BCA

By John Riley

Acquiring and managing the financial resources of a company has always been, and will continue to be, the greatest challenge for management. It is even more critical for start-ups and small businesses whose needs are great and their financial assets limited. As a result, when a small company does qualify for financing, it often requires paying higher interest to banks or giving up a bigger slice of company equity to venture capitalists, but if you can’t qualify, factoring may be the solution.

Factoring is one source of funding that is attracting more attention these days. An example is Liquid Capital of Arizona, a major player in the field. They are looking to partner with small businesses without taking equity, sharing in profits or making business decisions. While they are ready to provide working capital to most entities, their focus is on business-to-business companies.

“We offer five basic services to help small business,” says President Joel Gottesman, “ and over time we have found more and more companies wanting to know more about factoring.
Our focus now is to try to provide more information about what we offer and where we think our services can best serve our clients”

Full factoring is one of those services. The way it works is straight forward. All of a business’s approved accounts are sold to Liquid Capital. Then Liquid Capital typically advances 80% in cash up front and the balance as they collect on the acquired accounts’ outstanding invoices, less their discount fee.

Another option is spot factoring. In this scenario, the same services as full factoring are employed except only a portion of the business’s approved accounts, chosen by the client, are sold to the factoring company.

Purchase order finance is another service, but it is different in application. Liquid Capital finances purchase orders for the purchase of presold inventory. Factoring the accounts receivable on delivery of the goods to the manufacturer funds the payment to the manufacturer.

The factoring company can also act as the business’s outsourced accounts receivable department. Their specialists underwrite the customer’s credit, provide collection services, process payments through a lock box, and provide a full on-line reporting system. The cost is very economical compared to staffing a credit department in-house.

Finally, the factoring company provides credit insurance. It is an economical way for a business to help insure selected invoices against loss from a customer’s insolvency.

There are several ways a factoring company can help according to Gottesman, “ We can fund growth opportunities, the sale of a business, delay the need for additional equity, help avoid equity dilution, fund ineligible receivables on a bank line and fund Chapter 11 reorganizations. And the process of helping a client get started is made easy by the experience and customer focused attitude of our people.”

With the many financial problems facing businesses today, factoring can be one of the tools management can fall back on when things are most difficult. It can be the right solution at the worse time.

Consumers’ increasing appetite for mobile applications is driving online retailers to speed up their mobile marketing initiatives. According to a Forrester Research, Inc. study produced in partnership with Shop.org, the National Retail Federation’s digital division, nearly three-quarters (74 percent) of online retailers either already have or are developing a mobile strategy. One in five boasts having a fully implemented mobile strategy in place already. The survey of 109 companies is part of The State of Retailing Online research series, which provides eBusiness professionals with an annual industry benchmark for marketing and business investment and activities.

Mobile Commerce has tremendous potential

“It’s imperative for online retailers to stay on top of what their customers want, and these days it’s all mobile all the time,” said Scott Silverman, executive director, Shop.org. “Mobile commerce has tremendous potential and will no doubt grow to become a significant part of overall sales volume in years to come. Whether to increase customer satisfaction, grow their brand, or drive traffic and sales, online retailers are in this game to stay.”

“Mobile investment is modest now, but we see that it will pick up in the future, especially among the biggest brands that have already invested significant amounts in their mobile operations,” said Sucharita Mulpuru, vice president, principal analyst, Forrester Research, and lead author of the report.

Earlier this year, Forrester forecast US online retail sales to total $173 billion in 2010. According to “The State Of Retailing Online: Marketing, Social Commerce and Mobile Report,” Web retailers with mobile strategies:

•Are investing in features that support the cross-channel experience. Product and price information, store information, and coupons to support the in-store experience are among the most popular features that retailers are offering consumers.
•Have varied levels of investment. On average, respondents anticipated spending $170,000 on their mobile sites this year, large multichannel retailers are spending several times that amount, while smaller online pure plays on average are investing much less.
•Are experiencing modest gains. Retailers reported that their mobile browsers at this juncture are generating a little less than 3 percent of overall site traffic and just 2 percent of revenue.

Retailers are spending nearly 40% of their budget on paid searchTried and true marketing tactics such as paid search, email, and affiliate marketing command the biggest percentage of an online retailers’ marketing budget. According to the report, retailers are spending nearly 40 percent of their marketing budget on paid search.

Retailers are finding value in social media marketing, but the ROI for driving online sales remains murky. Listening to customers is the most significant objective for social tools according to respondents, with 80 percent of retailers reporting that they are pursuing social strategies to experiment and learn. And while 28 percent noted that social marketing has helped grow their business, direct sales from social tactics are not widely measured.

There has been a major “paradigm shift” in consumer behaviour in the US, with the recession changing people’s views on value.

Deloitte, the consultancy, conducted a survey of 2,077 main household grocery buyers in America, finding that 84% were examining their spending in every category to try and save money.

A further 79% believed they were “smarter” shoppers than two years ago, and 65% said a decrease in overall expenditure had not exerted a negative impact on their quality of life.

Some 81% of the sample agreed it was “fun” to see how much they would be able to reduce bills using vouchers and loyalty cards.

Two-thirds of participants were more regularly reclaiming coupons, a total that includes the 39% using the web to track down special offers.

Around 60% of contributors also described themselves as having become more “price conscious” in the last 24 months.

In contrast, only 15% were “buying to please myself” with a greater degree of frequency, 11% placed a particular emphasis on new products and 7% exhibited stronger levels of attachment to brands.

In all, 75% of the panel suggested the financial crisis had caused them to realise “which brands I really care about are which ones are less important to me.”

Elsewhere, 80% thought own-label goods were simply repackaged variants of better-known alternatives and 74% were “more open” to experimenting with lines manufactured directly by retailers.

Only two or three brands they could not do without

A majority of consumers said there were only two or three brands which they “could not live without”, and that private label items were of the same or superior standard to more established rivals.

Deloitte argued there are now four distinct audiences which have emerged in the US, adding that each of these groups has unique requirements.

The biggest of these was the “spectators”, comprised of young, high-earning and well-educated adults that had no need to reform prior spending habits.

According to the study, this cohort has a “well-balanced, opportunistic take on resourcefulness” which means its members often make savings out of choice rather than necessity.

“Planners” made up 21% of the potential customer base.

The group’s shared preferences include cooking from scratch rather than eating prepared meals, suggesting they are interested in a wide “product mix.”

At the other end of the spectrum are “sacrificers” – making up 22% of the total base – who are typically on a low income and who have seen their wealth decline in the last two years.

While this group displayed a “certain pride” in carefully managing money, this came at a “steep emotional price” in the form of disappointment at being forced to trade down.

One key way people fitting this profile are trimming costs is through opting for larger pack sizes, even though they were the least likely to have children.

“Super-savers”, 21% of grocery buyers as assessed by Deloitte, were characterised by a “deliberate and concerned effort to increase use of coupons and multiple store shopping”.

Women are the most sizeable portion of this demographic, which generally experienced feelings of “empowerment” and “great pleasure” by containing household budgets.

The battle over surplus margins

“We see a fundamentally changed consumer marketplace paradigm, one in which consumers and marketers do battle over surplus margins, where surplus margin is the difference between the regular price and the discounted effective price,” Deloitte added.

From World Advertising Research Center

This article is adapted from “Learning from Experience” in The Center for Creative Leadership Handbook of Leadership Development.

Career setbacks can be demoralizing but they don’t need to be debilitating.
In fact, CCL research shows that many executives look at setbacks and mistakes as turning points or important lessons in making them effective or successful leaders.

“Early setbacks represent a key developmental event that successful executives cite when they look back over their careers,” said CCL’s Ellen Van Velsor in a recent article in The Wall Street Journal. Van Velsor, a CCL Senior Fellow, has been involved in the Center’s “Lessons of Experience” research for more than two decades.

In the May 4, 2010 article, Three Who Thrived After Early Gaffes, columnist Joanne Lublin described setbacks of Jeffery Hollender, co-founder of Seventh Generation Inc.; Peter G. Peterson, the billionaire co-founder of Blackstone Group LP; and Myron E. Ullman III, chief executive of J.C. Penney Co. Each of these executives used their stumbles as learning experiences. They reflected on their missteps and mistakes and, as a result, made important personal and career decisions.

CCL’s Lessons of Experience studies show that the ability to reflect on and learn from hardships is important to the growth and success of leaders around the globe. The research, initiated in the United States in the early 1980s, looked at the key developmental events in male executives’ lives and the lessons learned from those events. Over the years, CCL conducted similar studies with women, African Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans, as well as with international executives, including senior leaders from China, Singapore and India.

Adversity can be a powerful opportunity to learn
Adverse situations — such as crises, mistakes, career setbacks and ethical dilemmas — are important developmental moments. Tangible business losses, loss of confidence or loss of control are all powerful experiences. And, while adversity is not something to seek out, it can be a powerful opportunity to learn.

Many leaders — across cultures — believe that the experience of hardship prepared them to thrive in better times. As one Chinese saying puts it, ”First bitter, then sweet.”

By Paul Verna

Most of the attention in the online video space has focused on either media content and consumers or marketers and video advertisements. But companies continue to push further into this realm with non-advertising content.

Recent studies have shown that growing numbers of retailers are adding video capabilities to their sites. Surveys of Fortune 500 companies also indicate a broad-scale increase in the use of video for marketing purposes. In this sense, video has gone from a luxury to a near necessity for companies seeking an edge in marketing their products. From home-goods merchants to automobile manufacturers, companies across a wide spectrum are finding ways to use video in their marketing efforts, and consumers are embracing—sometimes demanding—these changes.

Retail is a sector where online video is becoming more important for driving sales. When asked by Multichannel Merchant to identify rich media features that they used, 46% of US multichannel retailers picked video, making it the highest-ranked category in the survey. Another 42.3% of respondents said they planned to add video capability in the next year.

Several studies point to increased use of video by US companies. According to Forrester Research, the percentage of the top 50 US online retailers that offer videos on their sites skyrocketed to 68% in 2009 from 18% in 2008.

Marketers are on board with more than just ecommerce applications, as well. A study led by the Society for New Communications Research noted 31% of Fortune 500 companies with public-facing blogs used video blogging in 2009, up from 21% in 2008.

27% of companies surveyed will increase video budgets

Ad-ology asked US marketing executives whether they would increase, decrease or make no changes in their 2010 marketing budgets for social and traditional media. Nearly 27% said they would increase their online video budgets for viral clips and podcasts, while 5.5% would decrease their budgets. Out of the remainder, 41% would leave the budget intact and another 27% said they did not use video. These responses put video ahead of mobile marketing and search optimization as budget priorities for US marketing executives.

As eMarketer’s Tobi Elkin noted in the report “Consumer Packaged Goods Sector Taps into Online Video,” “Creating an online video presence helps marketers facilitate an ongoing dialogue with consumers, boost brand equity, lure prospective customers and solidify support among brand loyalists.”

On the receiving end of these marketing efforts, consumers are accessing increasing amounts of video on multiple platforms, from laptops and home PCs to smartphones and tablets. As these devices continue to penetrate the market, consumers will expect ubiquitous access to video content. Examples might include watching product videos at the point of sale or viewing a portion of a podcast on a PC and resuming the session on a tablet. Marketers are aware of the potential and are upping their game in a variety of sectors.

For story with complete data charts, go to e-marketer.com.

Twitter, the microblogging service, is expanding the range of options it makes available to brands, having received positive feedback regarding its initial activity in this area.

Walt Disney, the entertainment group, has signed up to the social network’s latest marketing tool, @earlybird, which allows users to access deals and discounts for a limited period of time.

As part of the communications strategy supporting its film The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Disney is offering two tickets for the price of one via Twitter.

In return for its investment, the company will see its paid-for post retweeted on a regular basis via the earlybird feed, which has rapidly secured over 50,000 followers.

The link contained in Disney’s tweet directs netizens to a dedicated section of its Fandango site, where they then enter a special code.

Any offer hosted on @earlybird must be exclusive to Twitter, which is hoping to roll out regional and other targeted deals in the future.

Toy Story 3 to be featured on Twitter homepage

Disney’s Pixar studio has also previously paid for Toy Story 3 to feature as a trending topic on Twitter’s homepage.

Dick Costolo, Twitter’s chief operating officer, said it planned to build advertising models which reflected existing habits among its audience.

“We’re trying to make sure our ad platform is organic to how people are already using Twitter,” he said. “There’s going to be lots of iteration and testing. So far it’s working.”

‘The man your man could smell like’

Procter & Gamble’s Old Spice recently ran a Promoted Trend tied to its campaign “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like”, an effort that has achieved considerable viral traction across the web.

Virgin America, Bravo and Red Bull were just some of the firms that had joined the Promoted Tweet scheme by the time it first went live, and most participants have reported promising results.

Costelo suggested the fact many corporations established a presence on Twitter prior to these developments means they have learned to interact with consumers rather than simply repurposing search ads from Google.

“If we tried to monetize at day one, you’d see people cutting and pasting their Adwords ads and getting no followers,” he said.

Coke Tweets pay off

Coca-Cola, the soft drinks giant, generated impressive figures from employing Promoted Tweets and Topics during the World Cup, when it sponsored the conversation surrounding a match between England and the US.

According to Carol Kruse, Coke’s vice president for global interactive marketing, this approach yielded 86 million impressions in 24 hours.

It also delivered an “engagement rate” of 6%, which can be measured against the corresponding total of well under 1% in terms of the number of people that generally click on other forms of online ads.

“The amount of impressions in such a short period of time around our whole World Cup campaign, to me it was a phenomenal time,” said Kruse. “It made this emotional connection at the time, it was great.”

Kruse added that Coca-Cola decided to utilise Promoted Trends as soon as it saw the opportunities they would provide.

“We get a lot of first looks and we jumped on that one immediately. It is the perfect example of us wanting to learn in this space,” she said.

“We didn’t know how it would work out but we wanted to learn in that space … It could have completely flopped.”

From World Advertising Research Center

By Ernie J. Geeting

Every day thousands of people decide to enter the world of internet marketing. They have heard the stories of others earning fortunes online and hope they might be able to get a piece of that pie themselves. Most have no previous background in sales or marketing. Some will succeed but many will fail. In this article I will expose the main reason people fail and then I’ll reveal to you the single most important thing you must do before promoting any product or service online.

Here’s the most important thing you must know about internet marketing…it is all about the MARKETING. Forgive me for stating the obvious but most people really don’t know what marketing really is or what it involves. So what is it exactly? Marketing is the process of promoting a product from a producer or supplier to a prospective customer in a manner that persuades the prospect to buy. It’s about matching products and services with people who want, and will pay for them. The marketing process requires study of the product itself, researching the potential market, testing, presentation, and promotion. Most people who want to make money on the internet know nothing of the process of marketing, fail to do proper research and are unwilling (or too broke) to do testing. It has been said over 95% of people who try doing internet marketing fail. Now you can understand why. You wouldn’t try flying an airplane without proper knowledge and hands-on training but yet hundreds try to start a home business in marketing without having a clue as to what to do. They are destined to crash and burn.

Making money on the internet comes from making sales, nothing more. This is done by advertising. The NUMBER ONE REASON why people fail as internet affiliate marketers is that they have insufficient knowledge and experience in selling and advertising. The cause for their lack of success isn’t the product they represent or the companies they choose to affiliate with, the problem is with the prospective marketers themselves. If you want to succeed online you need to understand the sales process and need to be willing to always be learning sales and copy writing techniques. While there may or may not be such a thing as a ‘born salesman’ (or copywriter) there most certainly are personality differences that allow the concepts of selling to come easier to some than others. However these concepts can be learned and applied by anyone desiring to do so. I urge you to seek out good books and courses about selling and copy writing. This knowledge will be extremely helpful to you when writing the content for your advertisements, capture pages and sales pages. Fortunately, most publishers or network marketing companies will provide you with a professionally written affiliate sales page and advertisements. However….

A frequent temptation newbies fall into is taking the shortcut of using a publisher provided affiliate sales page as the landing point for their visitors. A sales page is the main website page for a product that contains the advertising copy (aka: sales pitch). This is a grave error that will cost them untold wasted hours and advertising dollars. Never link directly to a ‘stock’ sales page. Did you get that? This is an important key to success: DO NOT link directly to an affiliate sales page. Why not? Because that sales page is the exact same sales page that everyone else is using. You offer no more than anyone else advertising the same page so customers have no reason to buy from you over someone else. This is the most important thing you must do before you try to market anything online. Fail to do this and you will sabotage your chance to succeed. The same goes for ads and for the same reason. Never use company provided ads exactly as written, but rather reword or rebuild them while keeping the main points emphasized

So what should you do? Here are some options…

1. Make a Capture Page. On you capture page offer a free report series or e-book about a topic closely related to the product you wish to sell. The idea here is to give away some useful information, not a sales pitch. Deliver it via autoresponder in a series with each installment having a recommendation at the end (with a clickable link) for the customer to purchase the item you wish to sell. That link can be to your company provided sales page (embedded with your affiliate id). This approach works the same way for network marketing. Give first, sell second.

NOTE: Sometimes a product you might sell might be from an online store with multiple products. Always link to the sales or catalog page specifically for that product. If you are promoting a business opportunity such as MLM, link directly to the recruiting presentation page.

2. Build Your Own Sales Page. If you are savvy at website creation you can create your own sales page. Sometimes companies will allow you to copy and paste, or even provide you with images of their product or components of their sales page for the purposes of building your own sales page. Sometimes publishers of digital products will offer a Resale Rights package you can buy that contains all the essential graphics and ad copy for creating your own pages. If you do create your own sales pages reword the advertising copy and somehow personalize your pages so they are ‘branded’ to you. Finally, make sure the finalized page is in compliance with the publisher’s rules for such pages.

3. Create a Review Page. This has become a popular way to promote products. You simply write a review (or do an audio or video review) of the product you are selling from your own perspective and then link that page to your sales page. This can be done as a stand alone website or even a a blog. Just a caution here the FTC is really cracking down on sites like these because of their covert approach. You need to make it clear to the reader that you are an affiliate and will profit from the sale of the products reviewed at your site. Be sure to visit the FTC website for the details and play by the rules. Don’t turn your ‘review’ into a sales pitch. The only reason people will read your review is to get an honest opinion and some further detail about the product. While you want to be careful not to give a detailed description of every facet of the product, you do want to give the reader enough information so they will know whether this is the type of product they are looking for and would like to see the sales page on. By the way, it never hurts to also put a link for your autoresponder capture page on your review site, perhaps you could send them review alerts when you’ve done a new review or listings of other products you’ve reviewed, etc.

4. Use Lead Capture Drop-ins. Drop-ins are nifty little tools that allow you to turn any web page into a capture page. You simply use this tool to create an opt-in form that ‘drops in’ on top of the web page you are promoting. You then link the request form an autoresponder for follow up emails. You can use these much as you would a capture page, offering a free report, ebook or just ‘further information’. These are much faster to create than capture pages and work great with company provided sales pages as they allow you to offer something personally that others aren’t while also helping you build your contact list, just like the gurus do. They are the closest thing to a short-cut.

Having read this article you now know why so many fail online and exactly what you must do to set yourself apart from everyone else. Start putting this information into practice today and you will be positioning yourself for internet marketing success.

Ernie J. Geeting is an internet marketer and writer. He loves helping people to experience more success in their lives. You can see his blog and get a free course with insider secrets to internet marketing success at http://earnonlineincomenow.info

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ernie_J._Geeting

By Laura Smith Proulx

So you’ve written and re-written your executive resume, but it still doesn’t feel right to you? Maybe you’ve added metrics and detailed your career promotions, all to no avail. If so, it might be time to up your game; especially if you want to generate interviews.

You can find relief with S-T-A-R

To create a powerful and effective leadership resume, you can find relief from using a concept called the S-T-A-R (Situation-Task-Action-Result) strategy.

This method (aptly named for a reason) helps you to capture and sharpen the information you'll need for a masterpiece resume, starting with descriptions of leadership tasks and situational challenges, and ending with the results of your work.

From the Center for Creative Leadership

Businesses with effective corporate social responsibility programs often reap significant benefits from “doing good.” They can build a winning brand and encourage a positive outlook by both customers and shareholders. But can the same social responsibility programs have an impact on employee retention?

The Center for Creative Leadership (CCL®) explored that question during its 2008-2009 World Leadership Study, which sampled the opinions of 2,215 workers around the globe. There were three key findings related to how employees respond to social responsibility initiatives:

1.Corporate social responsibility programs are linked to how committed an employee is to an employer. This finding holds true across all ages and job levels and is particularly strong among women workers. The higher an employee rates an organization on its commitment to good corporate citizenship, the more committed the employee is likely to be to the organization.

2.Employee perceptions about corporate social responsibility remained constant during the depth of the economic decline. Despite budget reductions and layoffs becoming commonplace, employees were bullish about at least one thing. They believed their employers were committed to acting responsibly in the community.

3.Corporate social responsibility programs are not a panacea for retention issues. CSR is related to organizational commitment, but not to turnover, so companies can’t consider corporate social responsibility programs a cure-all for retention issues.
“If an employee isn’t happy, a strong corporate social responsibility program isn’t likely to tip the balance,” says Sarah Stawiski, Ph.D., a CCL post-doctoral research fellow and co-author of a report on the research. “Though a good social responsibility program won’t reduce turnover, it can impact how employees view your organization and the kind of ambassadors they will be when they come in contact with your customers, shareholders and community members. There are definitely positive benefits to be had.”

Stawiski’s recommendations to employers: Look for ways to leverage social responsibility initiatives internally. Communicate the contributions you’re making in the community and get employees involved.

Further details on CCL’s study are available in the report Employee Perceptions of Corporate Social Responsibility and the Implications for Your Organization. It was authored by Stawiski and her fellow CCL researchers, Jennifer Deal and William A. (Bill) Gentry.

By Roger Jefferies

Are you convinced about the need for spyware blockers but don’t know where to start? There are a lot of choices out there but one of the best spyware blockers you can use is Spyware Doctor. Spyware Doctor has been used by millions of people around the world and has received an award from PC Magazine so it has proven itself to be a good product.

What does Spyware Doctor do? It protects you in real time against threats, plus it can remove malicious files once they are on your hard drive. It protects you against keyloggers, spyware, adware, trojans, phishing, popups, bad sites, and identity theft. It runs quietly in the background when you are surfing the Internet and does its job without disturbing your activities. This is one of the malware blockers that also warn you against bad websites. The program will block the site or warn you before allowing it to load if it has detected something suspicious about the site. It will also halt downloads if they are questionable. By doing this you are safe no matter if you are browsing, using an instant messenger, or reading email.

Spyware blockers are only as good as their updates so any blocker you buy should offer frequent updates, daily updates are best. That way you can stay one step ahead of the hackers and spammers. Spyware Doctor is one of the adware blockers that offers daily updates to new known threats. Spyware blockers are important in today’s world but they are just one of the tools you need. Your best option is to install software that performs multiple tasks like Spyware Doctor does so you have all around protection.

Spyware Doctor is just one of the brands available

Spyware Doctor is just one brand of many different malware blockers on the market. The problem with malicious files is so big an entire industry has sprung up in order to cope with it. Before you buy any adware blocker, you should compare different products to make sure you buy the best one for you. If you don’t want to buy one, you can download a free one from the Internet. The important thing is that you protect your computer by preventing the unauthorized downloads in the first place. Spyware removers are useful too, but once spyware is on your computer, damage has already been done. Your goal should be to block spyware and to do that you need to choose from among adware blockers that have solid reputations and are updated as often as possible.

Remember, no matter how good Spyware Blockers are, if they are not installed and functioning properly, they won’t do you any good. It isn’t difficult to install Spyware Doctor or similar software, but if you are not comfortable with doing so, you can take your computer into a shop like Best Buy and let the service techs get you set up with all the protection you need.

Roger Jeffries is convinced that spyware blocker programs have saved his skin more than once. Visit his website to learn free ways to safeguard your most sensitive date with great, reliable www.myspywareblockers.com programs, and how to choose the right one for you.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Roger_Jeffries