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Articles from September 18, 2011

5 Reasons Why the Right Point of Sale Equipment Increases Profits

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Whether you own a restaurant or a retail outlet, the right point of sale (POS) hardware and software can increase your bottom line. Here are five reasons why:

1. Return on Investment. While there are POS systems at many different price points, there are inexpensive software solutions that have great functionality, work with a wide variety of types of hardware, and can integrate with other business software. For example, if you are looking for pizza shop software, Point of Success is a low-priced restaurant POS software package that has a wide range of features. Similarly, Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System (also known as Microsoft RMS) is a cost-effective solution for a clothing boutique.

2. Enhance Customer Service. If you're a restaurateur or a retailer, your relationships with your customers are paramount. POS equipment can ensure that your employees can spend more time interacting with customers and less time entering information into equipment. Restaurant POS software, for example, allows employees to enter and track orders, so mistakes are minimized and customers aren't kept waiting. Similarly, retail point of sale software can give your staff immediate access to availability, prices, and the location of inventory. This means that your customers can get a high level of service, increasing the likelihood of repeat business.

3. Increase Efficiency. If you can increase the efficiency of your restaurant or retail store, you'll soon see increased profits through a decrease in staffing costs, losses due to errors, and improved accountability. Microsoft POS, for example, allows your employees to quickly and efficiently check out customer purchases with built-in credit and debit card processing. It also enables you to do everything from tracking work hours with a time clock to tracking cashier tasks. This kind of transparency enables you to make informed decisions about policies and procedures, as well as to track problems back to their source.

4. Lower Training Costs. With point of sale software and hardware, you have a standardized training approach for your employees. By customizing the software to correspond to your menu items, for example, a trainee can quickly and easily enter orders. That same software can print preparation tickets or display orders on a kitchen monitor. With pizza shop software, you can easily train delivery drivers to pick up delivery dispatches and note their availability when they return from deliveries.

5. Improved Reporting. One of the primary benefits of point of sale software is its reporting capability. Better reporting gives you the information you need to do everything from making buying decisions to preparing your tax returns. Reporting capabilities vary from software package to software package, and the type of business you have will most likely dictate the type of software you need. For example, Microsoft POS and Microsoft RMS both allow you to manage and track inventory, generate purchase orders, track customer purchase histories, and track employee hours. Microsoft RMS offers even more reporting options, including customized reports, the ability to track backorders and layaways, and the capability to manage account receivables of customers.

The importance of point of sale equipment and software can't be overstated. It may seem like a significant investment, but it will more than pay for itself with increased sales, efficiency, and reporting.

Sunglasses Replicas Oakley

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Replica sunglasses are cheaper and they effectively serve the purposes of the sunglass buyers who purchase the eyewear as a stylish tool. Replica Oakley sunglasses are in high demand, actually the younger people prefer the Oakley sunglasses due to their design. Oakley offer a wide range of products and some of them are prescription eyewear, premium sunglasses, goggles etc. Replica Oakley sunglasses are within reach of the common people and this is the main case behind rising demand of them. The replica sunglasses are made with such craftsmanship and expertise that often it becomes difficult to distinguish between the original ones and the duplicates.

It has been also found that the dealers are selling the fake Oakley sunglasses as originals; this proves that it is very difficult to identify a replica Oakley sunglass. The Oakley replica sunglasses do not come with UV ray protection or proper warrantee; these sunglasses are ideal for the individuals who prefer to change sunglasses and want to use the sunglasses as stylish accessories. There are different websites that offer online Oakley sunglasses and the giveaway price is as low as just $ 10.A prudent purchaser must be aware of the fact that replacements of free service for these sunglasses are impossible.

There are sunglass lovers who do not care about whether a sunglass is original or replica, they just want to buy the new stylish eyewear. While buying a replica Oakley sunglass it must be considered that these sunglasses may not be polarized and also may not provide protection from the UV rays. For impressing friends with different pairs of trendy sunglasses, Oakley replicas are perfect. The Oakley replicas come with even similar logo, so it is possible to get the appreciation like an original Oakley sunglass just with a few bucks. The repair costs of the replica sunglasses are much cheaper than those of the genuine Oakley sunglasses.

Each and every model of the original Oakley sunglasses comes with exceptional Iridium and Plutonite lens coverage. The craftsmanship of the replica Oakley sunglass makers are praise worthy and they accurately copy the revolutionary technologies offered by Oakley. The duplicate Oakley sunglasses are also popularly known as Foakleys.The duplicate Oakley sunglasses are available at different city convenience stores and even from the roadside vendors. The price of the original Oakley sunglasses is much higher and the styles and the designs change considerably, so demand of the replica Oakley’s are quite high.

People suddenly by sunglasses before going to the weekend tours and outings, and search for sunglasses, and for short time use they finally settle with a cheap Oakley replica. There are plenty of online articles and journals that offer information about these replica sunglasses and it is best to read them to get proper insight about these replica sunglasses. There are online replica sunglass sellers that propose total money back in case of dissatisfaction with the Oakley replica sunglass. It is wise not to desire and warrantee or money back after purchasing an Oakley replica sunglass. For more information, visit their home page at http://www.sunglassesmall.com

Where Are The Facts About Outsourcing

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Outsourcing of jobs to offshore companies has been a hot-button issue since the 1960s when the United States began losing automotive manufacturing jobs to Japan. In recent years, the outsourcing of technical jobs has revived the debate which became one of the top issues in the 2004 presidential campaign. However, actual facts and statistics about the effect of outsourcing on the American economy are hard to come by. Rhetoric, not facts, dominate the discussion of whether outsourcing has an effect on the economy.

There is a serious dichotomy between the beliefs of average Americans and those of economists and other experts. For example, a Zogby International Poll showed that 71% of Americans believe that outsourcing hurts the economy but when the Wall Street Journal asked the same question of economists, only 15% felt that outsourcing had a negative effect.

Opinions on outsourcing tend to be divided by economic status rather than political persuasion. For example, some Republicans in the House and Senate believe that outsourcing has a terrible effect on the economy and that legislation should be enacted to stop it. However, conservative think tanks like the Heritage Foundation and Republicans with ties to big business believe that the threat of outsourcing has been over exaggerated.

Liberals are also divided about outsourcing. The Democratic party has traditionally been the party of labor in the United States but it was a Democratic president, Bill Clinton, who shepherded the North American Free Trade Agreement through Congress, a treaty which most experts agree facilitated the current outsourcing trend.

For every argument for outsourcing, there is another argument against it. For example, the Heritage Foundation argues that despite outsourcing more Americans are employed than ever before and that jobs continue to be created to compensate for those lost overseas. Anti-outsourcing advocates point out that gross wages are dropping because the jobs that are being created are low-level service sector jobs, not high-tech jobs to replace the ones that are being lost.

The Heritage Foundation, citing the Organization for International Investment also argues that for every job outsourced, another is "insourced" to the United States from another country, often at a higher rate of pay than the job lost. Anti-outsourcing advocates say that those numbers can't be accurately verified.

What is clear is that until the federal government conducts accurate research into the effects of outsourcing on the United States economy, there will be no definitive answer one way or the other.

American Success Story: Office Max Part 2

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Anyone with a home office, computer or kids in need of school supplies is most likely familiar with a store called OfficeMax. The company was founded in April 1988 and the first OfficeMax store opened in Cleveland, Ohio in July of that same year. The superstore chain now has over 900 locations in the United States and Mexico with just about every kind of office supply item you’d ever need from electronics, furniture and software to post-its and pencils.

Over the years, OfficeMax has taken on business ventures with several well-established companies such as Hewlett-Packard. Their goal is to provide consumers with the highest rated state-of-the-art services and products.

In addition to their partnership with Hewlett-Packard, another undertaking OfficeMax took on was a business venture with the Earthlink internet provider service in 2001. The two companies decided to hook up and market a wide variety of internet services to focus on the small business customer. As a result of this enterprise, Earthlink became the preferred provider of internet services to OfficeMax’s customers. Web hosting, dial-up and broadband connectivity are some of the Internet services the two companies offer by what OfficeMax refers to as ‘an interactive store-within-a-store’. They have made it available at all of the OfficeMax locations and online through the Business Services area of OfficeMax.com.

OfficeMax's chairman and chief executive officer, Michael Feuer said basically, that they chose EarthLink because of it strong customer focus. OfficeMax was further impressed by Earthlink’s operation because they stand behind their customer service commitment and constantly offer new technology to help small business customers become more efficient and effective. Additionally, EarthLink agreed to and continues providing training to OfficeMax employees on concepts that are designed to provide both of their customer bases with awareness and accessibility to the latest internet services.

OfficeMax and Earthlink view their combined business venture a win/win opportunity for both the companies and their customers. Earthlink feels that through their agreement with OfficeMax, they will be achieving a solid, retail-level method for reaching millions of small business customers. Both corporations also have the opportunity to provide their customers with new services they can use for accessing the internet which will increase productivity for their businesses.

Whether you are a small business owner, home-based professional or regular, all-American family with office and computer supply needs in addition to internet services, you can depend on OfficeMax for quality products and services. Check them out at www.officemax.com.

How do I get a top ten position on Google?

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The positions in Google are decided by a special formula called PageRank. If you are trying to get more traffic to your website or sell more products then it would be useful to be in the Google top ten for your keywords, yes?

To do this you are probably going to need to know a little bit about how PageRank works. Can you imagine how useful it would be to know what Google looks for in a top ten results and then do it?

Basically, the way PageRank works is that every time a website links to yours it is counted as a vote for your website. The more unique links to your website, the more likely you are to get a higher result and the more free traffic you will get.

The twist is that websites with a higher PageRank have votes that count for more. If msn.com suddenly linked to your website you may find that your PageRank suddenly went up and your search engine position with it.

Of course, this is unlikely, so how do we realistically increase our page ranks?

The first step is one of habit. If you regularly post on blogs, or comments on them, or on forums then include your link with every post. Put it in your "signature" if the bulletin board allows this feature.

The second step is a little more active. Link exchanges are a very good way to increase PageRank. You find a likeminded website and contact the webmaster by email. You offer to put a link to his website on yours if he does the same for you.

You set up a page on your website called "Links" and that will be where you put all of your links to other websites. You repeat this with other like-minded websites for free and easy traffic.

Any directories of websites like yours or even websites in general should have your link on them. Articles are also a good way of getting your link onto other websites as I have discussed in other articles.

If you can provide any other service for webmasters that allows you to put something on their website plus your link then do that. I once heard of a man who invented an automatic "quote of the day" script to put on websites and made his money that way.

Avoid "FFA"s or link "Free For Alls" at all costs because they are a waste of time and/or money. These are websites that ostensibly allow you to increase your Page Rank by placing your link there (either for free or a small charge).

However, search engines like Google do not check just the amount of links leading to your website but the relevancy. Therefore FFA sites with bundles of irrelevant links usually have low page ranks and so their link to you is worth very little.

Use of FFAs may work to increase your page rank but it is definitely working very hard for little rewards and I do not recommend it.

Sometimes banner exchanges are a good idea but that requires that you go to the effort to design a banner. This can be done for free but the visual affect is rarely stunning. Usually to get a good, traffic-pulling banner you have to hire someone to design one for you and so this technique has its financial downfalls also.

This article brought to you by Women About Biz. Get more business information at the #1 Small Business Resource for Women. www.womenaboutbiz.com.

Global Venture Capital: Ernst & Young Reports on Important Trend

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"The convergence of globalization, Web 2.0, media and innovations in IT and life sciences are further indications that the venture capital industry is operating in a new environment" states a report issued by Ernst & Young that examines the rapidly occurring changes in this market, and the impact that these changes have had on investors.

Global venture investments were the "hotbeds" for venture capitalists last year, with China and India topping the list of global activity. The emerging markets there have created several waves of IPO's, venture-backed business startups, and planned investments by Intel, Cisco, and Microsoft.

With the $4 billion in US funds that were invested in these markets last year, it would seem that global venture capital has saturated the market, but apparently it has only just begun. China and India lead the way, and are still in the early stages of market development for both the economies and consumer-oriented services.

In the areas of technology, these emerging global markets present tremendous opportunity and growth. The market potential, fast-growing economies and advantages in either cost of technology make these global venture investment opportunities extremely attractive to U.S. backed venture capital funding.

While much is being said about the opportunities that lie in these emerging global markets, venture capitalists must remain aware of the potential pitfalls. Some of the most important and difficult challenges that remain to be addressed are the regulations surrounding intellectual property, the lack of local NASDAQ-like exchanges for exit strategies, and the lack of a comprehensive venture capital law in many of these developing and emerging markets.

Email Marketing Software Leverages Limited Marketing Budgets

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In an era when giant retailers and mega-corporations are pouring millions of dollars into Internet marketing and advertising, owners of small - and medium-sized can become easily discouraged. With limited marketing budgets, can smaller businesses compete in the high-cost world of Internet marketing and advertising?

The answer is a definitive "yes." Indeed, one of the best ways to leverage limited marketing budgets is to use email marketing, which can be used to streamline, organize, and enhance customer relationships and communications. Email marketing is the perfect vehicle for distributing a company newsletter, contacting potential clients, sending offers to existing customers, or simply keeping in touch with an audience about updates and changes to the business.

At first glance, it may seem that email marketing is a good idea in theory, but difficult to execute in practice. Compiling and maintaining email lists, composing and keeping track of email messages and offers, and sending out the emails manually or using rudimentary email blast software is difficult and time-consuming. It's also a gamble, since so many blast emails are caught in spam filters and are never delivered to the recipients. The only way to truly get the message to the customer is through sophisticated email marketing software.

Historically, email list management software has had limited features, was unreliable in terms of assuring delivery of emails, and has been cost prohibitive to all but the largest companies. The good news is that new products have entered the marketplace that not only overcome these limitations, but that also offer enhanced affordability.

As a small or medium-sized business, shopping for email list management software can be tricky. Look for the following features:

* Affordability - Email list management software should allow you to send up to 50,000 emails a month for under $100. There are even some email list management software systems that periodically offer introductory rates of $1 for the first month.

* An intuitive, Web-based interface - Web-based software is the wave of the future; a Web-based email list management system means you never have to worry about software maintenance or upgrades.

* Limitless email lists - You should be able to maintain as many addresses as you wish and as many lists as you want without incurring extra expense. Beware of companies that charge based on the number of database entries you have!

* Rollover credits - If you don't use your allotted number of emails during a given month, a good email marketing package will allow you to roll unused credits over into the next month, or to purchase additional credits on the fly, in real time.

* Importing lists - You should be able to import entire mailing lists into the online system with a few clicks of your mouse. You should also be able to rent or buy opt-in email lists and migrate them into the system.

* Sequential mailings - The best email marketing software systems allow you to import a series of messages and set up sequential mailings to be sent at the day and time you desire. In other words, you should be able to implement a six-month email marketing campaign in one sitting.

* Flexibility - Look for software that allows you to edit your lists and messages right up to the minute your mailing is scheduled to be sent.

* Automated list management - Email marketing software should automatically handle bounced emails, bad addresses, and requests for removal. It should also allow you to remove any blacklisted addresses and build opt-in email lists.

Great email marketing software can be the great equalizer, allowing small - and medium-sized businesses to compete with the corporate giants in the world of Internet marketing and advertising.

How to Stop Your Cold Calls From Losing Steam

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Keep pushing?

In this old traditional cold calling mindset, we keep pushing. We try to present more information until we "close" the sale. We try to bypass people’s objections and concerns because we’ve already decided for them that they should buy what we have to offer.

However, in the new cold calling mindset, we know that sales pressure is always a recipe for disaster. Instead, we respond to objections by first trying to understand whether they’re genuine concerns or resistance to sales pressure. Until we do this, we have no way of responding appropriately to someone’s objections. We especially have no way of tackling the underlying cause of resistance, which is a reaction to sales pressure.

Genuine concern is about the product or service. Resistance is about a person’s mindset.

The old cold calling approach doesn’t distinguish between "genuine concerns" about what you’re selling, versus "resistance" to how you’re selling it. Nevertheless, this is crucial. If a potential client is genuinely concerned with something about your product or service, then you address it thoughtfully and directly.

However, if they’re resisting the process itself, then they’ve felt sales pressure in some way. Resistance is almost always a negative response to perceived sales pressure.

We therefore need to consider how we’ve introduced that pressure, or how we can reassure them we’re only focused on helping them solve their problems.

Different responses

When potential clients raise objections about what you’re selling (pricing, delivery, quality, etc.), these are genuine concerns. They’re rooted in the client’s world. Therefore, you must take them seriously rather than overriding or ignoring them.

When someone is resistant to the conversation itself, then you’re dealing with a reaction to sales pressure. This needs addressing, but in a different way. This is what I would call real "resistance," because clients are resisting the whole cold calling process.

They think that you’re trying to ‘sell’ them.

A tricky distinction

What gets tricky is when people raise objections that sound like genuine concerns. But what they’re actually doing is resisting perceived sales pressure.

On the surface, comments like these sound as if they’re about your product or service,

don’t they?

• Send me more information.

• Sounds good. Let me think about it.

• Your price is too high.

• Great. Let me talk it over with my co-workers.

They may actually be code words for "I’m feeling pressured by how you’re selling."

Your potential client probably isn’t going to tell you the truth. After all, when was the last time someone said, "You know, I feel as if you’re really focused on getting the sale here and that’s making me feel pressured. It’s creating a slight tension in my stomach.

Therefore, at this point, I don’t trust you."

Fortunately, you can figure out whether potential clients are raising genuine concerns or covering up their discomfort. Just do these two simple things:

1. Assume pressure is always present, even when you’re doing everything you can to create a pressure-free environment. People expect sales pressure, and we can’t always immediately diffuse that expectation 100%.

2. Trust your intuition and instincts. Over time, you’ll learn to be able to tell whether potential clients are telling you the truth. You’ll start picking up signals that they’re feeling pressured, such as giving you short answers.

As you learn to distinguish between genuine concerns and resistance, you’re likely to hear fewer and fewer "objections." You’ll stop triggering evasive responses or false concerns when you stay focused on what’s actually being communicated. You will also get far better reactions to your cold calling efforts.

Death Penalty Is Preferable to Life Imprisonment

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Kane, Gregory Current Controversies: Capital Punishment Mary E. Williams Greenhaven Press 2005

Viewpoint

Frederick Anthony Romano remembers the night. More than 15 years later, he remembers it as if it happened within the last week.

It was Sunday night, Nov. 1, 1987. Seventeen-year-old Romano had gone to bed. His mother, Betty Romano, was in the house with him and his father, Frederick Joseph Romano. Soon the father received a call from his son-in-law Keith Garvin, a Navy petty officer who had returned to his base in Oceana, [Virginia]. Garvin had called his wife, Dawn Garvin, to let her know he had arrived back safely. But there was no answer.

After two calls to his daughter's house, Frederick J. Romano headed to the newlywed couple's White Marsh apartment. He found his daughter beaten, tortured, mutilated and dead.

Frederick A. Romano remembers his mother's panic-filled voice as she talked to his father, of himself grabbing the phone only to hear his father tell him that his older sister had been hurt.

"But he knew she was dead," Frederick A. Romano said.... Yes, Frederick A. Romano-who prefers to be called just "Fred"-remembers it all. He remembers the man who murdered his sister and two other women-Patricia Antoinette Hirt and Lori Elizabeth Ward-and how he has waited for 15 years for one Steven Howard Oken to, in the younger Romano's words, "meet his maker."

The Pain of Victims' Relatives

"It's caused a lot of emotional problems for me and my mom and dad," Fred said. "They're on so many drugs to keep themselves calm, it's unbelievable."

That is a suffering death penalty opponents can't or won't understand. The pain of homicide victims' relatives never ends. It chips away at their souls and psyches year after depressing year. So what's the appropriate punishment for that?

Death penalty opponents would have us believe that squirreling Oken away in a cell-where Frederick A. and Frederick J. Romano, Betty Romano and Keith Garvin would be among the taxpayers footing the bill for his housing and meals-is punishment enough. If the correctional system offered any college courses, the Romanos and Garvin would pay part of the cost if Oken wanted to take them. Dawn Garvin never got to finish her education at Harford Community College.

Justice but No Closure

Capital punishment foes figure that's justice. Here's what death penalty advocates feel is justice. Execute Oken the week of March 17, [2003], as a Baltimore County judge ordered.... After Oken is dead, death penalty advocates can then defy death penalty opponents to show us why and in what ways Oken's execution was not justice.

That's what it's about for Fred Romano. He doesn't buy into the closure argument some death penalty advocatesmake. (It's just as well. Death penalty opponents, ever noble with grief not their own, dismiss the notion of closure, too.)

"It won't bring closure," Fred Romano said. "Dawn will never be back. I'm not looking for closure. That's a bad misconception on the part of some people. I want Oken to die for the murder of Dawn, Patricia Hurt and Lori Ward."

Not About Revenge

This isn't even about revenge, another rallying cry of the anti-capital punishment crowd, who chide death penalty advocates for seeking vengeance.

"It's justice," Fred Romano said. "It's not revenge."

His wife, Vicki Romano, agreed, then elaborated.

"Revenge would be going out and killing one of [the murderer's] family members," Vicki Romano said. "The death penalty isn't revenge. It's the law."

Fred Romano believes the man who's supposed to uphold that law, Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, has inserted himself squarely in the path of Oken's execution. [Early in 2003], Curran called for abolishing Maryland's death penalty....

Fred Romano called Curran after the announcement, to give the attorney general a piece of his mind. Curran, to his credit, called Fred Romano back and heard him out.

Curran, Fred Romano said, asked him if he had a problem with a sentence of life without parole as opposed to the death penalty. His response was what you might expect from a guy who organized the Maryland Coalition for State Executions [in 2002] and who's had the group's Web site (www.mc4se.org) up for [several] months.

"My problem with it is that 10 years from now some other idiot will come along and say life without parole is too harsh," Fred Romano said. "Then they'll pass a bill granting them parole and then we'll have a bunch of murderers walking the streets."

In Maryland's bleeding-heart liberal legislature, that's exactly what would happen.