Whether you are planning a special occasion for your true love or you just have a hobby of collecting silk flowers, then you have taste, and for that you must be applauded. Silk flowers make the most beautiful flower arrangements and you need not worry about the flowers dying on you. They can add character to any dull room, and with the variety of different colors they can brighten up a table. The fabric last and the only cleaning you will probably have to do it wiping the dust off the leaves.

These flowers make beautiful bouquets, and with your creativity you can send a bouquet to a special person in your life…or even to say thank you to someone that has just highlighted your day with just a simple smile or a few words of inspiration. This is also a great way if you want to keep your home full of flowers. Think about it, you won’t have to water flowers again, or if you have always had the habit of forgetting to water flowers – worrying about the poor things dying of thirst.

Don’t think that because they are artificial that they are going to look artificial. Like fresh flowers that need to be replaced after a few days or a few weeks, silk flowers keep their beauty and color time and time again, and the nice thing is that the artificial flowers can be made to look like fresh flowers.

You will probably get questions like, “Where did you get these beautiful flowers?” and “They have been here so long. What are you feeding them that keep their color and freshness?” Obviously it will be up to you to give the secret away, or you could just leave them in suspense about how beauty finds its way into your home and stays there for as long as you want them there.

If you see a certain silk flower that you just love, take notice of it so that you can look for it when you're planning a special event. There's many places online that also offer a good selection of silk flowers, so check online too.

Grocery Shopping Network, Inc. (”GSN”) reported today that it has completed it’s series A round of venture capital funding with Houlihan Smith & Company, Inc. (”Houlihan”) acting as exclusive financial advisor. The $7.0 million equity financing was led by VantagePoint Venture Partners, a leading Silicon Valley venture capital firm.

Dick Andolshek, Chairman and co-founder of Grocery Shopping Network, reflected on the capital raise process: “I was fortunate to know Richard Houlihan, and when I called him regarding the capital raise for GSN, Richard was accommodating as always. Houlihan Smith & Company immediately assembled a team of consummate professionals who understood our technology, market positioning, and business model. We worked directly with Bob Susskind, a Managing Director at Houlihan and benefited from his 25 years of experience in the technology sector which include stints at 3com, Palm and Nortel. The firm worked tirelessly with our team throughout the preparation and marketing process. Ultimately, Houlihan’s broad contact network enabled us to reach the attention of David Carlick of VantagePoint Venture Partners who has joined our Board of Directors and will be an active participant in our company’s growth. Our fund raising process was a resounding success thanks to the collaborative teamwork of Houlihan and Grocery Shopping Network’s people.”

Bob Susskind, the Houlihan Managing Director who led the account team stated,”GSN is at the forefront of online intelligent ad placement and consumer tracking for the massive food industry. Working with GSN’s senior management team has afforded me an inside view of the future of online consumer packaged goods marketing: GSN is that future. I believe GSN will become the ‘platform’ provider of online intelligent ad placement in the food and grocery market and the source of the most accurate and relevant consumer intelligence ever seen in this market. With GSN’s highly sophisticated software platform, intellectual property positions, consumer packaged goods advertising contracts, and partnerships with major supermarket chains and prominent online marketers DoubleClick and Coupons Inc., I think that GSN is in the best position to capture the bulk of the multi-billion-dollar pent-up demand for focused advertising in this market.”

About GSN: The stated goal of GSN (http://www.groceryshopping.net) is to serve the consumer by making it easier to shop their favorite grocery store and, at the same time, helping them save time and money as they plan their weekly purchases. GSN does this by providing retailers with a suite of proprietary software products that integrates shopping list building with relevant content that allows consumers to seamlessly shop their store, review all items on sale, access and save recipes for the items they plan to purchase, and utilize the many discount offers made available by brand manufacturers. The result is that consumers plan their shopping trip better, take advantage of more discounts, and are more loyal to a single store. This means a higher ring for grocery stores that employ the GSN system, increased savings for consumers using the GSN powered retail site, and targeted advertising messages for brands.

About Houlihan Smith & Company Inc.: Houlihan Smith & Company Inc. (http://www.houlihansmith.com) is a specialized investment banking firm that provides financial advisory and financing services to public and private businesses. Founded in 1996, Houlihan is recognized as a leading provider of financial opinions, financing, merger and acquisitions advisory, and other...(read the full article at the link below)

Introduction - Mercer Human Resource Consulting has released their 2007 findings. These are surveys which rate cities according to certain criteria they elect to use. They use New York City as a baseline with a rating of 100 for their surveys. Cities coming in under that are worse and over that are better. Mercer is a well-respected source of this information.

Panama Standings for Quality of Living - Mercer uses 39 criteria to determine quality of living. These criteria include social, economic, crime, police, banking, currency and related controls, censorship by the government, personal freedoms, medical facilities, doctors and pharmacies, education, transportation, public services, weather, climate, and other criteria. It is not based on the number of bars, restaurants, ballparks etc although these are factors in the equation. It is not a surprise that Baghdad is the worst city in this survey with a score of 14.5. Zurich hit the number one spot for quality of life with a score of 108.1 and Geneva comes in close with a score of 108. Vancouver and Vienna follow with a score of 107 tied for third place. Panama comes in with a score of 82.9 situating it in 92nd place. So mercer feels that there are 91 better cities to live in.

For a frame of reference Budapest came in with a score of 90.2 giving is 74th place. Detroit came in 64th place with a score of 96.1. Pittsburg came in with a score of 99.7 giving it 52nd place. The craziest thing yet is Los Angeles, which came in with a score of 98.3 giving it 55th place. Detroit, Los Angeles is extremely dangerous place. Their homicide and violent crime rates are through the roof. In certain sections of Los Angeles the police go on calls in groups of four squad cars. They have awful smog. Their cost of living is insane with many homes selling for over three million dollars. Their traffic jams are world class. Their public schools are beyond bad, they are not safe. They have police with metal detectors in their schools. Then we can get into drug addiction, gang violence, and on the list grows. How in the world could this be a nice place to live beats me. So what is Mercer thinking anyway?

Panama Cost of Living - Panama has not made it into the top fifty most expensive cities to live in. In 2007 Panama ranked 124 out of 143, which is fairly low. San Paulo and Rio de Janeiro were the most expensive cities in Latin America with positions 62 and 63. Asuncion Paraguay continues to hold place 143 as the cheapest place to live. Following closely is Buenos Aires in position 139, Montevideo Uruguay in position 140 and Quito Ecuador in position 141. Mercer does this survey using 200 different criteria such as cost of husing, food, medical, transportation and so forth.

Discussion - Panama is going through a housing boom. Most of the new homes are not yet completed or occupied. This would mean they are not yet included into the study. If one puts a deposit on a home paying $3500 a sq. meter this is not a completed transaction and thus would not be included in any statistics concerning real estate prices which are based on actual sales, not based on deposits. When these new projects get certificates of occupancy then we will see the cost of living spike up sharply. Housing is the largest expenditure one generally makes. This will then rack Panama up there in the cost of living index.

If you are involved in any type of multi-level, network marketing program, home based business, or other type of direct sales program, then you are probably interested in building your business using business opportunity seekers. These are people who have expressed an interest in a home-based business, extra-income opportunity, multi-level marketing, or entrepreneurship by signing up on one or many websites that match business opportunity seekers with the type of offering they are looking for.

There are also people who may not be interested in actually running a business of their own, but simply want to make some extra income working for someone else. In this instant, what they may be looking for is to get a second or part-time job. Those who are serious business builders are business opportunity seekers who want to be in charge of their own fate, and be able to make their own decisions on business matters, not simply do what someone else wants or tells them to do.

There are a number of list providers on the internet that specialize in gathering information on perspective business opportunity seekers, by asking them to fill out a simple form about what type of money making venture they are looking for. The lead company then compiles this information for sale to multi-level marketers (MLM) and other types of businesses who need fresh responsive leads, not just lists that have been circulated to thousands of people.

Making calls to these people will not be a positive experience because they have already been bombarded with calls from your competition. They dont want to hear what you have to say. On the contrary, actually speaking with a true business opportunity seeker is a refreshing experience, because this person really wants to listen to you about what you have to offer. Lead companies also sell pre-qualified leads that can greatly increase your efficiency and level of success. These pre-qualified business opportunity seekers have been contacted by the lead company to verify the type of opportunity they are looking for, so that they can be matched as closely as possible for just the right fit.

Business opportunity seekers have always been the primary target for any MLM, direct sales, home based businesses. It is not always possible to continue recruiting new people from your warm market only. At some point, all multi-level marketers must search for business builders outside of their group of family, friends, and co-workers to connect with those people who are just waiting to be found. So, are you a business opportunity seeker?

It has been held by the Indian Supreme Court that the Constitution of India adopts the doctrine of Separation of Powers as known to Western Constitutionalism.  It is well known that the VII Schedule of the Constitution deals legislative powers as distributed between the Union and State Governments.  It is clear that Entry 22 in Concurrent List deals with labour relations [13].  When the Constitution had conferred the specific power to deal with labour relation to specific organs, can the Supreme Court act as a metal-constitutional organ and usurp the powers given to the other organs?  Pronouncing an opinion on the right of employees to strike is an act of legislation and the act of the Supreme Court in pronouncing its view is a judicial legislation, which should be frowned by the competent legislative forums.  It is unnecessary to add to the informed readers that the finding of Supreme Court in the present case that the workers do not have any moral or equitable right to strike is just trivial and do not deserve any discussions.

Even the international instruments emphasise that denial of such rights would amount to violation of basic labourers rights. Article 8(1)(d) International covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights [14] states that the State Parties to the present covenant undertake to ensure the right to strike, provided that it is exercised in conformity with the laws of the particular country.  Sub Sec.(2) of Article 8 further states that this article shall not prevent the imposition of lawful restrictions on the exercise of these rights by members of armed forces or of police or of the administration of the State [15].  It is pertinent to note that Sub Section (3) of Article 8 does not authorise legislative measures to curtail the rights of workers [16].  But we are facing a situation wherein judiciary, essentially a body to adjudicate, has pronounced measures to curtail the rights of workers.  The power to deal with the international relations had been conferred to Union Government under entries 12, 13 and 14 of union list in Schedule VII of the Constitution.  Then how can a domestic judicial organ jeopardise the finely held obligations be made valid.  That means it has given a go-bye by the Supreme Court in pronouncing such a ruling.  From this it is very clear that the Supreme Court acted in an area in which it does not have any jurisdiction at all and in the light of earlier observation on the judgement, it is unnecessary to have any discussions on such ruling and that ruling does not have any force of law.

There are other conventions that emphasises the workers right for collective bargaining, which includes right to strike.  The Committee on freedom of Association, which examined the workers right to strike under the provisions of ILO, had given a finding that the strikes are recognised as legitimate weapons in furtherance of member’s interest [17].  The Committee further states that any general provision would recognise the right of state employees to go for a strike with restrictions, though such restrictions shall not prohibit the right to strike.  Going a step further, the Committee also recommended that the workers organisation should not be prevented from striking against the social and economical policy of the Government [18].  Even a legislation that replaces the employees who are under strike with new recruits would seriously affect the rights of trade unions.  Concluding the above recommendation, the Committee said that the right is not absolute and may be restricted in exceptional circumstances or even prohibited for certain categories of workers, in particular, certain public servants …on the condition that compensatory guarantees are provided to such public employees [19].

Advertise your business through promotional items to boost your profits. Learn how to create and fully utilize your promotional items.

Setting up a business of your own is tough. Managing it and bringing it to its maximum potential and productivity is very challenging. In order for this to happen you must have a lot of customers. Acquiring customers is another story.

In order for you to acquire customers for your business, you should be able to draw their interest towards you. You should have products or services that they want. Entice them to what your business can offer. If they are satisfied well enough, they might keep coming back for more. Your products must appeal to customers in the first place.

If you are starting out and not a lot of people are aware of the existence of your business venture, it will be very difficult to have a lot of customers in the beginning. But depending on your business product, as mentioned earlier, customers will either flock at your business or leave it alone. You can either come up with a new product, or opt for other methods to attract customers.

Advertising your business is a great way to boost your business sales. Through advertising, a lot of customers will be informed of your business' existence. Dissemination of information through word of mouth is one basic way of promoting your business. If you have a lot of cash, try spending on TV commercials or even advertising through the internet. You can also settle for other traditional methods such as posting ads in newspapers or placing posters in strategic locations around town.

A proven effective method of advertising your business effectively is through the use of promotional items. What are these? Promotional items are certain objects that are used for giveaways to clients and other people to help spread the name of your business around. These objects have the imprinted logo of your business as well as all the vital information like address and phone number. These items come in all sorts of sizes. Smart business owners often give away promotional items that grab attention and used frequently like shirts, hats, bags, and such. Other effective mediums for promotional items are calendars. Just think about it, everyday people look at the calendar to know the date and plan schedules they have in the days to come. They will practically see the name of your business, your logo, and other endorsements and information.

Some promotional products are even not your typical everyday items. Perhaps the goal of these is to be unique in a way that it amuses people. You'll be surprised at the sheer variety of these promotional items, ranging from catchy stickers to stress balls. The options are unlimited! So think of your promotional items now and make it as unique as possible.

It is also necessary to consider that your promotional item should be relevant to your business. Upon choosing an object, you must be able to make sure that this object, when given to other people, will remind those people of your business. For example, if you’re running a tire business, you can have mini tire replicas as paperweights to be given to your clients. That way, when they glance at these paperweights they place on their desk, they will always be reminded about your business. Think of similar possible items that people will admire and want to keep looking at.

Be creative in formulating promotional items. Don't use typical dull products. Be intuitive of people's needs. Clients will just ignore these or even throw them away if they’re not useful.

After thinking of what promotional product to use for your business, try to internalize on what to do with them to help you and your business. You can't just place it anywhere or give it to any passerby. Try to target those individuals who have the potential to be your market. For instance, if you’re running a business on baby toys, you can’t just give your promotional items to teenagers, unless of course they happen to already have children.

Once you've secured your promotional items, you can also do wonders for your business by participating in trade shows. Trade shows are social gatherings where companies sharing the same theme manage booths inside a huge location and people are free to browse and look around. It is an advertising gimmick to boost business ventures. In order for you to maximize your booth and get a lot of attention from the people, you should make use of your promotional items. Use them as baits to lure the people to your booth. That way, the more the attention, the better the reputation and popularity your business will have. This will help boost your revenues a thousand fold.

After going through all of these your business will definitely by one step ahead. You'll come to appreciate the wonders of promotional items in advertising and marketing.

Getting good feedback from customers and employees is vital for any business that expects to grow.  Without knowledge, business leaders can not make educated decisions.  Uneducated decisions lead to a higher rate of failure, which can have detrimental impacts on a business.  Without high quality information, a business owner is flying blind.

When flying an airplane, pilots depend on their instrumentation to tell them how they’re doing, where they are going, and where they need to go.  The artificial horizon helps them control their altitude, a compass helps them navigate, and other instruments give them vital information.  Even data received over the radio from airports  is crucial.  All this information is vital for the safety and success of the flight.

Just as a pilot needs feedback, so do business owners.  A pilot would never fly blind except in extreme situations, and a business owner is doing the exact same thing if they don’t educate themselves before making important decisions.  Of course, the best way to educate oneself is to ask the experts.  In a business situation, the very best experts to ask are your customers.  After all, they’re the ones who are buying whatever it is you’re selling.

Grabbing data is one thing, but grabbing the right kind of data is entirely another.  When the title of this article says "Good Feedback," it means high quality feedback, not just positive feedback.  Negative feedback can be of high quality and is often more crucial for businesses than positive feedback.

Anyone serious about making educated decisions should have a great, scalable survey solution in place.  Scalable means you can use it for a small business all the way to an enterprise level system.  A survey solution should give you full control over the types of questions and the types of answers you can use (i.e. multiple choice, essay, etc.).  This will give you the ability to customize the type of feedback you receive.

The best way to form a good survey is to start with your ultimate goal in mind.  Think about what types of information you will need to build your ultimate report.  Ask them same questions a few different ways to account for errors, and lay out your format in the simplest, easiest way possible.  The easier the survey is to fill out, the more likely people will fill it out with accurate information.  Accurate information is the key to good data.

With a well though out survey and lots of information, we can now start running reports on the data.  If you got enough information, you should be able to figure out several things with the data you have.  If you only want the answer to one question, a few additional questions can give you more answers as well, even if they are unrelated to your most important questions.

Any good survey system worth it’s own weight will have a great reporting system.  Different ways of aggregating the data can show different trends and information, so it should be easy to manage every aspect of your survey campaign.  Your flexibility for reports should match the flexibility of the survey itself.

Surveys can be sent out via your email list (just make sure people know when they sign up that they might be getting these types of emails), filled out online as an opt-in during the checkout process, or sent out to rented lists.  Whatever way you decide to go, just be sure that your survey is targeting the demographics you are most intereted in.

With a good survey, you can increase your knowledge manyfold.  Decisions will become clear.  For small outfits to enterprise level operations, collecting data and feedback is the ultimate way to make educated decisions.

Most nonprofit organizations that I know run in a very efficient and business like manner, so I hesitate to criticize the hardworking folks in this sector. But there is a tendency in many non-profit organizations to look for quick, short-term results rather than develop and stick to a strategic plan. Some search results I ran across support this observation.

According to Overture, there were about 25,000 searches last month for the term “fundraising idea” and another 5000 or so searches for related terms like “school fundraising idea” or “sports fundraising idea”.  On the other hand, the term “fundraising plan” was searched only about 350 times, with another 100 or so searches for related terms.

Compare this to searches made by business or people interested in business. The term “business plan” was searched 66,000 times and the term “business idea” was only searched 11,000 times.  Based on these numbers it would appear that far more people in business are interested in a plan more than just an idea. People in nonprofit organizations or charities seem to be more interested in ideas than plans.

One can't draw too many conclusions from a single observation and to be fair, there are lots of small nonprofit organizations that just need an idea for an event or something to make a few bucks. But I think this observation should also make managers of nonprofit organizations ask themselves how much time their staff, volunteers and board members spend trying to come up with or imitate the latest great idea, and how much time they spend in strategic planning.

Strategic planning for a nonprofit organization can be complicated. There may be historical reasons, traditions and values of the founders to consider when making fundraising decisions that may preclude some options. The reaction of the community and relationships with government and major funding organizations like the United Way may need to be taken into consideration.  A few strong willed volunteers may exert undo influence on the organization. The priorities of the C.E.O. may not include fund development.

In spite of these complexities, a nonprofit organization should still be able to determine a long-term vision for what it wants to accomplish as an organization, the resources it has at hand to start it down that road, and a fair assessment of its strengths and weaknesses. Too many organizations try to be all things to all people and should focus on achievable, quantifiable goals.

The holiday season will soon be upon us, which means that it's time for businesses to start thinking about Christmas cards. If you've never sent business holiday cards, or don't make a point of sending them out every year, here are five reasons why you should start:

1. Meet Expectations. Although the adage, "It's better to give than to receive," is a sentimental favorite, those with whom you do business expect to be remembered during the holidays. Holiday greeting cards help smooth your business relationships during the rest of the year by meeting expectations during the Christmas season.

2. Improve Customer Relations. Whether you have a business-to-business enterprise, provide a professional service, or own a retail store, chances are that your success is built upon maintaining relationships with your customers and clients. Christmas cards show your customers and clients that you appreciate their business, and that you want to share the spirit of the season.

3. Cost Effective. Perhaps you already buy holiday gifts and remembrances for your best customers or clients, but business holiday cards allow you to reach many more people for relatively little money. You can purchase personalized business holiday cards for as little as $1.40 each, including options to select among many different styles and verses, several colors of ink, and imprinted envelopes. This is an excellent investment in your business.

4. Excellent Return on Investment. Chances are, you and your company receive business Christmas cards from your vendors and suppliers. So, you understand the warm feelings that arise when you read their holiday cards, and you probably experience a "carryover" positive impression when you do your purchasing in the New Year. If you doubt that business holiday cards generate an excellent return on investment, ask yourself this: All other things being equal, which company would you choose to do business with - the company that sent you a holiday card every year or the company that only contacted you when it was time to reorder or collect payment?

5. Limitless Choices. With the rise of Internet and ecommerce, companies have an unprecedented opportunity to select business Christmas cards that reflect their company's image and values. The best online sources for business holiday cards have a wide variety of high quality card designs. In addition, the best online greeting card companies offer a free choice of verse, free coordinated foil-lined envelopes, free samples of Christmas cards, and a multitude of choices for personalization.

In today's business world, you need to take advantage of every opportunity to differentiate your company from your competition. Sending business Christmas cards is a small gesture than can mean improved customer relationships and an excellent return on investment. You really can't afford not to send holiday cards to your customers, clients, and associates.