Managing your risks

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The task of managing your export-related risks begins with known what the risks. Your first step is therefore to identify the risks that you are likely to encounter and to give some 'weighting' to the seriousness of the risk. The more serious it is, the more attention you will need to give to addressing the risk in qiestion. With some of the risks oultined above, you can obtain insurance to cover the risk. Three main types of risk cover include credit risk cover, country risk cover and transit risk cover - these are discussed below.

In the case of exchange rate risks, you can cannot direct insure your exchange rate risk exposure, but you can take steps to minimise these risks through hedging your risk by using one of four financial instruments forward contracts, future contracts, swaps and options (these are discussed in the section on foreign exchange). For most exporters, the first two (forward contracts and future contracts) are likely to be the only two instruments you will consider. Larger exporters with many export and import contracts in place may try to pair their forex exposures (linking an export contract in, say, US dollars to an import contract also in US dollars) or by matching assets and liabilities held in foreign currencies in their books.



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How to increase online sales

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Offer products that complement your initial product.

Sell more of the same product at a discounted price. If your product is refillable or needs to be regularly replaced, this strategy works especially well. For example, if you sell things like printer cartridges or batteries, you've got it made. But even if your product isn't refillable, you can show your customers you appreciate them by offering them a special discount on the product they've already bought. That way, if they like the product, they can buy it as a gift for family and friends.

Use paid subscriptions as backup to your products. If you've established yourself as an expert in your industry, you can build on your reputation by offering a subscription to premium information, available only to members. For example, if your main product is a fly fishing kit, you could sell a subscription to an exclusive course on advanced fly fishing techniques as a product. You could deliver this paid-for content through a members-only website or by e-mail.

Try splitting up your current product. For example, if you were selling a book on how to organize your home, you could offer a basic version for to generate a large volume of sales at a low price. Then later on, you could offer your customers an advanced, expanded version that includes home office management and scheduling software for even more, and increase your profits dramatically.

Try selling your customers an upgrade to their product. If they've used and liked your basic model, your customers will be open to receiving offers for an upgraded version. For example, if you sell e-books that teach people how to use a particular piece of software, you can sell updated versions to previous buyers when the software package in question is upgraded

Offer someone else's product. Probably the fastest--and easiest--way to add new products to your site is to join another business's affiliate program and recommend their products in exchange for a percentage of each resulting sale. Selling affiliate products can be a very lucrative way to increase your sales, especially since you don't have to spend any time or money developing a new product of your own. Don't offer somebody else's product too much, or sometimes it can take over your own business



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8 top Tips for Sales success

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1.Listen to the experts. Granted many will claim they are when they aren't! But, people with solid sales experience and a track record to show you in your area of sales are worth listening to. As an enthusiastic rookie salesman, it's all to easy to start making rational assumptions that may be misleading, based upon intuition and relatively little life experience. A history of sales success is likely to be a far more accurate source of effective strategy.

2.Agree a sales process, who to see, what to say, how many people to see and where, and stick to it rigidly to enable you to establish cause and effect. The foundation for your sales process should lie in number 1. For any thinking person it's all too easier to adapt the approach after each call, making progressively small changes to your approach. Ultimately, this will conceal what is working and what is not. Stick to your sales process until agree review date, then make changes in a uniform way to allow you to clearly monitor the effects of these changes.

3.Don't let individual events change your approach, a call that's gone wrong or an example of a colleagues excellent result. Remember, changes in your approach should be considered over time and based upon a number of rational factors, such as the results of 'many' calls, or someone else's results over sustained period. One off events are likely to be misleading, even though the emotions they can conjure are often very powerful. Stick to your sales plan until your agreed review date, note events and thoughts along the way for collective judgement.

4.Look around you for clues to succeed, in most cases the answers are out there If you are one of many, analyse the most successful people, speak to them, ask for their opinions and examples of their success. There should be strong clues and patterns indicating why there are successful which you can learn from and adapt.

5.Expect setbacks and failures on the route to success. All the most successful people in sales jobs, and indeed life generally will be able to site failure along the way to success. Many site it as necessary stages on route to glory. Stick to your plan through set backs, be resolute, success will come with persistence and determination.

6.Review your progress regularly. Set regular review points where you can assess you progress against you criteria for success. These are the points at which you can consider measured changes to your process based on the collective information from your experience and the others around you.

7.Don't change too much at once. Two or three things at most. Remember, if you are to build success over time you need to be able to monitor cause and effect. Too many changes all at once can prevent the isolation of which are successful and unsuccessful strategies.

8.Enjoy meeting the many different faces and characters along the way, in my experience, happy people sell more, good luck!     



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The Benefits of Outsourcing In Small Businesses

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Before we can begin discussing the benefits of outsourcing especially in small businesses we must fully understand what outsourcing is and what outsourcing is not.

 So what is outsourcing? A fairly recent addition to business terminology, outsourcing in a business is the delegation of certain non-core operations to other separate entities that specialize in those operations. Put very simply, outsourcing means giving away certain tasks which though imperative to the actual business, can be better managed by another industry which specializes in that task.

Outsourcing entails transferring management control and decision making power to the other industry as well. This means that there is a lot more interaction, and information exchange, coordination and trust between the outsourcer and its client, making it different from the established buyer-seller relationship.

Now that we have established what outsourcing is, let’s focus on what it is not. Outsourcing is commonly confused to off shoring, which is the relocation of an entire or part of a functional unit of the business to another nation, whether it remain in that business’s control or not. Outsourcing is usually limited domestically. In many cases, such as telemarketing, the company wishes to employ the service of overseas call centers. Thus when outsourcing crosses national borders it is called offshore outsourcing.

So why should companies outsource? There are plenty of benefits of outsourcing, especially for small businesses. The main reason for outsourcing is the cut in costs, as they don't have to provide benefits to their workers, and have fewer overhead expenses to worry about. Many businesses prefer offshore outsourcing, as it allows them to utilize the low labor costs of countries such as India and China. Not only that, the relatively high exchange rates in these countries makes offshore outsourcing more advantageous. In India, the dollar exchange rate is 45 rupees per every American dollar. Thus the average American worker who would take (for e.g) $5 per hour can be replaced by an Indian worker employed at $2/hour.

Outsourcing also allows smaller businesses to focus on core competencies, and relieve themselves of the peripheral ones. Thus they can concentrate on providing better quality products and service. Even if the quality does not improve, the cut in cost allows for greater productivity. This increases the overall economy in total. Not just that, the business can produce good quality products without having to employ a large amount of people. Thus lowering their overall labor charges and employee benefit.

The best facet of outsourcing though is the ability to employ professionals to get the work done. In areas such as advertising and telemarketing, it is usually more cost effective, and productive to hand over the task to a separate company and pay them accordingly. Thus instead of handling their own affairs in a substandard manner, they can employ professionals to carry out the process efficiently and effectively. And once the outsourcing company is assured that its client is managing perfectly, it can focus on creating better products and services.

For small businesses, outsourcing allows them to work with the minimum of labor and equipment expenditure. For example, a small firm outside city limits can outsource its transport, thus making it unnecessary for it to acquire buses, cutting the cost of fuel and saving its resources. Another prime example is telemarketing and advertising. Many companies prefer to outsource this facet of marketing to professional call centers and advertising agencies, thus eliminating the need to form an entire unit devoted to this task. Not only that, but because the outsourcing client has a fully established infrastructure devoted especially to the service provided, there is no necessity for a small business to invest in developing its own internal infrastructure to accommodate that service.

In small businesses there’s only a limited access to resources and ideas. Outsourcing allows the business to garner new ideas and innovations. It could also result possible cash influx due to the transfer of assets to the new provider



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How to Avoid Online Business Failures

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Reports suggest that a number of online businesses fail. This means that you will need to avoid the common reasons for the failure in order to make a success of your online business.

Instant results:

In the day of instant gratification and lightning speed, everyone wants everything yesterday. The level of expectations is further heightened by the number of stories doing the rounds about internet millionaires and guys who invented the next big thing online. A huge number of internet businesses fail simply due to the unrealistic expectations the owner had. Now let’s be realistic. You are probably not a rocket scientist or Einstein and while your idea may be good, it may simply not take off. A successful business person has to be persistent and be patient. You will see some failures before success comes and you need to weather through it and persist. This is the most important way to sustain your business - keep at it and don’t give up easily.

Lack of Updates:

If you expect that you can simply put up your site on the internet and people will swarm to it and you never have to do anything again, think again. That simply doesn’t happen. That’s what they don’t show you – what happens after the end of the movie. The hero gets rich but has to work hard to stay rich. It’s the same with your site. You will need to constantly change with the business, the technology and the internet’s thought process to remain in business. You need continuous updating, in terms of marketing, optimization of your technology and content, and even your offerings.

Value proposition:

A number of online businesses fail simply because they do not offer a value proposition to the customer. Do not underestimate your customer – you cannot fool everyone all of the time so people will compare the value you offer to hundreds of other competitors on the internet market before selecting. If you want to get picked, be sure that you have a unique selling proposition and the customer will find value in what you provide.

Riding a wave:

Many people do not have a unique idea of their own and simply want to cash in on the latest wave in the market. The internet has its share of fads and one line of thinking is to create a site based on what everyone else is doing. While this is not a bad idea in itself, you need to remember that if everyone else is doing it, you need to find a way to differentiate yourself from them. Further, you will need to have solid understanding on the subject that you select, through research and experience. Also, remember that when the next fad comes, this one will fade and your business site should have a sustainable advantage to keep afloat.

Disinterest:

Some entrepreneurs are simply not interested in providing a product or service. They only want to make money. This harks back to the earlier points of updating and offering value to the customer. If you do not update your site and offer good service to your customer, your lack of interest in the business will show through and customers will not buy from you.



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Thank you, Tootoo!

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I have gained lots of help from tootoo, both as a free member and as a tootoo member.

My specialty is textile-related items. Soon after my registration as an tootoo free member in 2006, I got quotes from all over the world and was able to make several deals. I started selling items through tootoo. Then I chose to become a tootoo member in April of 2007. tootoo added a real boost to my business. Now I keep on posting new products and contacting new buyers and sellers every week!

I would like to offer my sincerest thanks to the tootoo service team for their help, suggestions and continued support.

Thank you, tootoo!





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Business Startups

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Starting a new business can be a very exciting time, you are going to be your own boss, decide what and when you do things, manage the purse strings, and in fact you are in control of everything. Are you really in control of the situation though, you have to deal with everything yourself so you have to stay focused on what you want to do and why. All business startups need advice; sometimes they need advice on where to get advice, so the budding entrepreneur has to be able to listen as there is more to running a business than understanding, or loving, the subject. Like a chess game, success in small business starts with decisive and correct opening moves. And, although initial mistakes are not fatal, it takes skill, discipline and hard work to regain the advantage. When you plan to start a business you do not plan to fail but statistics show that 70% of business startups fail within the first 3 years of trading. This is for a variety of reasons but they mainly hinge around business and financial planning. Basic mistakes like starting the business with insufficient financial backing or working capital to taking too much of the profits to remunerate the owners are often the downfall of the business.

A way to increase your chances of success, take the time up front to explore and evaluate your business and personal goals. This information will be useful to help you build a comprehensive and well ¬thought¬ out business plan, the blueprint for you business.

Every business needs a business plan, for business startups the first part of the business plan might be where to find out how to write a business plan and what it should include. The process of developing a business plan will help you think through some important issues that you may not have considered yet. Your plan will become a valuable tool as you set out to raise money for your business, no investor will even look at you if you have not got a business plan. It should also provide milestones to gauge your success.

There are a lot of agencies who can advise you on some, or all, aspects of starting a business. Some of these will charge you for their advice whilst others offer them free of charge.

Business link is one of the agencies and advice is free and assistance with funding might be available in the right circumstances. They have a large database that will help you find a grant or subsidy that suits your business and let you know what makes a business eligible to receive one. Interactive tools help you identify the capital and incentive allowances that your business can claim and identifies online transactions available to your business and explains how to register and enrol.

They can even help with introductions to reputable suppliers. A bad supplier speeds the downfall of a lot of business startups who really need to rely on good stock and reliable delivery dates.

There are a lot of schemes that are interested in funding business startups, for example Option 2 funding offers 50% matched funding for projects to expand business. Other funding schemes are often available based on regional location and industry type. These include grants to help with business development, and they are available from a variety of sources, such as the government, the European Union, Regional Development Agencies, Business Links and some charitable organisations.

So if you do not want to be a an addition to the failure statistic investigate all the funding opportunities available to you, whether you go to a commercial organization or go for free advice from an agency such as Business Link. Be sure to listen to their advice, they have been dealing with business startups for years; this is your first time.



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60% of Our Business Comes From Tootoo!

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We live in a world of rapid globalization, where information is just on our finger tips. So, having a business platform that gets the attention of ever-demanding clients and customers, without having to attend a great number of international trade fairs, is a great help.

We have been associated with tootoo for one year, and since that time we have had a significant amount of serious enquiries. There is not a single day that goes by when we don't get enquiries routed through tootoo. Tootoo's service is also an invaluable source of commercial news that not only provides information but also forecasts the rising trends in the global market. Being a tootoo member has seriously added more credibility to our business and increased our number of fraud-prevented customer inquiries.

Because of tootoo, our buyers can reach us easily through their preferred search portals with distance being just a few clicks away. We give our sincere thanks to tootoo for getting key business factors in line and helping us expand our business horizons.As a tootoo member from India, we are extremely happy with the services tootoo provides. We received our first buyer form tootoo and there have been many more since. Today, we receive 60% of our business through tootoo and we believe that this will only increase in future.



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