Category: business

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business

Retail Online

These are the features ranked according to the number of top 500 retailers that are using them (as per Internet Retailer Magazine):

  1. keyword search
  2. daily/seasonal specials
  3. enlarged product view
  4. what’s new
  5. affiliate program
  6. advanced search
  7. online gift certificates
  8. rich media
  9. outlet center
  10. email a friend
  11. coupons/rebates
  12. top sellers
  13. site personalization
  14. alternative payments
  15. store locator
  16. wish list
  17. customer reviews
  18. catalog quick order
  19. mapping
  20. product customization

Interesting enough as well that most consumers (according to Forrester) are willing to decline paying for “flare”:

Fewer consumers are willing to pay for extras such as gift wrapping, or overnight delivery.
(26% of respondents said they would pay for expedited delivery prior to the holiday season, down from 45% who said they would do so in 2006.)

Generally, what this means is that consumers want to get their purchase faster, easier and with less extras then before. For most of the prospective clients that call us, top five requests for web site are:

  1. Large pictures/ability for visitor to enlarge product image
  2. Search engine optimization/marketing
  3. Ability to quickly add and remove inventory items
  4. Ability to post featured/for sale items
  5. Ability to use various discount codes to track promotions

It is obvious that trends for small and large businesses are almost the same. The slight difference is attributed to overall approach to ways of doing business for small business owners and large retailers.

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business

Debt Of The Entrepreneur

Unless you were born into money, one way or another you get into debt. For most of the people it’s manageable debt – revolving accounts (also known as credit cards), small and big loans (also known as car financing and mortgage). But the whole bunch of people are suffering from unmanageable debt (the one that leads to bankruptcy). For some people the thought of debt is so heavy they don’t even do anything about it. Others become refugee entrepreneurs, escaping from debt into running their own business.

Debt Negotiation, debt consolidation and debt help are considered lesser evil. They don’t usually pay your debt for you, but they refer you to services that may help. How it works for them is that they either buy your debt from your creditors for less then amount you owe thus making a profit. Alternatively, they negotiate easier repayment terms under the assumption that bank has high chance of not seeing their money anyway.

Any debt is like a swamp – you better off not get into it, but if you got yourself in there – get out as fast as you can.

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business

At The Crossroads of Starting A Small Business

Starting a small business is not a simple business. Depending on whether entrepreneur is a refugee or a risk-taker, the choice of what kind of small business to start could be difficult. My personal choice even transformed. When I was starting a small web-hosting business I had no idea what I will be dealing with. Clients were the least of my concern, as frauds, spammers, scammers and other inventive people were trying to make money on my business. Mainly because of that I have decided to migrate to web design and web development – not even because I am a web developer myself.For people who are afraid to take a risk of an unknown venture there is an easier road to success – buying into franchise. As thousands of franchise opportunities exist on the market today the only problem that remains is that of a right choice. Fortunately, there are a lot of resources available both online and offline (Entrepreneur magazine is one of my offline favorites). Do your homework, research your franchisor, talk to franchisees and make a decision.

Oh, yeah, and Starbucks is not a franchise. Or I wouldn’t be doing web design.