Do Business Well

Evaluate Professional Email Marketing Services Capabilities

Does your provider or product vendor have a professional services group or does it rely on your internal IT group or outside system integration services to install its product or integrate its technology platform? The quality of professional services groups varies widely and the vendor’s own team is often not the one best suited to implement your email marketing solution. When evaluating professional services organizations, look for the following:

• An emphasis placed on professional services by the vendor (as opposed to your sudden realization that you need help implementing the vendor’s solution).
• Depth and breadth of services offered.
• Detailed domain experience that maps to the problem your are attempting to solve and products or technology you have chosen.

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Manger. An individual who directs and/or controls the activities of other individuals or of systems. Examples of systems would include bookkeeping, office, procurement, production, service, operations, and finance.

In the survival stage of your business you will undoubtedly hire some managers. If after a few years you have between five and ten people on the payroll services, it is likely that someone will be functioning as an assistant. The title of this assistant may be vice president, executive secretary, or office manager. Call him what you will, this person is the one who takes over when you’re gone, and who oversees that portion of the business that you don’t. Continue Reading »

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Market strategy number two is a logical outgrowth of the concept of core competencies, which is the idea that, in a world where specialists increasingly outperform generalists, a business should focus on what it does best and what is essential to its success. All other tasks should be farmed out to people who perform them better. Consistent with that credo, more companies are having components assembled by someone else, as well as delegating chores that include payroll, bookkeeping, manufacturing, even research and development, to specialists who have the scale of operations to perform them efficiently. Allocating as much of what you aren’t good at to someone who is better will free your own time and capital to devote to myriad other tasks. Continue Reading »

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To keep the franchise agreement manageable and to avoid the unacceptable burden of renegotiating the agreement in response to frequent changes in day-to-day operational requirements as far as possible, it is customary to state only the principles according to which the franchise relationship will be conducted. This will be supplemented by a proviso stating that detailed operational requirements are set out in a series of written directives issued by the franchisor and delivered to the franchisee in the form of the operations and procedures manual.

Moreover, the franchisor will reserve the right to issue updates to the operations and procedures manual from time to time, which will reflect changes in operational requirements. As soon as such directives are received by the franchisee, they become binding, just as if they were contained in an amendment to the franchise agreement. Continue Reading »

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In the ‘post-dotcom’ era, one of the most important lessons learned by the survivors is that it takes more than a flashy Web site to succeed. It depends on a good business plan, promotion, focused customer service and an efficient distribution system. It also helps to be connected to a strong and trusted brand. When famous designer Ralph Lauren decided to launch his Polo brand on the Internet (www.polo.com), he joined forces with NBC (the National Broadcasting Co.), NBC.com and ValueVision Fulfilment services. Each of the partners brought its own specialism to the venture: Ralph Lauren supplies the product and the name recognition, NBC provides promotion on its networks and the Internet, and ValueVision handles distribution and customer service. The new venture went from birth to fulfilment in nine months and distributes a wide range of products, including clothing for men, women and children, as well as Ralph Lauren’s home collection. The state-of-the-art distribution centre was designed with versatility in mind, down to the last detail. Even the packaging design has a strong emphasis on customer care and branding. As explained by Howard Fox, Senior Vice President of ValueVision, ‘This isn’t just a normal pick-pack operation; Ralph Lauren takes a lot of pride in its packaging. It’s part of their imaging and branding.’ An efficient returns system is an important component to any dotcom. Polo.com is recognizing that the returns process is an extension of its customer care. Only about 10 per cent of all ordered items are actually returned. This is about half the average industry percentage for clothing-based distributors. It is also less than Polo.com originally expected. Continue Reading »

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By becoming a franchisor, you enter a new business environment. It is f longer hamburgers or exhaust parts you are selling, but a business system that will put others into business and help them to become successful their own right. And the mere fact that your core business runs like clockwork does not mean that you are ready to start selling franchises. significant amount of preparatory work will have to be done before you a ready to introduce the world to your franchise offer.

Revisit franchiseability

Should you wish to reassure yourself that your business is inde franchiseable, it may be a good idea, where franchiseability is discussed, with specific reference to Figure 5. At this point, the condensed description of franchising that forms part of t Consumer Code for Franchising may shed additional light on the matt We have reproduced it as the following.

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