“The Wholesale Misconception” One thing that’s constantly misunderstood by people trying to run a home business on the Internet is the word “Wholesale”. Some people think that working with a real wholesale supplier means that they will magically be able to sell products for less than anybody else on the planet, for ever and ever. They’ll be the only one who ever gets such good prices, and they’ll earn millions because no competition can touch them. They’re retire happily in a couple of months, and buy a big house in Beverly Hills, complete with a butler, a private chef, and a little satin doggie bed in every room for the casual use of the family Basset Hound, Duke. Then they find that they may actually have to compete with companies who have more buying power and get better price breaks, and suddenly the honeymoon is over. They run around screaming that the supplier is not a real wholesaler, and is cheating them. The sky is falling, and it’s time to get Duke to the storm cellar because all their dreams are being blown away by bad, BAD people who claimed to be wholesalers, and really are NOT! The truth is that they’ve simply been confronted with a perfectly normal aspect of retail sales that they had not anticipated, and need to be educated about. Even when using genuine wholesale distributors, you’re going to find some stores selling products at a “retail” price that is lower than your distributors’ “wholesale” price. There are VERY good reasons why you’ll see this happen, and it’s extremely important to understand why it happens and what to do about it in order to sell successfully on the Internet or anywhere else. As I said, it happens for a variety of reasons; the most common of which is that the retailer with the “lower than wholesale” price is a large retail operation that bought THOUSANDS of the product at a dirt-cheap quantity price break, and also qualified for huge manufacturer’s wholesaler rebates. You can’t compete against that with a home business; no one can. The term “wholesale” is relative, no matter who your distributor is or how you find them. What you’re getting as a small business is a supplier’s genuine “first level” wholesale price. For example, one factory-direct supplier we work with has an initial wholesale price for 1 to 36 dart boards. Then the second price level is reached, and there’s a lower price for 36 to 72 boards, for example, then a lower price for the next higher quantity level, etc. When dealing with single item orders in your home business, you are obviously going to be getting the “first level” wholesale price.

Again, wholesale is a relative term. Yes, genuine wholesalers DO sell at significant discounts below Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price. However, you have to watch what you sell. Electronics, for example, are a very tough market, because EVERYBODY is trying to sell electronics on the ‘Net right now. All these people are so busy trying to undercut each other that they have driven the “market price” of these items down so low as to make it very difficult to make a profit, even at wholesale. For example, if the Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) for a VCR is $149, and it is available at “wholesale” for $69.00, that’s a 54% discount off MSRP. That’s a pretty good profit, right? However, with everybody getting roughly the same price break, there are a lot of people out there who are ruining the market for everyone else by selling that product for, say, $79, thinking they will undercut everyone else and make money by selling volume. Pretty soon, everyone else sees this, and tries the same thing. Eventually, the Internet “market price” for this VCR BECOMES $79, and everyone is flooding the market with it at that price. That’s only a 13% percent profit margin, and that product is no longer worth the effort for anybody. So, even though the product IS available initially at a great wholesale price, its market value is ruined by those who (wrongly) assume that the only way to sell is to have the absolute lowest price anywhere. Sales is much more of an art than that. If selling something were simply a matter of the absolute lowest prices, Wal-Mart would be the only store on the face of the Earth. Without going into too much detail, sales is a mixture of choosing the right product, or combination of products, for your web site. It’s presenting a clean, attractive, focused site. It’s giving the customer some little value-added bonus at your site. It’s providing the absolute best customer service that you can. All these things help a customer to trust you, and when they trust you they are willing to spend a little more to buy from you. One of our retail sites is www.ElectronicDartShop.com. We sell Arachnid Electronic Dart Boards there. We sell ONLY those products on that site; just 14 of them. Our site is clean and attractive. We have a page listing all the rules for all the dart games that can be played on those boards. We pay very careful attention to customer service. And guess what? We are NOT the lowest priced store for those dart boards, by any means. Yet we are one of the highest-volume Internet dealers of the products around, according to the factory. Why? Our customers trust us, and are willing to pay a little more because they feel they will get more value from us than they will from some guy who just throws up a cheap-looking site full of all kinds of unrelated products and only pays attention to price-cutting. In fact, a few days ago, I went online and bought a couple of SmartMedia memory cards for my digital camera. I could have gotten them for a very cheap price that I found on the ‘Net, but I chose to pay $5 more each for them because the cut-rate site looked cheesy, and I was not sure I could trust them. I was more than happy to pay the extra ten bucks total when I found the same products at a higher priced site. The site was well-built, easy to navigate, and went out of it’s way to explain it’s customer service policies to me. I’d rather spend an extra ten bucks and be confident that the cards would show up at my door than lose thirty bucks plus shipping to a site I didn’t feel I could trust. As a small business owner, you should remember to choose comparison areas very carefully. Too many people simply go to the big search engines and look for the absolute lowest price on earth, and then give up on selling that item if they can’t beat it. That’s the wrong approach, as I’ve mentioned above. You need to be comparing prices against sites that will be seen in the same places that your site will be seen, and even if your prices are higher, you can bring in sales by building a clean, focused site. Alternatively, you can simply sell the models that others are NOT selling. After you begin to earn some profit, you can then start to buy and stock the better sellers in quantity, lowering your price, if you really want to. Even then, you’re going to run into stores that stock a lot of merchandise, and are getting price breaks on greater quantities. This allows them to sell at a lower price. Go around them. Sell models that they don’t, from the same brand names. You don’t have to purposely go head-to-head with the big superstores. They don’t carry every product ever made on earth. Sell something in the same general brand and product lines that they DON’T have the shelf space for! Besides the reasons mentioned above, there are also too many people who buy entire pallet loads of last year’s closeouts, liquidations, and refurbished goods, and claim that they are NEW. They get that junk at “rock bottom” prices, and of course, sell them dirt-cheap, fooling the customer (and other Internet retailers) into thinking that they have the corner on the best wholesale prices around, when they DON’T. The important thing is to work effectively within the framework of available products and prices, and work around those who have millions of dollars available to stock inventory. That’s what THEY did in order to EARN those millions in the first place. You can do it too. I know it’s frustrating to be just starting out, and thinking that you can’t succeed because of competition from large stores. That’s just not true. We’re succeeding at it, and so are thousands of others. You just have to be willing to be flexible, and to make serious decisions for the good of your business. You may have to give up selling certain products that you personally like, in order to make money on other products whether you like them or not. You’re in business to make money, not to satisfy your personal taste. One thing I tell people all the time is that it’s very important to “jump through the hoops” and form a LEGAL business. It’s the right thing to do, and it’s the ONLY way to work with GENUINE wholesale suppliers. However, anyone in business will tell you that the hoops never end; not for home businesses, and not for big businesses either. Even the big guys spend much of their time “hoop-jumping” in order to be successful. Imagine how the purchasing agents at CompUSA feel when they spend a million dollars on 19″ monitors so they can sell them for $329, and a week later, they find that Best Buy spent three million buying up the same monitor at a better price break, and is now advertising them for $298. Suddenly CompUSA can’t compete. Should they throw a tantrum, and berate the wholesaler for simply performing the normal function of a wholesaler? Of course not. They can simply stop advertising that monitor by itself, and bundle it with an entire computer system that has it’s own serious price breaks, and move the monitors that way. Adapt and improvise. There are no magic bullets, even though there are plenty of people who will tell you that there ARE. Don’t believe them! When you’re in business you will always have to compete. It’s all part of sales, on the Internet or anywhere else. Chris Malta WorldWide Brands, Inc. For more information, visit http://www.YouCanDropship.com

Dear Readers, I received a letter this week that is written in Greek that I have translated and would like to share with you. It is from Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and it is addressed to: all my brothers and sisters living in the 21st century. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

For many years I have longed to see you. I have heard a great deal about you and all the marvelous things you are doing.

News have reached me that your scientific and technological advances are phenomenal. You have at your disposal automobiles so luxurious that the average man in my day would never have conceived such a possibility. I have heard about your ingenious skyscrapers and huge builders. I understand some folks become a bit dizzy and faint, just looking up at them. It boggles my mind just contemplating the fascinating achievements you have attained.

It is my understanding that your medical strides has made it possible for you to cure in the twinkling of an eye, the plagues and diseases that would destroy us by the thousands. All of this is wonderful. You can do so much more in your day than I could do in the Greco-Roman world of my day. Your educational facilities and advantages are superb and beyond compare to any other time in human history. You can travel distances in 5 days that in my day, required 5 years. All of this is marvelous.

And what is this I hear about that high-tech deluxe jumbo jet called Air Force One. I’m told it’s a floating mansion with sophisticated and extensive electronics. You have computers and cellular phones that make it possible for you to contact just about anybody in the world while cruising tens of thousands of feet in the air. All of this is simply fabulous.

Let me not forget to mention that I have also heard, but can hardly believe, that scientists have successfully cloned animals and human cloning is not far off.

I am a staunch believer in progress. I believe in development, I believe in growth and advancement. I think all of these are splendid. But I wonder if your moral and spiritual progress has kept up with your scientific and technological progress. From what I have been hearing, your spiritual progress lags far behind your technological progress. It seems to me that you have plenty of talent – but very little ethics; lots of gossip – but little Gospel; prey on bad news – ignore God’s good news; play too much – pray too little; fine houses – very few homes; lots of lust – very little love; talk too much – testify too little; lots of churches – few temples of God; lots of formality – little spirituality; lots of beliefs – no faith. And what are these Situation Ethics I keep hearing about? In my day it was, children obey your parents. But it seems like you all have changed it to; parents obey your children.

I am proud to hear America, that through your political genius you have managed to make your world a neighborhood. I understand that you have been able to establish working relationships with far away countries and that is beautiful. But it is tragic that with all you have at your disposal; you have failed to make it a Brotherhood.

Oh yes, my brothers and sisters, you have managed to produce the ultimate in scientific knowledge. In my day in my wildest imagination, we never would have thought of the invention of nuclear bombs; that deadly weapon that can be dropped from a plane on the heads of millions of people and can set the whole world on fire with the press of a button.

You live in an age of technological genius. But I also heard the other day that you live in an age of longing, age of anxiety, age of suspicion and fear. You live in an age in which people are afraid to defend the faith for fear of offending disbelievers; an age of compromise and acceptance and tolerance for the intolerable. You live in an age where all representations of Christianity in the work place, schools, community and government offices are considered inappropriate and to be reserved for the private home environment only. So it seems like you have plenty of genius but no wisdom. Therefore I find it necessary to write to you to remind you; in the midst of all your great knowledge and advancement, of the responsibility laid upon you to represent Jesus Christ in the times in which you live.

In a time when man’s inhumanity to man has reached chaotic proportions and destroying the very foundation of ethical values, we need those who are willing to take a stand for Jesus Christ.

You are the salt of the earth; you are able to be a light in the midst of a dark world. You have become one the richest nations under the sun. You live in a land that flows with milk and honey. You have eaten from grapes that you did not plant; you live in homes that you did not build, and yet I hear the painful cries of people all over the world dying of starvation.

Therefore I, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, deem it necessary to write to you to inform you that God is still sovereign Lord. It seems to me you depend more on pills than you depend on God. I understand you have invented pills to come in all shapes and sizes, all colors and taste. You have a pill for just about everything. But it is strange that out of all those pills, there is not one that will prevent a person from lying and cheating, stealing and killing.

Well, that being said brothers and sisters; I encourage you to take a stand for the Lord. Live or die, survive or perish, stand on the solid foundation of Jesus Christ. “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. (Ephesians 6:10-18. NIV)

Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen. (Romans 16:25-27 NIV).

Rev. Saundra L. Washington, D.D., is an ordained clergywoman, social worker, and Founder of AMEN Ministries. http://www.clergyservices4u.org. She is also the author of two coffee table books: Room Beneath the Snow: Poems that Preach and Negative Disturbances: Homilies that Teach. Her new book, Out of Deep Waters: A Grief Healing Workbook, will be available soon.

Copyright 2006 Ross Goldberg

Memory Foam is becoming a very popular item! The problem is that not everybody is honest about their product and there are specific things one must look for when thinking about purchasing memory foam products. Memory Foam was discovered by NASA. NASA was attempting to design a material that would absorb the tremendous G-Forces that were pushing against the astronauts during takeoff. Swedish scientists decided that this material would be great for bedding products. Now memory foam is used for all kinds of products from mattresses to pillows, from cushions, to pet beds and beyond. This memory foam buying guide is made to stop you from wasting your money on memory foam products that will not last.

There are a few specific tricks that sellers are currently using on the web that we should all be watching for:

Density is one of the most important things to watch for with memory foam. If someone is saying their product is 5.0 or 6.0, make sure that it is followed by lbs. or pounds because that is how density is measured in memory foam. Some sellers are referring to the weight of 2 cubic feet of memory foam, which is not a proper measurement. Proper measurement for the density of memory foam is the weight of 1 cubic foot of memory foam. The actual density of their product is between 2.5 and 3 lb. Tempurpedic mattresses are made of 5.3 lb. density memory foam. Doctors and Chiropractors recommend a 4.0 lb. memory foam because it is less firm and costs less. Any density below 4.0 lb. is not going to last very long, the higher the density the longer the foam will retain all of its original properties. 3.0 lb. memory foam and anything less dense should only be used in bedding products as a plush pillow top type layer, because it doesn’t provide enough support to the body alone.

The other extremely important aspect of memory foam that you must find out before buying is the ILD rating of the foam. This rating tells you how firm the foam is. Memory foam ranges in ILD from 8- 20. The lower the number, the softer the memory foam. Tempur material has an ILD of 14. Some people find Tempur material to be too firm, if that is the case with you, then you would want memory foam with a lower ILD.

If an item is priced too low, there is probably a reason. Unless a person is selling a used product, no memory foam topper or overlay should be selling for $25 – $30. If a price is too good to be true, there is probably a reason for it. Make sure you ask questions of sellers with prices that seem too low. It is one thing to find a great deal and another to be ripped off and stuck with a product that isn’t what it should be.

Be wary of any mattress that has less than 2 inches of memory foam. Memory foam mattresses all have a base to give support to the foam, not your body. Stomach sleepers should use at least 2 inches of memory foam and side or back sleepers should have 3 or 4 inches of memory foam for proper support.

These tricks are stealing money from people every day. Remember that it is difficult to get a retailer to do something about a faulty product in a year when their product stops working.

These steps below are the most important things that will help you get the most bang for your buck with memory foam products:

Stay informed! Be aware of what you like and what you don’t. 5.0 lb. memory foam can be too firm for some people. If you like a softer mattress than you would be better off with the less expensive 4.0 lb. memory foam. There are also beds that combine the firmness of 5.0 lb. foam with a plush softer layer of the 4.0 lb. foam.

Do your research! Check in as many places as possible. Your research should be done at local furniture stores and through search engines like Google, Yahoo, or MSN. Check what websites are offering products for and what they come with and compare this to what you find at local stores. This will help you know what to expect from a good seller. Also, check ebay stores, paypal shops, and any other places you might find sellers that you can trust.

Make sure you know the density & ILD of the product you are buying. It is important to know what to expect from your memory foam products.

Check the warranty! TempurPedic® warranties their mattresses for 20 years and you should not spend your money with a company that doesn’t give you 20 years on a warranty. Did you know that you have to pay half of the cost of replacement after 10 years? Make sure that you get at least a ten year non-prorated warranty on any memory foam mattress.

Check the trial time! You need at least a few weeks to find out whether memory foam is right for you. If you don’t get at least a 90 day trial, don’t buy the mattress! There is a reason for them not to offer you a trial. Be wary of sellers that don’t offer a decent amount of time to test their product.

Keep in mind that you will have to repackage the mattress and ship it back at your own expense in the event you decide not to keep your memory foam mattress, you should feel good about purchasing from the retailer you choose.

With so many different companies selling memory foam make the right decision the first time around. We have heard of companies making the sale then changing the name of their website and phone number so you can’t find them! How’s that for customer service? A warranty and sleep trial are only as good as the company that offers it.

The bottom line is that you need to make sure you can trust the company that you purchase from. Check the Better Business Bureau and see how many complaints a company has against them before you purchase from them.

Ross Goldberg is a disabled veteran of the Desert Storm Era. After being diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, Arthritis, and Permanent Nerve Damage, he purchased an expensive memory foam mattress for himself. Upon using it he became obsessed with understanding why it cost so much. What you are reading is the result of years of research. http://www.memoryfoamfurniture.com

Simply moving messages from one point to another
using tactics like press releases, special events, brochures
and broadcast plugs?

Good gosh, I hope not!

Not when many business, non-profit, government agency
and association managers badly need to do something
both positive and meaningful about the behaviors of those
important outside audiences of theirs whose behaviors
MOST affect the departmental, divisional or subsidiary
unit they manage.

These are the same managers who need the kind of public
relations effort that leads them directly to achieving their
managerial objectives; in particular by persuading those
key outside folks to the manager’s way of thinking by
helping move audience members to take actions that
help the manager’s department, group, division or
subsidiary to succeed.

As long-ago news commentator Gabriel Heater used to
say, “Ah, there’s good news tonight!” Here, that good
news is the fact that the right public relations planning
really CAN alter individual perception and result in
changed behaviors among key outside audiences.
Achievable, incidentally, only when you as a manager
require more than news releases, special events and
broadcast plugs. When that happens, you should
receive the quality public relations results you deserve.

Here’s the way public relations’ underlying premise
puts it: people act on their own perception of the facts
before them, which leads to predictable behaviors about
which something can be done. When we create, change
or reinforce that opinion by reaching, persuading and
moving-to-desired-action the very people whose
behaviors affect the organization the most, the public
relations mission is usually accomplished.

Sample some of the playback that can come about from
this kind of public relations: community leaders begin
to seek you out; capital givers or specifying sources
start to look your way; welcome bounces in show room
visits occur; new prospects actually start to do business
with you; politicians and legislators begin looking at
you as a key member of the business, non-profit or
association communities; new proposals for strategic
alliances and joint ventures start showing up; customers
begin to make repeat purchases; and membership
applications start to rise.

Look first to your public relations professionals, who
are already in the perception and behavior business,
to handle your data gathering activity, an essential
component of your new opinion monitoring project.
But be certain that the PR staff really accepts why it’s
SO important to know how your most important
outside audiences perceive your operations, products
or services. Essentially, be sure they truly believe that
perceptions almost always result in behaviors that can
help or hurt your operation.

Together with your PR specialists, analyze your plans
for monitoring and gathering perceptions by questioning
members of your most important outside audiences.
Suggest that the staff consider questions like these:
how much do you know about our organization?
Have you had prior contact with us and were you
pleased with the exchange? Are you familiar with our
services or products and employees? Have you
experienced problems with our people or procedures?

Retaining a professional survey firm to do the opinion
gathering work, can strain your budget and end up more
expensive than using your own staff people. But
whether it’s your people or a survey firm asking the
questions, the objective remains the same: identify
untruths, false assumptions, unfounded rumors,
inaccuracies, misconceptions and any other negative
perception that might translate into hurtful behaviors.

This is where we establish a clearcut and realistic PR
goal calling for action on the most serious problem
areas you uncovered during your key audience
perception monitoring. You may decide to straighten
out that dangerous misconception, bring to an end
that potentially painful rumor, or correct that gross
inaccuracy.

Since goal and strategy go together like Oreo cookies
and milk, you must connect your goal to an action-
oriented strategy that shows how to get to where
you’re going. Actually, you have just three strategic
options available to you when it comes to doing
something about perception and opinion. Change
existing perception, create perception where there
may be none, or reinforce it. Needless to say, the
wrong strategy pick will taste like whipped cream on
your pot roast. So be sure your new strategy fits well
with your new public relations goal. You certainly
don’t want to select “change” when the facts dictate
a strategy of reinforcement.

Now you must task your team’s best writer to prepare
a persuasive message that will help move your key
audience to your way of thinking. It has to be a carefully
-written message targeted directly at your key external
audience. S/he must produce some really corrective
language that is not merely compelling, persuasive and
believable, but clear and factual if they are to shift
perception/opinion towards your point of view and
lead to the behaviors you have in mind.

Luckily for you, the right communications tactics will
carry your message to the attention of your target
audience? There are many tactics available from
speeches, facility tours, emails and brochures to
consumer briefings, media interviews, newsletters,
personal meetings and many others. But be certain
that the tactics you pick are known to reach folks
just like your audience members.

Since the means by which you communicate your
message is always a concern because its credibility
is fragile and always suspect, you may wish initially
to unveil your corrective message before smaller
meetings through presentations rather than using
higher-profile news releases.

Measuring how far you’ve come since the program’s
inception, you’ll want to compare where you are
now against the starting point to show the progress
you’ve made. First, you’ll be demonstrating, in the
form of periodic progress reports, how the monies
spent on public relations can pay off. However, it’s
also an alert to start a second perception monitoring
session with members of your external audience.
Here, you’ll use many of the same questions used
in the benchmark interviews. But now, you will be
on strict alert for signs that the bad news perception
is being altered in your direction.

Without doubt, you will face periodic slowdowns in
the program. Generally, adding more communications
tactics, and/or increasing their frequencies, usually
solves that problem.

As asked up front: Is PR all about moving messages
from one point to another using familiar tactics? I said
Good Gosh, I hope not! And I still say, Good Gosh,
I hope not!

Much preferred are managers who decide they no longer
wish to be denied the best public relations has to offer,
preferring instead to pursue the quality public relations
results they believe they deserve.

Please feel free to publish this article and resource box
in your ezine, newsletter, offline publication or website.
A copy would be appreciated at bobkelly@TNI.net.
Word count is 1220 including guidelines and resource box.
Robert A. Kelly © 2006.

Bob Kelly counsels and writes for business, non-profit and
association managers about using the fundamental premise of public
relations to achieve their operating objectives. He has published over
200 articles on the subject which are listed at EzineArticles.com, click
Expert Author, click Robert A. Kelly. He has been DPR, Pepsi-Cola
Co.; AGM-PR, Texaco Inc.; VP-PR, Olin Corp.; VP-PR, Newport
News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co.; director of communications, U.S.
Department of the Interior, and deputy assistant press secretary, The
White House. He holds a bachelor of science degree from Columbia
University, major in public relations.
mailto:bobkelly@TNI.net Visit: http://www.PRCommentary.com

Numbers! Don’t have the right sales volume? Costs to high? Competition driving prices down? There are a lot of numbers you can point to. Certainly, you can’t control all of the factors impacting your numbers. But, most of the things you’ll list are really just symptoms – not the cause. What’s really stopping you from making a profit?

My experience from talking with hundreds of small business owners indicates several causes for them not making the profit their business is capable of. In come cases, the owner hasn’t made an active, dedicated, daily action decision to “make a profit”. Others, don’t know enough about their numbers to know where to make the changes in their business activities to increase their profitability. Still others, perhaps most, want to increase their profitability, know their numbers, but don’t know what to do on a daily basis to create more profitability. Finally, action is required to make a business as profitable as it can be and deserves to be.

No decision leads to less profit. Keeping up with the daily demands of running a business can get in the way of making clear cut decisions. You start your business with the best intentions. Your goal is to make a living (that’s not profit) and, ultimately, make a profit – a return on your investment. Somehow, once the day gets launched all bets are off. Not renewing your decision to make a profit every day may be stopping you from making a profit. Don’t let a busy day get in the way of making a profit.

No numbers leads to less profit. I trust you have a set of financial statements. And, your statements break out the numbers in the categories impacting your bottom line. If not, STOP. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200, go directly to Jail. This isn’t about Monopoly money. It’s more serious than that. If you’ve got the statements, use them. Use them to impact today. Don’t just review them on “Monday Morning”.

No knowledge leads to less profit. You can not know all or be all. However, there is no lack of good, solid, “how to” information available to you. Action is required to access the information, absorb it, formulate a plan, implement the plan and continually adjust your plan. Where most fail is in “learning and doing”.

Optimum profit comes from action. Perhaps your business is profitable and you don’t have a clue why. Don’t be too excited. What’s stopping you from making the profit you and your business are truly capable of? Make a decision. Know your numbers. Make it happen

Don Osborne is the author of The Profit Puzzle – a website to help you envision, plan, start, run and grow your small or home based business. The Profit Puzzle Directory links small business articles, books, courses, products, services, websites, blogs, and software covering objectives, management, finance, personnel, marketing, operations, production and resources. Use BizBuzzLink to easily share your links and quickly build your own knowledge network.

Like clothing, luggage comes in many styles, sizes, and shapes. Most styles of luggage now come equipped with wheels. There are wheeled
carry-on bags. Duffel bags also are equipped with wheels.

There are full sized garment bags with wheels. Travel bags, tote carry on bags, shoulder carry on bags, and travel totes also are available. There are expandable cargo bags as well. Expandable bags are usually smaller than is typical and expand when you pack your belongings.

Luggage also comes in sets of the same design and color. The material and frames are generally the same. Sets can include small carry on bags, travel kits, multiple sizes of upright luggage.

Leather luggage is also available. There are leather suit bags, garment bags, duffel bags and cabin bags. There are weekender bags and the old fashioned carpet bags.

Styles also include the design of the bags. There could be designs such as flowers, cartoon characters for kids, camouflage designs, or animals. Virtually any design is possible.

Color is also a consideration as is the type of material the bags are made of. There are soft, canvas types of materials as well as soft leather, polyester materials. There are hard materials that protect your belongings and stand up to the rough handling they can receive while being loaded or removed from planes, trains, and buses. The hard luggage is used mostly by frequent travelers because of their durability. The style you choose will depend on your needs and possibly your frequency of travel.

Jerry Smith can help you. Find out how thousands of people have been helped with the advice and information. Visit this link for details: Cheap Luggage

As part of my research for a guide to style, I put together a focus group of 6 randomly chosen hot, single women between 21 and 33, to find out what styles in men they considered hot.

My goal was to find the things that they all agreed on.

The results were surprising, because the issues the women had the strongest opinions about were ones that most guys would never think of.

1. YOUR TEETH. Bad teeth are “just gross” said one blonde bombshell, to the enthusiastic agreement of the others.

So in order to not have your teeth immediately disqualify you, keep them brushed twice a day, flossing at least once. And if they’re rotten or badly stained, see your dentist ASAP.

However, don’t go crazy with the teeth whitener. “No one wants to kiss Chiclet Mouth,” added the blonde.

2. YOUR HANDS. Women notice right off the bat if your hands are covered with dirt or grease.

“If you work with your hands,” said one woman, “that’s not the first thing a woman should notice about you.”

So auto mechanics, construction workers, and other blue collar types, listen up.

“It’s not what a person does,” explained another chick. “It’s just about taking care of yourself. If you can’t even wash your hands, what does that say about you?”

3. YOUR CLOTHES. When you’re wearing jeans, leave the tennis shoes at home.

“I am a believer that athletic gear is for exercise,” said a part-time model in her mid-20s. “Some boys wear only tennis shoes and that’s just annoying. It shows immaturity.”

Good shoes instead are loafers or boots.

Try to be neat without being anal. “You should not look sloppy,” said the blonde, “but don’t look so put together that you appear obsessive-compulsive.”

And, be an individual, agreed the women. If you’ve got that one shirt that only you love, you should still wear it, even if it is somewhat “uncool.” For example, take a hawaiian shirt with a flamingo on it. Some guy who absolutely loves it can wear that shirt.

So the bottom is that a few guys can indeed pull off wearing the tennis shoes.

Sound confusing? It isn’t once you realize that the simple test is this: Are you wearing clothes that display your core personality?

As one woman explained it, “You should be comfortable with what you’re wearing and like what you’re wearing, because women will pick up on that.”

So in other words, the perfect style for you comes down to personal preferences and your individual sense of style. You can’t make one rule for everything, except just be your genuine self.

John Alexander is the developer of How to Become an Alpha Male, a seduction success system for men. Learn 7 simple secrets to changing your “appearance”… as soon as tonight… that will immediately double or even triple your attractiveness to women!

Many folks really wish to own a business of their own, but do not quite even know where to start. Well one could consider buying a franchise as a way to become their own boss and pursue their happiness and American Dream thru a business of their own.

Most franchise agreements are for 5-10 years and have automatic renewal up to let’s say twenty. This is also called the term of the franchise. Many people believe the execution of a franchise is once the term has ended and all the duties and responsibilities have taken place. But this is incorrect because the execution takes place upon signing, not when it’s completed.

If we are to say that a franchise agreement is only executed once all terms and conditions on both sides have completed all duties, then the actual execution wouldn’t be until three years after termination, cancellation, recession or expiration, due to the excellent possibility that the contract contains covenants not to compete as most do. So execution takes place during signing and exchange of legal tender.

Automatic renewal of the term of the franchise is normal in franchise agreements and that means as long as you do not notify the franchisor that you plan on terminating the contract in advance of the end of the term in writing then it automatically renews and thus you go for another term and at that point are responsible for signing the then current franchise agreement for the next term or future period. Consider all this in 2006.

“Lance Winslow” – Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

Niche marketing has always been a key any success in marketing but lately it has become quite a prominent force in the online marketing world. Many books, manuals, courses, and web sites have been developed that focus on niche marketing. It is easy to find solid resources on the Internet that can teach you how to make money with niche marketing.

Niche marketing online is a distinct segment of Internet marketing and is the quickest way to get maximum exposure if you know how to leverage the search engines to draw attention to your niche web site.

There’s many things to learn to be successful and profit from niche marketing and your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) will dictate exactly how to plan your attack to successfully market to customers in your niche.

If you plan to use niche marketing to draw visitors to your web site, here’s a few tactics that you can use to make money:

Niche Marketing Tactic #1, “Research”

Fully utilize all of the research mechanisms that you can find in order to make sure that you truly understand your niche and all of its nuances.

This requires understanding what tools are best to use so you can understand what your target niche market does day to day, where they spend their time online, and what makes them tick from a personal and business perspective.

Niche Market Research (http://www.nichemarketresearch.com)offers free reports and articles to help you make the most of your research time.

Niche Marketing Tactic #2, “Define your paying niche”

Clearly define who will make up your niche market and make sure that the people in that niche market are willing to pay for the solution that you provide to their problems.

A niche is a clear subset of a larger category.

An example of what a niche market is not: “People who want to learn how to shoot better scores in golf.”

In this example, there are far too many people within the main category (golf) to make this a true niche. Virtually everyone who plays golf will want to play better and shoot better scores so this wouldn’t qualify as a niche, much less a category worth pursuing.

An example of a niche market: “Women who play golf who want to learn how to drive the ball longer and straighter.”

This would be a niche because it clearly defines and segments who you’ll cater to and why they would need your service.

After clearly defining your niche market, you should make sure that they are willing to pay for your services. The easiest way to determine this in the online world (other than using common sense) is to find web sites that may be close to, or even in your niche, and see if those web sites charge a fee for their services.

In addition, you should look to see if there is a reasonable level of competition between those web sites.

If you see more than a few sites listed on a SERP (Search Engine Result Page) that cater to female golfers for a fee, chances are the people who are your target customer will pay for your services for solving their problem – women who can’t consistently hit long straight drives in golf.

Niche Marketing Strategy #3, “Choosing keywords and domain names”

Research and choose your keywords carefully so you can acquire the best domain name for your site. Niche marketing most often includes maximizing the way search engines work to make sure that your web site gets listed n the first page of the SERP’s from your chosen keywords. Your domain name contributes to getting those first page results.

Go to Digitalpoint’s keyword suggestion tool and type in keywords that you feel people would use to find the product or service that you offer within your niche. Look at the number of searches performed per day for those keywords and review the other keywords listed.

http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/

Type the keyword phrase that you think best suits your USP’s target customer into Google and assess whether or not you can reasonably compete with the sites that are listed on page 1 of the SERPs.

Can you get a page 1 ranking knowing that you’ll have to compete with the sites already listed?

Repeat the process until you have decided what your main keywords will be for your product or service within your niche.

Those keywords should be in your domain name and preferably, they should be your entire domain name.

Example: if you’ve concluded that ‘blue widgets’ best suits your USP and you feel that you can compete for page 1 listings on the SERPs with the sites that come up on page 1 for the keyword ‘blue widgets’, then a good domain name for your niche marketing site would be ‘bluewidgets.com’.

Niche Marketing Tactic #4, “Posting keyword rich articles or reports throughout the web”

Niche marketing doesn’t differ from any other online search engine marketing, posting relevant content is the best way (bar none) to get the right type of traffic to your niche site.

Writing keyword rich articles or reports and posting them to high traffic web sites is a great way to make sure that you get maximum exposure within your niche market. People will use your keywords to search for information about the topic that they have interest in, and they will come across your web site on the search engines results.

Niche marketing caters to a distinct and select group of people who need what you have to offer. If you define your niche properly and make sure that your ability to solve their problem is something that they will pay for, you will have established a “money maker”.

Utilize the search engines to make it easy for your niche market to find your service or product. Niche marketing is the easiest way to be successful on the Internet if you do the proper research.

About The Author

Karl Augustine -Publisher, “Starting Smart!”

*Learn SEO – Top 10 listings

Niche Marketing

You? Start your own Internet business? Give me a break! You just don’t speak the language, so why even try?

It begins with ‘booting up’ your computer instead of just turning it on. And you can’t simply fill in the necessary information to get something connected: it has to be ‘configured.’ Also, it’s painfully apparent that computer tables and windows bear no resemblance whatsoever to the kind you have in your living room, nor is a browser someone meandering through your local bookstore. And the only directory you know anything about is full of telephone numbers.

Then, of course, there are all those blasted letters: DSL, RAM, ROM, POP, RSS, HTML, FTP, MLM . . . Good grief! How can someone like you even think about starting an online business? Hey, it’s for the kids. They understand all this jargon, all this technical stuff. But you . . .

Well, what about you? Okay. So maybe you don’t know what most of those letters mean. And it’s a safe bet you don’t know a tenth of what the average techie does . . . maybe not even as much as today’s computer-savvy ten-year-old. But does that mean you can’t do this stuff?

At least, before you decide to pass on the exhilaration of creating your own online business (not to mention the extra bucks you might have at the end of the month), let’s look at two possibilities.

First of all, the fact that you have no idea how a telephone works (unless you’re a Verizon repair person) has never stopped you from making phone calls. And you’re not afraid to turn on the television set because you don’t know how all those moving pictures get inside that little box.

And speaking of letters, even if you had no idea what ‘TV’ stood for, you could still watch “American Idol.” Nor is it necessary to know what ATM means in order to make a cash withdrawal.

Why, letter combos are positively old hat. RPMs have been around since before Sinatra, and mpg was a Henry Ford staple.

All any of it is, really, is that secretarial staple of yesteryear: shorthand. Only these letter codes are a heck of a lot easier to understand than all those lines and squiggles.

Just to convince yourself it’s no big deal, why not invent some code of your own? Certainly you have as much right to do it as any computer techie. So why not tell them to FTL and PHO . . . and be absolutely sure they NLFD. That’s Fold The Laundry, Pre-Hear the Oven, and make sure they’re Not Late For Dinner. Remember: sticks and stones can break your bones, but letters can never hurt you. Nor should they stop you.

Okay. That’s the first possibility: breaking the code may not be as necessary as you think it is, e.g., you don’t have to know that NaCl is salt in order to sprinkle some on your tomato.

Even so . . . whether you actually need to know all of it or not, maybe you’d be more comfortable if you did. And, obviously, it would be helpful if you knew at least some of it.

Which brings us to possibility number two. Why not learn a few new things? Actually, that’s what makes life an ongoing adventure: no matter how long you’ve been around and how much you’ve discovered already, there’s always something (in fact, plenty!) left to learn.

And the good news is that, with the Internet, learning just got a whole lot easier. You can’t use the excuse that it’s too cold to go to school, or too hot to go to the library. There’s information enough on the Internet for you to earn a PhD just by clicking on your mouse. So what’s your excuse now?

I remember, when I was a kid, looking at a piano, and thinking: “How could anyone ever know what all those keys are for?” Truth is, I was afraid to take piano lessons because I was convinced that I’d look foolish if I tried.

And therein lies the rub: we’re so afraid we’ll look foolish that we’re willing to be foolish instead! And how foolish would it be to refuse to learn new things – - things that could help us in any number of ways, brighten our lives, ease our financial burdens – - just because we’re afraid we’ll look foolish!

But that’s another great thing about the computer. We don’t have to walk up to the blackboard with the whole class staring at us. We don’t have to worry about tripping, or not knowing the answer, or . . . well, any of the things that seemed to go along with learning back in the good old days.

We can be clumsy and bumbling and slow . . . and nobody will ever know! Even if we do look foolish, it will be for our eyes only. The computer makes us blessedly, mercifully anonymous. It lets us learn and work at our own pace, whatever that pace may be.

And so, if those letter combos have you feeling a bit inadequate, go ahead and look up the definitions. There are plenty of free computer and Internet glossaries available online. My personal favorite is www.Webopedia.com.

Or, if you’re not exactly sure-fingered on the computer, check out some tutorials. Get up to speed on Word or Windows or whatever else you’d like to try. It doesn’t cost much. In fact, you can do it for free.

And then, you can move on to setting up your own online business. Yes: YOU!

After all, when you think about it, not getting your slice of the Internet pie just because you’ve let the jargon scare you off is like refusing a cruise to the Bahamas because you don’t understand the bar code on the ticket.

So why not hop on board PDQ. (That’s Pretty Darn Quick, in case you didn’t know.) You’ve got nothing to lose . . . and who knows what-all to gain?

Bob Brooker’s mission is to make home-based Internet business accessible even to Internet beginners. Bob — himself a devout non-techie — looks for and personally tests products that are the simplest to understand and use, even if your computer skills are limited to sending an occasional e-mail to your sister. http://www.makingmoneysimplified.com