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Stephen Hill helps to promote a number of websites including:
cheap calls
stuttering treatment
lower phone charges
The topic of sleep is so vast and yet so little seems to be known about this great subject which is a daily part of our everyday lives. There are many interesting facts about sleep which you may not know about yet knowing these facts can immensely enhance your daily sleep.
The more you sleep the more energetic you feel
This couldn?t be further from the truth as you don?t need ten or eight hours of sleep in order to feel energetic and in fact contrary to standard beliefs, you only require five to six hours of sleep. Astonishing as it may sound, less sleep means you can perform better. In fact some of the world?s greatest CEO?s, entrepreneurs and scientists sleep only four hours a day and wake up full of energy and ready for yet another challenging day of work.
Do these people have a secret? Not really, here is another crazy fact about sleep. The more you sleep the more tired you feel. You may or may not have heard about this but in case you didn?t know, over sleeping makes you lazy. This is pure common sense that if you sit in front of the TV all day doing nothing you?re going to become a lazy couch potato. Sleep is the same thing if you over do it as over time, you will become lazier and lazier. ?Use it or lose it?, have you heard that statement before?
Less sleep means you can do more. What is the secret to the success for some of the world?s top performing minds? It may surprise you, but sleeping less means they gain extra hours per day instead of losing them. Imagine this scenario. You normally sleep nine hours a day. Deduct that from twenty four and you got fifteen hours to achieve your set goals for that day. Now consider someone who sleeps only four hours a day, they have an extra five hours to go after their goals. Here?s the part where it gets better, now calculate that for ten years, and see how many hours the second person would have had extra in comparison to the first. You will be shocked!
Here is another great fact about sleep. One third of your entire life is spent on sleep! How can so much time possibly be wasted. If every human being on this planet just cut down on one hour of sleep and devoted that one hour to work can you imagine how much more technologically advanced we would be today. Add up the man hours.
If you are someone who over sleeps, then try getting up early every morning and join the five O?clock club to see how this will affect your life. Believe me the results will leave you amazed at what you have achieved in that first single month in comparison to your previous year.
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Jason Rickard is the owner of Your Favourite Shop - Offering White Noise and Relaxation CDs - Visit Hapa Health for more articles
One of the most frequently experienced medical conditions is the very common ?Dizziness?. However not many people know that there are several degrees to this which is determined by the level of dizziness experienced by the patient. There are four main categories of dizziness and the main and most regularly reported type is vertigo. Five in every ten cases of dizziness reported fall into this category of vertigo. The other three types include, near-syncope, dysequilibrium, and psychophysiologic.
The focus here is on the most common of the four; vertigo. Vertigo is caused by calcium carbonate particles called otoliths which are put out of place into the semicircular canals of the inner ear. Other hearing defects such as tinnitus are also known as a common way leading to vertigo.
The most familiar of symptoms for vertigo is headaches, backaches, dizziness, imbalance in some cases and falling in older patients and those with neurological disorders. These exact same symptoms are also very common amongst central nervous system disorders and cardiovascular diseases, therefore caution should be taken when trying to distinguish between one from the other. Usually what doctors do is refer to a patient?s medical history before coming up with a conclusion.
There are several ways by which one can treat vertigo. One of the best and most common and highly recommended is the patient performs exercises known as modified Epley procedure. Some medications are also present to help with the treatment of vertigo and the nausea which usually follows. Medications are typically various combinations of acetylcholine, dopamine, and histamine receptor antagonism, however not all medications are suitable for vertigo as there are different levels.
The problem with vertigo is that most people do not seem to be aware of it and ignore it. This is not a condition that should be ignored and if you suspect of a different than normal dizziness, then you should report this to your doctor. Just make sure you can know the difference between vertigo and non vertigo. Vertigo can be described as a feeling of revolving movement of yourself and the environment. Non vertigo includes unsteadiness, motion sickness, unevenness, suspended, or an oriented consciousness. This should be helpful to a doctor and get ready to describe how you feel without using the word dizzy.
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Jason Rickard is the owner of Your Favourite Shop - Offering White Noise and Relaxation CDs - Visit Hapa Health for more articles
Private Public Partnerships are popular as a means of building infrastructure around the world. Governments globally have been afraid of sending budgets into deficit or borrowing to pay for capital works and are seeking partnerships with private equity to fund a growing infrastructure gap.
Private Public Partnerships, or PPPs to those in the know or P3s to those even further in the know, are a topic of great interest to lovers of acronyms. Several different types exist which transfer different levels of risk to the private sector.
Traditional design and construction (TDC) is where private companies bid for a contract to design and construct an asset. A government controls the design and building process through the contract and owns the final asset.
Operation and maintenance contract (O&M) is where the operation of a government asset is carried out by a private company under contract. A government controls the operation of the asset by contract and continues to own the asset.
Lease, develop and operate (LDO) is where a private company leases a government asset and agrees under contract to invest in the asset, recovering the investment and a return on the investment in charges for use of the asset. A government controls the asset by way of contract and continues to own the asset.
Build, own and maintain (BOM) is where a private company builds and maintains an asset and a government leases the asset and operates it with public sector staff. A government does not own the asset and controls its operation by use of its staff, processes and policies.
Build, own, operate and transfer (BOOT) is where a private company finances, builds, operates and owns an asset for a set period after which the asset is transferred to government. A government eventually owns the asset and controls the asset through a contract.
Build, own and operate (BOO) is where a private company finances, builds, operates and owns an asset in perpetuity. A government controls the asset through regulation.
PPPs at the beginning of the above list have been in operation for over one hundred years and have been a success or failure dependent on the individuals involved in negotiating the contracts.
For the latter half of the list where the risk is transferred, in theory, mainly to the private sector, it is too early to tell whether they have been successful. Many of these contracts run for thirty years and more.
Whilst criteria such as financial returns are easily measured the impact of the current models of PPPs on the ability of governments to provide adequate infrastructure in twenty, thirty or forty years is less clear.
What is clear, however, is that for a government to enter into a programme of PPPs a high degree of partnering competency is required.
Partnering competencies include negotiation skills, risk management, procurement, contract management, project management, specification writing, business case writing and options appraisal.
Many of these competencies are not developed to the extent required by simply completing a three or five year degree, but from years of experience in commercial business.
At the leadership levels in the public sector, competence in collaboration, legal and regulatory processes, change management, risk strategy development and project programme management are some of the skills required to enter into PPPs.
Any public sector thinking of developing PPPs must acquire or develop the skills to partner and ensure that the risks of infrastructure investments are shared appropriately with private companies chosen as partners.
Acquiring and developing the skills required is not a simple task. For instance, conducting a thorough skills audit of existing personnel to determine the competence gap requires a high level of skill in its own right.
Solving the problem of skills shortfall by using consultants is not a silver bullet either. Consultants often use their ’standard’ approach which is good for their efficiency and some transfer of better practices, but risks the provision of inappropriate analysis and solutions due to a lack of understanding of local norms and customs.
Developing internal skills by attachments with other public sector entities with experience in PPPs or even private companies involved in PPPs is one way of acquiring enough skills to enable consultants to be used for advice and to have their advice challenged against the background of local norms.
A further opportunity for improving partnership skills lies in the public sector itself. Most public sectors are organised in and operate in silos resulting in duplication of resources and a consequent reduction in effectiveness and efficiency.
Small projects developed to reduce overlap in the public sector and provide a better return on existing assets and reducing recurring expenses will challenge the existing set of partnering skills.
The time to develop partnering skills in the public service is now and the place to start is at home.
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Kevin Dwyer is Director of Change Factory. Change Factory helps organisations who do do not like their business outcomes to get better outcomes by changing people’s behaviour. Businesses we help have greater clarity of purpose and ability to achieve their desired business outcomes. To learn more visit http://www.changefactory.com.au or email kevin.dwyer@changefactory.com.au
?2006 Change Factory
To see more articles visit http://www.changefactory.com.au
There is so much going on about acne that sometimes you don?t really know what to believe. The biggest problem is that left with no one solution you get confused and try several solutions at one time. Then to your dismay none of the solutions work. To treat acne you have got to be aware of what?s causing it, what is making it worse, and what makes it better. With the right knowledge at hand, you will know what it is that is causing the acne, so you automatically avoid it. This knowledge can give you a head start in your pursuit to eliminating acne.
First and foremost, you must change your sleeping conditions. I do not mean you pursue a new style of sleeping but instead simply the environment on which you sleep has to be clear of bacteria. If you think about it for a moment you will realize the one thing that most puts you at risk during sleep is your pillow. Can you imagine how much bacteria is on your pillow cover? Every time you go to sleep you expose your facial skin to your pillow cover and bacteria are exchanged from the pillow cover to your face and from your face to the pillow cover. Knowing this, you should never sleep using the same pillow cover twice. Change it everyday. As simple as it may seem, this is one of the main places you acquire acne. Ever wondered why even after applying all the prescribed creams you still wake up to find a new pimple in the morning? Now you know why. By the way this goes the same with your towel.
Acne as harmless as it may seem, is actually very contagious. Meaning if you rub it from one area onto another, it will grow in the new area. So at all times you must avoid touching and rubbing your face. This is not easy, believe me I know but this exercise can teach you self discipline. Even while you?re washing your face try to keep the rubbing to a minimum, you don?t want it moving from one place to another on your face.
Although highly controversial as to whether it is true or not, you should watch your diet closely. Some foods have been reported to increase acne activity and you should stay away from these types of food. This mainly includes junk food and deep fried fatty foods. Try to go vegetarian while you have acne yet you can still eat fish, but at all costs avoid any high fat foods.
When using a doctor prescribed medication or treatment including ointments, then by all means stick to it. Sometimes and very often, most acne balms dry out your skin, so try to visit the doctor on a regular basis. Never overdose as this will cause really adverse skin reactions and try just stick to the program. It usually takes anywhere from three to four weeks before you see any results so be patient and as mentioned before don?t over do it thinking it will get rid of the acne faster.
The above are a few very simple things most people overlook. If you can avoid what has been outlined above and do what was suggested, then your acne will decrease rapidly. Don?t try to rush the results, patience and persistence will eventually pay off with clear facial skin.
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Jason Rickard is the owner of Your Favourite Shop - Offering Self Help CDs - Visit Health Resources for more articles
When you primarily want to significantly and rapidly lose weight, experts and fitness gurus attest that yoga is not the exercise of fitness regime for you.
But is there any reason why yoga would not be highly recommended for weight loss?
Actually, it is a great and amusing fact that yoga and weight loss are estranged bed partners. It is because yoga also facilitate weight loss. When someone practice or do yoga, expect that there would be a corresponding weight loss that would follow suit.
Yoga truly is not the best and recommended exercise for weight reduction purposes, but it could greatly help. It is not to be compared to the widely popular calorie-burning and cardiovascular exercises.
However, yoga also facilitate for improved agility and strength in the large and core muscle groups of the body.
Doing yoga regularly and properly is said to be equivalent to running, walking, rollerblading, swimming and cycling.
Thus, when regularly done and practiced, yoga can also lead to a significant weight loss, to the advantage of the exerciser.
Here are some yoga exercises that are so simple and are aimed at helping any person eventually lose weight in the long run. Take note that great and proper execution of each of these simple exercises are vital to the success of the weight-losing yoga practice.
FROG STAND
1. Lowly squat. Place the hands on the below ground, resting the triceps on top of the kneecaps. Then, tip forward, and lift the feet from the ground and into position similar to a balanced frog stand. Keep the position for 30 seconds.
2. Extend a leg in back, keeping it diagonally relative to the floor, at the same time elongating the neck to maintain balance.
3. Straighten the elbows, lift the legs, tip forward, then try to press up slowly into a handstand.
These exercise strengthen the whole shoulder girdle. These also help build up core muscles and enhance the body?s overall stamina.
BRIDGE
1. Lie down, faceup on the floor and then put the knees up, then feet flat and grasp ankles using the hand, drawing the heels close to the butt. Inhale, thrust the belly button up. Release the hands. Put palms up, then dig the thumbs into the tailbone and push the lumbar spine further up.
2. Move the hands palms-down near or beside each ear. Press up into a U shape inverted position.
The exercise will improve posture through strengthening the muscles along the spine. This would be very beneficial since people spend more than 90 percent of daily daytime existence in a slight and forward fold.
Do the exercises regularly or whenever you have the time to properly and orderly execute them and see the weigh loss or the difference in only just a span of a few days.
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Jeanette Pollock is a regular article contributor on yoga and stress management. To learn more about yoga, please visit her website at http://www.justyogabasics.com
10/01/2005: Finally got board approval for the business plan for 2005. We have some severe stretch targets this year. On top of my mistake in taking the risk of introducing the new product line, it has been a tough sell for us to convince the board we know what we are doing. I guess I can’t blame them.
15/02/2005: The management meeting today started out poorly. We did not seem to be making much progress on our projects and I was concerned about it impacting our ability to meet our year end targets. I voiced my concerns and asked for suggestions for getting better traction on our projects. There were a number of good ideas; we settled on getting a facilitator to challenge our prioritisation and resource allocation process.
28/02/2005: A great day all round, I think. We realised that we were actually trying to do too much at once and stretching our resources too thin. We have agreed to delay some projects which are not going to directly deliver on this year’s targets.
24/04/2005: Internal audit delivered their report today. We were all stunned to find out that our process for bank reconciliation was open to fraud. We set up an emergency project team to deal with it. I asked the audit guys to stay on to help us develop the project plan.
26/05/2005: The board were not happy with the internal audit report today. I could only offer a ‘mea culpa’ on the adverse findings and then outline what we have done with audit helping to close the issue off. The board agreed to complete a formal risk management strategy to uncover and treat other risks we are not aware of.
30/06/2005: I was interviewed unprepared by the media today. I don’t know what they will make of it. I guess I won’t have long to find out.
01/07/2005: The press did a good number on my ramblings. The story does not look good for us as an organisation. I will make sure I complete that Handling the Media training. I don’t want to be unprepared and unable to handle an interview again.
05/07/2005: Began our planning for 2006 with a brainstorming session today. The guys are going away to flesh out a plus or minus 30% cost for the projects we dreamt up.
11/07/2005: The results at half year are still not what we need. The potential is that we will not meet our year end targets. The problem appears to be in marketing in that we are not getting enough qualified leads and those we are getting are not spending as much as planned.
I spoke to Tom, our marketing manager on how he felt about the results and marketing’s contribution. He is embarrassed and feels that he needs to develop an email campaigning system to pre-qualify leads before his guys visit them, but he does not have the budget to do it.
13/07/2005: We held an emergency management meeting today and carved out a budget for Tom’s email marketing system to pre-qualify leads. Tom knows that his reputation is on the line as the other guys had to give up some of their budget for this year. Tom says he can have it operating in two weeks. That gives his team four months to turn the marketing effort around.
30/08/2005: My cousin’s wife applied to join the company today. My cousin wanted me to help her out. I told him that I could not help and she would have to go through the application process like everyone else.
20/09/2005: Looks like Tom’s email marketing programme may be working. We asked if he needed more help. He thinks he is OK with what he has got. I made it clear that his reputation is on the line and that if he needs help he must say so.
We had a good planning session today. Some of the ideas we had were not feasible when we saw the cost benefit analysis. But we seem to be on track to delivering a plan that will work.
13/10/2005: Saw a fantastic system today. The vendors say it will make all of our data available online in real time. It is probably a good idea but it will have to wait for a review next year.
27/11/2005: The board gave us some tough top down targets today. I protested, but we have to live with the hand we are being dealt.
05/12/2005: It looks like we will not reach this year’s targets, but we will only be 2% off. With the start we had during the year it has been a good effort and the result was not great but OK. I’ll take the flack with the board; the team does not need to be distracted. I think Tom’s new system will save us next year.
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Kevin Dwyer is Director of Change Factory. Change Factory helps organisations who do do not like their business outcomes to get better outcomes by changing people’s behaviour. Businesses we help have greater clarity of purpose and ability to achieve their desired business outcomes. To learn more visit http://www.changefactory.com.au or email kevin.dwyer@changefactory.com.au
?2006 Change Factory
To see more articles visit http://www.changefactory.com.au
OK, so you?ve heard that small fortunes can be earned from Internet Marketing and that you too can take part in the revolution. In this series of articles I am going to show you how you can succeed. In the previous article I stressed the importance of research and that most important focus is on satisfying customer need. In this article I?ll discuss techniques you can you use to identify niche market needs, assess their profitability and find products to satisfy them.
Finding Your Customer Niche
Lets?s look at an example of finding a customer niche. At this stage we are not worried yet as to whether it may be profitable or even if there are products available that you can sell to that niche. Let?s assume for a moment that you have conducted your initial research or purely for this example that you have a specialised interest yourself. In this example we?ll assume your interest is wine making. You can get a good idea of the interest in this topic by visiting Yahoo Search Marketing (http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/rc/srch/) and using the Keyword Selector Tool. It is is not possible to demonstrate it here in this article but you will find that the headline keyword of ?wine? receives over 140,000 searches / month and that ?wine making? receives over 15,000 searches so plenty of people share your interest! The Keyword Selector Tool also shows many other related keyword phrases that receive 10,000?s of searches / month.
If you dig down the list you will find more targeted keywords and these potentially represent niche markets. In this case the keywords ?homemade wine? and ?home wine making? with just over 2,000 searches / month are good examples. But, I here you ask, surely you?re not suggesting I get into the Wine Import / Export business or open a store selling wine making kits. No, of course not but what about a book or guide or CD / DVD on Home Wine Making. That would represent a niche product for a niche market that you could potentially market as Affiliate Internet Marketer.
The above is given purely as an example of what represents a customer niche and the next stage is to research the availability and profitability of products or services that you can market.
Finding Your Niche Products
Having found your customer niche you next want to assess whether there are products you can market. Many of you will be familiar with Clickbank.com. This is essentially an Internet Marketing ?market place? where Merchants place their products and you as an Affiliate can select any that you want to promote and these are great places to start for the IM newcomer. All the products are vetted first, and you can select from a huge variety organised by category. You need to open an account and are given your own unique ID and link which you then use whenever you advertise the product. Clickbank will handle all transactions and periodically pay your commission. There are many other advertising networks out there as well as independent affiliate programs. All you need to do is sign up with each network, or independent affiliate program and you will be given your own unique link (url) that you can use to advertise. Each one will provide full details of the product and commission (%) you will receive and many provide direct marketing assistance (including ready made web sites you can use)
You can also do your own research simply by typing your chosen niche keyword into Google and finding what products are advertised , are any Affiliate programs available, how many are advertising, etc. This will also give you an indication of the profitability of your niche and the competition you will face. If there are no Affiliate programs available it may not be possible to make your niche profitable but nothing is impossible in IM. For example if whilst researching the niche ?home wine making? you were unable to find a suitable guide or book to promote, why not write one and promote your own product! I am not suggesting you ?run before you can walk? merely pointing out that the possibilities in IM are endless.
Assessing the Quality of Your Niche Products
The best way to assess any product you wish to promote is to buy it yourself. That way you can provide your own review of its benefits first hand but this could be costly if you are promoting multiple products or ultimately decide not to promote a product. You can though, see what others are saying. During your research in to forums and newsgroups, etc you may have come across products that people are raving about and these are just the type you want to be promoting. Also, look at what other affiliates are promoting and how many are promoting a particular product.
Conclusion
Your focus first should be on careful research to identify customer niches and their particular needs and then finding the right products to satisfy them.
My next article will look at how having found a particular niche or niches, you can go to successfully market them.
Good. Luck!
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PS. Are you pulling your hair out trying to master Adwords? I review the TOP Guides AND you can GRAB your FREE e-book ‘How To Find Hot Markets & Keywords’ here! - http://www.moneyreality.co.uk.
You can also see more articles in this series.
David Brown is a successful affiliate marketer who has learnt the hard way that THE key to being a success at Internet Marketing is perseverance.
?Your call is important to us. We will attend to you as soon as we can?. One wonders sometimes what is more important to call centres, the call or the customer. In most call centres, customers wait for a few minutes at the end of a telephone line for an answer from an individual who is governed by a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that has more to do with the efficiency of the call centre than satisfying the needs of the customer.
Call centres which fall into the trap of providing a cost focus on single calls tend to be driven by an operational focus over the strategic role in the business of the organisation. They tend to become a law unto themselves with few people in the leadership team taking an active and detailed interest in their role.
Call centres are put in place to improve customer experience and thereby develop increased repeat business for the organisation for which they are providing that service. Using technology to deliver better services at about one tenth the cost of delivering the same services across a counter means the case for developing a call centre in an organisation with a high level of transactions is usually very compelling.
Call centres therefore should have a strong strategic focus. Their focus should, in a commercial environment, be about customers, not calls. They should concern themselves with the retention, annual value, life time value, total numbers and profitability of customers.
In taking a customer view, organisations then would concern themselves in an operational sense with customer access, customer identification, customer issue identification, customer routing, consultant skills, data availability and escalation policy to ensure that customer’s issues are resolved first time.
The operational requirements of the number of calls, the average time for calls, consultant attendance, consultant turnover for example, need to be considered as part of the budgeting and reporting mechanism, not as the drivers of the call centres reason for being.
However, forgetting what they are there for, call centres can become mesmerised by the need for efficiency in dealing with a single call rather than effectively dealing with each customer. As a result, the overall efficiency in dealing with their entire customer base over a period such as a year is anything up to fifty percent less than it otherwise could be. Service levels, in the customer’s mind, are similarly anything up to eighty percent less than they could be.
An example of how concentration on call centre operational metrics increases costs and reduces customer service can be found in the number of repeat calls a call centre receives. From studies and personal experience, I know that most call centres that I consult with will have approximately thirty percent of calls being repeat calls. The reason for the majority of those repeat calls is that the customer did not have their issue resolved. The need that caused them to call in the first place was not satisfied.
Satisfying needs in the first place or in call centre jargon, achieving first time resolution, can reduce overall labour costs by thirty percent. From my experience achieving ten or twenty percent is quite achievable. The corollary is of course that users of the call centre’s services are more satisfied with the service provided thereby improving the perception of the organisation called. Happier customers and lower costs, which organisation would not want that?
One of the root causes for these repeat calls is when consultants feel so obliged to meet an average call handling time that has been set as a target. I once was calling my bank in Melbourne from London to enquire about why the bank had transferred money out of my account into the account of another person I did not know. After three minutes on the phone, not getting very far, I was told that I would have to hang up as the consultant had reached the limit of their time allotted to a phone call!
This was an extreme case. In my experience however, this pressure is felt at consultant level in most call centres, even as an unintended consequence of a well meant set of operational KPIs. The result is that customers do not get satisfaction and do make a repeat call, a more irate one!
With the growing presence of internal and external call centres in Fiji, an opportunity beckons to provide a better service and be more effective and efficient for it. To do so, call centres need to see themselves as being a strategic part of an organisation’s business, not just operational.
Call centres must not allow operational focus to obliterate strategic focus. Call centres must understand how they are the means to providing better value for an organisation’s customers, not just the end by which an organisation cuts costs.
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Kevin Dwyer is Director of Change Factory. Change Factory helps organisations who do do not like their business outcomes to get better outcomes by changing people’s behaviour. Businesses we help have greater clarity of purpose and ability to achieve their desired business outcomes. To learn more visit http://www.changefactory.com.au or email kevin.dwyer@changefactory.com.au
?2006 Change Factory
To see more articles visit http://www.changefactory.com.au
I have often talked about the skewed parenting skills of my father, who, without ever realizing it, was quite the entrepreneurial genius. Though he never dabbled in business and it certainly didn?t occur to me at the time, many of the lessons I learned from him about life can be put to practical use in your business today.
For example he would take me fishing and hang the dead worms on my hook and the lively wigglers on his. In business we call that, ?Getting the competitive edge.?
He would direct me to cast my line in waters that he knew were barren while he cast his line in waters teeming with fish. In business we call that, ?Knowing your market.?
He would turn to me every so often and say, ?Look, son, I?ve hooked another one! That makes eight for me in the last ten minutes. How many have you caught? None? Gee, that?s too bad.?
In business we call that, ?Creating a monopoly.?
There were times I recall sitting in that tiny boat with he and his big string of fish on one end and me and my empty string on the other, that I imagined myself picking up an oar and giving it a swing to see how far I could knock him out of the boat.
In business we call that, ?Customer satisfaction.?
So let?s look at a few of the lessons I learned from those fishing trips that pertain to how you should be doing business. First off, you may recall in the last column that I mentioned that the old man had surveyed every square inch of that lake and knew exactly where the fish were hiding.
In business we call that, ?Conducting market research,? and if your business is new or contemplating a move into new markets, failing to conduct market research could leave you sitting in the boat with no customers nibbling at your hook.
Why do market research? The most obvious answer is to verify that there really is a market for your product or service and to determine if the market will support your efforts. A market should be large, easy to reach, and have lots of disposable cash. A market should be hungry for and passionate about the product you are trying to sell. Otherwise you will find yourself trying to build a business that caters to a market of disinterested, broke people; like selling house plants to homeless people, not a good idea.
Many entrepreneurs make the mistake of giving consideration to their product first, without worrying about who will buy the product when it?s done. They come up with a great idea that they are sure the world will love without bothering to ask the world its opinion. They pour thousands of hours and tens of thousands of dollars into their great idea only to end up asking, ?Now who will buy my wonderful new widget? Hello? Anybody out there??
The old man taught me that you should find a pond full of hungry fish first, then come up with the bait to catch them. Remember, you succeed by giving customers what THEY want or need, not by trying to sell them what YOU think they want or need.
Identify a market first, develop the product second. Never put a dime into product creation until you are sure there is a market that will give you a dollar or more for every dime you spend. Never go on instinct and never trust your gut. More often than not you?ll find that the great idea you have churning in the pit of your stomach is just gas, and not the kind that will make you money.
Fortunately it has never been easier to conduct market research. Thanks to the Internet you can thoroughly research a market with a few keystrokes. Most industries have associations that publish statistics about their market. The government publishes enough industry data to choke a horse. You can use online directories and business research tools to gather data. You can also use search engines like Google and Overture (Yahoo) to search the web for market data and gather competitive intelligence. Visit forums and newsgroups to see what people in the industry are talking about. What problems are they complaining about? What needs do they have that are not being met? What itch do they have that you can scratch?
You should also research the competition in the market you are considering.
You can learn a great deal from your competitors, such as: what are the top product lines in the market, what is the demand for goods, what are the price points, what is the range in quality, what are they doing that you can do better, etc.
And if you find there are no competitors in the market take that as a red flag. A lack of competition usually means a lack of market. Rarely does a product come along that is so revolutionary that it creates an entirely new marketplace, so keep that in mind as you do your research.
At the end of the day business, like fishing, is all about finding a pond full of hungry fish and coming up with the best bait that you can use to catch them. He who reels the most customers into the boat wins the game.
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