that are sophisticated, mild, and create fantasy like designer dresses, watches, cosmetics and fragrances. The known personalities (Celebrities) do not always cast a successful promotion of a specific brand to position in public mind. For example, if someone has a high liking towards a personality but not towards that brand to which he is endorsing, a two way effect can occur, either, the consumer will end up liking that celebrity a bit less or start liking that brand a bit more. But if that person will see his favorite celebrity continuously attached in praising other dislike brands, he or she will eventually develop a negative image of the celebrity and maintains the negative attitudes towards the brand.

According to an expert, a number of companies also use a specific personality to overcome the crisis if their brand faces at some point in time. Because, celebrities have an assuring personalities and they can give a positive reputation to that tangible product.

Source:
UK Wholesale Suppliers

Do you need a Sales Compensation Plan?

Sales Compensation Plan, or in simple words “sales commission plan” is a must to attract and motivate a sales force that delivers. In the absence of a sound Sales Compensation Plan (or in case of poor planning), you’ll keep loosing your sales reps (and eventually your sales) on regular basis. Apart from the motivating factor, it also helps in effective HR management, assisting you in carrying out duties like promotions, downsizing and recruitment. It won’t be an exaggeration if we state that the sales-force works as the engine of a business, by the same token sales commissions can be deemed as the fuel that runs this engine. Good commission means good fuel and good fuel means a more strong and effective engine.

Remember, products are more or less the same; and most of the times it’s the sales representative who can make a difference.

How to devise a practical Sales Compensation Plan:

As it is the case with most management decisions, you’re ought to be fully aware of goals and available resources for your business. As a general rule, sales compensation plan is the combination of basic salaries and sales incentives. Basic salaries are fixed wages that the sales people are going to get every month, irrespective of the number of sales they make. Whereas incentives are sales based commissions and you can add further bonuses on reaching some monthly or quarterly targets. While doing the planning, you must be able to come up with the answers to the questions like what percentage of total sales could you disburse as commissions? Or what’ll be the better option, giving out commission on each sale or when they reach some specific target?

A well planned incentive strategy will go a long way towards making your business a success; on the contrary an insincere plan may cause the collapse in no time. There’s no single structure for a good compensation plan, it differs with the type of business, product, industry, and the job market. Sometimes you must offer good basic salary; sometimes just good incentive package will do the trick. However, many businesses just rely on offering a hefty commission and no base salary; such compensation plan can be counter productive as no sales person will take the job seriously, moreover you won’t be able to execute any kind of control over your workforce, let alone holding anybody accountable. Therefore, you must take everything into consideration before finalizing a compensation plan.

Source:
Wholesale Suppliers
UK Wholesale

Consumer's income and its implications on your marketing plans

Marketing plan is not just a yearly ritual that managers should perform, so as to give an impression of being proficient. If truth be told, a sound marketing plan plays a pivotal role in the success or failure of any product (or product line). Along with many other aspects, a core function of marketing plan is to look at the marketing environment and how it will affect the product in question. Marketing plan comprised of (but is not limited to) taking into consideration the overall situation of the market and economy, consumers, competition, upcoming trends and consumer behavior. Another part of marketing plan is customer segmentation based on different preferences, age, demographics or social class.

The most influential factor in consumer’s purchase pattern is of course, their income. Income plays an important role in distinguishing social class and consumer behaviors. A significant shift in consumer's income can invariably change the way they look and decide about purchasing some specific product. When the income increases, normally the quality of the product and the satisfaction they are getting out of this purchase becomes more important, on the other hand when it goes down, the cost may become the most decisive factor. Consumer’s income is also said to effect the hedonic consumption.

There are other factors for sure; however a shift in income can outweigh many of them. Therefore, when you are in the initial stages of making marketing plan, keep in mind the income level and social class of your targeted customers, and build up your plan around it. You can conduct your own research, to get an idea of the average income of your targeted customers; or you can also rely on secondary resources if you are a small business.

The information will help you in determining future demand for the product, consequently helping you in setting prices for your products. Also, when you are about to launch a new product (or an old product in a new market); you must consider the personal income of your targeted customers. For the reason that they are less likely to spend on trying a new product and experimenting when their income is decreasing, no matter how good the product is, except for when someone comes up with an alternate product or service which is cheaper than the existing one (that is why the recession is the best time for small businesses to get a jump start by providing low cost alternatives to the consumers caught in financial crisis).

Source:
Mobile Phones Wholesale Suppliers
China Wholesale Suppliers, Distributors, Dropshippers & Manufacturers

An overview of Direct Selling as a marketing option

If you are living in some big town, chances are that you must have been visited occasionally by those sales representatives or distributors who come at your doorstep with some products, trying to convince you into purchasing that particular item by stating numerous benefits and offering a price lower than the market rates. That’s called direct selling, and it has been used as a selling medium for over a decade. Direct selling is not limited to distributors going door to door and selling products, it can also take place via internet or home parties. Generally, these sellers are not regular employees of the company; they are commission agents, working for commissions that they can earn in proportion to the number of sales they make. Bear in mind, direct selling is not the same as direct marketing.

Advantages of Direct Selling:
Direct selling is a growing phenomenon, especially in the developed countries. Now, why’d someone prefer direct selling over the conventional methods that have been practiced for years? First, direct selling is not new to begin with. New companies have been using this tactic for introducing and selling their products to the customers, at their homes or offices. For manufacturers, it provides a relatively inexpensive way to launch the product (all you need to do is to hire some commission agents). These sales people are often self-employed and quite good in this trait. You can outsource this task to small companies with trained sales staff who are good at convincing people. Direct selling is also advantageous for sales people, given it doesn’t need any specific education or experience. Anybody can try his/her luck if one is unemployed (being unemployed is not some prerequisite though). It can turn out to be a very rewarding career in case you succeed.

Disadvantages of Direct Selling:
Direct selling is not practicable if you are looking for mass distribution, large businesses cannot rely solely on direct selling in general. Direct selling cannot completely take over the conventional means of selling, because of the nature of this medium (which requires going door to door). Another disadvantage is the credibility factor, because this method is also employed by some fake or low quality manufacturers, some people might be suspicious of the people insistently trying to sell a product, especially if they are not familiar with the product. Another disadvantage is the possibility of half-hearted effort on part of sales people. For the reason that they are not regular employees, you cannot exert sufficient control over the sales staff.

About the Author
William King is the director of England Wholesale Suppliers & Distributors , Wholesale Trade Suppliers, Distributors & Manufacturers and Australian Wholesalers Directory . He has 18 years of experience in the marketing and trading industries and has been helping retailers and startups with their product sourcing, promotion, marketing and supply chain requirements.

Is franchising the right business plan for you?

Talk of the franchising business and the first thing that comes to your mind is all those fast food chains scattered everywhere in your town. However, that’s not the only industry that uses franchising to enhance the availability and distribution of their products, you will find similar setups in fashion and garments, IT services, Salons, education sector, etc. Franchising is a type of collaboration between franchisor and franchisee, where franchisee gets the name, product (already successful or some newly launched product with huge prospects), techniques and training while the franchisor gets the opportunity to quickly grow as a brand throughout the cities or even nationwide. Franchising is quite a unique business model for both parties, being a franchisee; you invest the capital however you are not really free to run the business in your own way, whereas being a franchisor you make all the decisions about the product or prices, still you don’t really own the business.

Franchising as a Business opportunity:

At first glance, franchising looks like an ideal business opportunity if you have got the money and basic business management skills. You can instantly get a hot running product, so you don’t need to bother about the manufacturing or marketing stuff. You can also benefit from the experience and expertise of franchiser. In short, it is a ready-made business, all you need to do is to invest some capital and select an appropriate spot for franchise, and you are all set for a jump start. You don’t need to arrange for raw materials, set up manufacturing plants or go around spending big amounts on marketing, as the franchiser will be taking care of these aspects.

However, no business opportunity comes without negative aspects and there are some down sides in franchising business as well. First, you've got little or no control over the proceedings of the business. Most of the times, you have no say into the decisions of actual company or product, you are obliged to operate under the boundaries set by the franchiser, and at times it can get a little annoying.

Therefore, when you are looking to start a franchise, you must try to get in touch with other franchisees dealing with the same franchiser and ask about their experience so far. Also, be mindful when choosing location of the franchise as it is going to play an important role in your initial success or failure.

Source:
Wholesale Suppliers

How important are business surveys and customers feedback

How do we differentiate between serious and not-so-serious businesses? An easy way to make this distinction is to take a look at how eager they are to get the feedback from their customers? More often than not, customer feedback is free but when we look at its value, it’s priceless. Making a product and then vehemently trying to convince customers that this is the product they need, is nothing more than a shot in the dark that mostly misses the target. A much better and more practical approach is to ask customers what they want and then make it available to them. Customers can give you much better advice than any of those high priced consultants, and customer surveys and feedback is the only way to get this information.

Instead of welcoming feedback, some businesses are seen trying to discourage any kind of feedback, probably because they are sure that there's going to be nothing but complains. Not knowing, how imperative these complain can be to their long term success. Don’t think of the complaining customers as unappreciative souls who’ve got nothing better to do but to criticize your product or services, rather take them as courteous friends who were kind enough to take some time out and guide you on how to make improvements to your products. They could’ve just dump your products like others, leaving you in dark as to where did you go wrong? Irrespective of the feedback being good or bad, it is something that must be encouraged, for it will provide you with the opinion of those, who matter the most (i.e. consumers).

Coming to the question of what’s the best way to get customer feedback? It depends on the type of your business and as well as your customers. If your customers are internet savvy, then a quick survey form at your website or some other social networking website is an excellent bet. Encourage suggestions and request them to come up with honest reviews of your product, when they do, don’t forget to acknowledge their contributions.

Whatever method you choose for acquiring customer’s feedback, make sure that all those suggestions and feedback is not going in vain. Try your best to take appropriate steps according to the feedback; the customers must not get the impression that they are wasting their time for nothing. Instant reaction on customers complains and suggestions will make them feel privileged, ultimately resulting in a more loyal customer base.

Source:
Wholesale

Starting your own export business, The process explained

Whenever you decide to start something big, a little time spent on planning in the beginning will save you from lots of thinking sessions (filled with frustration, panic and disappointments) later on. You can make giant looking tasks a lot easier by dividing them in small, practical step-by-step procedures. Starting an export business is not a walk in the park, and when you decide to get into this business, you have to make quite a number of arrangements such as deciding your product, choosing shipment mode, arranging finance and much more.

Initial Stage:

Select your product

Determine potential buyers

Market research

Exporting method

Comprehensive business plan

First you have to select the product; in case you are not already involved in producing or exporting some product locally (even then you may need to improve its quality and features for international export). After choosing the product, you can now assess the targeted customers. Do some research on the market and analyze it carefully. Next step is to decide upon the exporting method. Remember, all of these decisions and selections should be based on some facts and figures, and not mere assumptions. As stated earlier, time spent in planning & research will save you from possible loss and failures in the future. You need to be watchful, alert and patient in the start, so that you don’t fall in hands of frauds and scams. 

Middle Stage:

Determine Price

Payment terms & conditions

Terms and conditions for delivery and shipment issues

Shipping mode

After you are done with initial research and planning work, you now have a plan in your hands. You know your potential customers by now. Next step is to determine prices, while doing this, keep all costs and expenses in mind, don’t try to take too much risk by offering extra ordinary low prices. Payment terms and the mode of payment is also an important decision, so is the selection of shipment mode you are going to use.

Final Stage:

Financing

Production/Manufacturing

Packaging

Shipment

Collection of payment through your bank or some payment processor

After all the planning and marketing, you will start receiving orders from interested customers. At this point, you need to have sufficient funds in hands to manufacture or arrange the products you are looking to export. Once you have got the funds, and you are done with the production work, you need to go through packaging and documentation work before making a shipment to the customers.

This is the basic framework for starting an export business, which will help you in starting smoothly and gradually growing.

Role of distributors & agents in exporting business

As a manufacturer or exporter who is willing to step into some foreign market, you should better be starting in a safe and calculated manner. One relatively safe and secure method is to start with indirect exports and see the response. There are many ways to start indirect exports, but the most widely used method is to hire the services of commission agents or get into a contract with some distributor. Although, their roles may sound a bit similar, both of them differ at some points. Let’s look into the role of these two in detail.

Agents:

Also known as commission agents, they are responsible for selling your products in foreign market. They are experienced campaigners and quite familiar with the market you are going to target. They know the customers and their needs. However, the thing to remember is that they are solely responsible for selling your products. They do not buy from you directly; neither do they involve themselves in delivery or after sale services in most cases. Their source of earning is the fixed commission on every sale (or gross sales, they will make for you).

Commission agents must be able to meet following requirements before you hire their services.

Should be having loads of experience

Check to see if the agent also deals in some of your competitive products

Past record of sales and the stats for business they have provided to other exporters in the past

How much of the market that agent can cover on his/her own and to what extent

Do they sell to end users or businesses?


Distributors:

Unlike commission agents, distributors normally purchase the product from you (at low rates) and then sell it in the market, all the time maintaining some inventory with them. Given, they also provide after sale services, they are more suited if your product needs some installation work or requires after sale services.

Distributors should be financially stable

They must be good in inventory stocking and warehouse management

Should be having technical information about the product (train them if needed)

Should be ready to work at price margins you are willing to offer

Be careful when going into a contract and think over the clauses many times before signing

Distributor should be capable of running or managing the advertising campaign if needed





Now, whether you should go for agents or distributors? The answer to this question will depend on your product and preferences.