Tag: products and services

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Wouldn’t it be great if you came up with an idea like this?

swell-water-bottlesWhy can’t you come up with something like this?

A tax auditor was more interested in entrepreneurship than accounting but put plans to start her own company on hold. A few years later after consulting and real estate she attended a panel about the global clean-water crisis.

Some months later Sarah Kauss was hiking and all she had for water was a cheap, thin metal bottle that had warmed in the sun, according to a report in Fortune. She suddenly thought, “Why not create a more upscale, fashionable, reusable bottle that would keep the liquid cool?”

The bottles called S’Well retails from $25 to $45, depending on the size. She has sold about 4,000,000 to date. Continue reading “Wouldn’t it be great if you came up with an idea like this?”

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Detect changes in your market really and act quickly

If your market changes and your customers have new problems they need to solve but you keep using the same selling methods, then it will be no surprise when your sales drop.

The selling methods you’ve used two years ago, three years ago, even five years ago may no longer work with new prospects. Your market is constantly changing; people face new problems, new wants, new tastes and new personal and business challenges.

Look at it this way: You have changed over the past few years; technology has changed, costs such as electricity and fuel have risen beyond predictions; the economy has been in a worldwide recession; bankers eroded trust in the financial system; large companies are squeezing suppliers and taking longer to pay. Continue reading “Detect changes in your market really and act quickly”

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What sales channels will you choose to sell your new product or service?

Trolleys.
Trolleys. (Photo credit: Polycart)

When you have developed and tested your new product or service, you will need to choose what sales channels to use to maximise your sales.

These days in competitive and uncertain markets both business-to-business and consumer businesses need to select sales channels carefully because of the increased costs of distribution and face-to-face selling.

Start-ups and small businesses are increasingly using a mix of different sales channels. These may include a retail store, a direct sales person who calls on larger companies, agents to serve the business outside its home market and an online store. Continue reading “What sales channels will you choose to sell your new product or service?”

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Save me from this brutish barber

Rome, Barber Shop a via dei Portoghesi
What’s your experience been like at a hair salon or barber shop lately? (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When the price of mall barbers became too much to finance from my current account I stepped down several notches and patronised the local community barber shop.

Things went all right the first few times. The barber, a young man with a faint resemblance to dapper looking Clive Owen, cut my hair. A soft-spoken, friendly person good at his job, he soon became a favourite with the ladies. I was passed over to another barber.

Now, let me tell you I like to think I’m broad-minded so I let this new barber cut my hair. She looked and dressed worse than Kelly Osbourne ever did. Even in her most rebellious days. But I mean, to be dressed like this in your very late 30s. Come on, even Kelly has cleaned up her act for reality TV (though I suspect mum Sharon has had a hand in this but I could be wrong as she’s never really tidied up Ozzy’s act).

The problem: not only did this barber look weird but she had an attitude. A chip on her shoulder so big that I trembled climbing into her chair. She looked more intimidating than Edward Scissorhands when she held her shaving razor to my neck.

Sitting erect in her chair, I couldn’t imagine this barber ever playing with Barbies. Instead, I could imagine her sticking pins into a rag doll and pulling off its ears.

The worst of it was that she was sullen, unfriendly and spoke to me with a sneer. Foulmouthed beyond what you’ve ever encountered in a low-class London pub. Worse than a weirdo spiked high on drugs stumbling and mumbling filth outside King’s Cross station.

Goodness knows, just to save some money on a haircut, was this really worth it? I mean, on Saturday mornings you want to relax, do some shopping and get on with your day. I knew the owner of the barber shop but I wanted to at all costs not complain about her lest something untoward happened to me. Continue reading “Save me from this brutish barber”