Archive for January, 2012

SELF IMPROVEMENT TIPS TO HELP YOU PERSONALLY AND IN YOUR BUSINESS

Saturday, January 28th, 2012

For people who are through it, they can tell you that self improvement is a journey. It all depends on where one is starting from. The most necessary thing but is getting that first step out of the way.

Self improvement comes with the fulfillment that comes from understanding oneself. It is through this understanding that you get to grasp your house within the universe and your role here. You can understand that not everything has got to be a struggle; you can achieve success, made and happy and fulfil your mission.

As I have studied self improvement over the years, I’ve got picked out 7 self improvement tips that are a should for you to implement so that you’ll see yourself started on the journey of private growth. I’m going to share them with you in this article.

Daily Journaling

Have you ever ever puzzled how come back the globe these days is aware of thus a lot of regarding past great achievers? True, individuals took day trip to check them, but a heap of the stories and details that we have a tendency to know regarding them could only have return from themselves. They are a translation of their thoughts on to paper. They kept journals and recorded their observations and their feelings. For you, a journal is more than a map of your journey. It helps to clarify thought, to think additional clearly and to truly see where your thinking could not be thus good. You then need to improve. Once you record one thing it becomes additional than a fleeting thought. Tomorrow, you may look back and see how you felt, and you’ll compare with how you are feeling or suppose these days and you’ll be able to go ahead and create adjustments.

Meditation

This is often the one that’s most unconsidered by most people, but it conjointly happens to be the foremost important of the 7 self improvement tips. Meditation is the most effective and handiest manner of reducing stress and clearing out your system. You dispose of junk thoughts and better of all, you leave area in there for clean, clear thinking. It additionally has direct health advantages; you’ll weigh down your heart beat and improve digestion simply by meditating for a few minutes every day. You will sleep higher and heal faster. Essentially, mediation is that the pillar of the seven self improvement tips – it is the one that produces all the others effective.

Expecting to Win

Of the seven self improvement tips, this one is the hardest to clarify because some folks just do not seem to listen to it. You wish to vary your thinking therefore that you tune yourself to expecting positive results. What’s success alternative than what you’re thinking that regarding? How will you get rich and be happy if every outcome you expect is negative? Some people are quick to argue now, however what they don’t understand is that along with their positive thoughts are a ton of negative thoughts that have an effect on outcomes.

Expectations aren’t regarding outcomes. They’re concerning bold, right action and knowing that the results will be in your favour no matter what they can be.

Writing Goals and Plans of Action

A written goal is sort of a map. Let me challenge you right currently to jot down down a tiny goal, one thing that is inconsequential and to who’s outcome you are not attached and stick it where you’ll be able to see it every day. The instant you see your goal, you see plans of action concerning it start to form. You discover yourself spurred into action to try and do the proper thing. Return after thirty days and see how far along your written goal you’ve come. Did it facilitate to write down it?

I can challenge you that every time you are feeling in a very rut and like things are not working out for you, pull out your goal book and begin by ticking off how many of the last heap you have got achieved and then adding on new ones. You always come out with a clearer mind.

Be well Rounded

All areas of your life contribute to your self improvement. Your relationships, your health, your finances, will all affect any kind of private growth you are attempting to attain if they’re out of balance. Simply one in all them going dangerous can lead to any or all of them going bad. As you seek to begin on personal development, work on all areas. – work on maintaining physical stamina, emotional fortitude, financial security and a smart social support system to realize personal growth.

Positive Affirmations

This has the power to vary your inner dialogue, and it is a powerful tool considering that much of the discontent in our lives is caused by inner dialogue. What does one advice yourself? Start to write down down an affirmation daily on all key areas of your life and rehearse it aloud twice daily. You are teaching you subconscious positive dialogue.

Teach to Learn

Of the 7 self improvement tips, this one is the one that will help you master self improvement the most. You learn one thing better after you teach it. As you teach, your inner mind opens therefore that you’ll be in a position to digest and transmit information. Whatever you were trying to teach will be sitting there in your mind forever. Teaching is also a manner of holding yourself accountable – there are specific standards expected of academics so that students will follow in their steps. If you’ve got no one to teach, write!

Here at Forum Publishing, after 30 years of being in the industry we know the importance of constant self improvement and meditating, relaxing and refocusing. Being in a deadline business we understand what small businesses go through and encourage our readers to exercise the suggestions in this article!

USING TWITTER TO INCREASE YOUR MARKET SHARE…DOES IT WORK?

Saturday, January 28th, 2012

Why bother with Twitter? Twitter is a system of communication that can help your business engage with potential customers. Its one part press release, one part customer service line, and one part Frat party. There are countless ways you can connect with others using Twitter. There are also countless ways to waste time on twitter. The key is to be focused on connecting with those that have interests in line with your business. People often complain or ask for help on Twitter. This is a real opportunity. The press release concept is also a powerful way to get exposure if you don’t over do it.

Twitter is a very contagious trend. Asking, “Why bother with Twitter?” may come as a surprise to many business owners. Truly, there is no question Twitter can improve your business’ popularity in the online world as all the aspects of social networking can be found in Twitter.

Twitter lets you get in touch with virtually anyone: from your closest friends to people from all around the world. In fact, using the services of this social networking site could bring you the following benefits:

• You can get as many followers as you want and ask them to interact with you – as they say; communicating with your clients is one good way to keep them hooked to your business. For one, you can focus on your customers more as you connect with them on a more personal level and you can get them to send you their opinion easier.

• In just one post, you can let everyone know what your business is currently up to. You can update your followers with what you are doing with your business, and what they can expect from it. You can link to your site or Facebook page.

• It gets your message across fast. It takes little time for you to post and is very easy for followers to retweet or pass on your message. This is very powerful when followers resend your message to all of their followers, especially if there is a link to your site or Facebook page.

While using Twitter, there are a few things that you must remember. Below are some of the things that you must take note of to make sure your posts are effective:

• Make it short and simple – the whole point in using Twitter is giving your customers an overview of what you want them to know. It makes it easier to capture their attention if they can see it and understand it at once.

• Use URL shorteners to take advantage of the posting capability – you know that you are limited to only 140 characters, so how do you put your long URLs? This is where URL shorteners come in; such shorteners like bit.ly will definitely make you put your message in a more convenient manner.

• Take time to put new content – refresh your tweets regularly. Making sure that your posts are updated would eventually strike your customers’ curiosity.

What’s best about this is that you get all your publicity free of charge, but be careful not to over do it. Followers will quickly tire of you beating them over the head with product information. In the end, answering the question “Why bother with Twitter?” can be summed up by understanding this: Twitter is something that you can harness to connect with those people that you can help. Further it allows you to offer helpful information to followers. Finally, you can keep followers up to date on your offering and your products. This can all be done quickly and efficiently by consistent tweets and links to your company properties. Your mindset needs to be one of giving and not taking.

Retailers Forum Magazine is an active Twitter member with over 30,000 eager followers @forumpublishing. The key to using Twitter successfully is to make the “tweets” relevant. We send out specials for our advertisers every week and the response has been awesome!

USING VIRAL MARKETING TO INCREASE YOUR BUSINESS

Saturday, January 28th, 2012

Viral marketing is a promotional strategy that has been in use for quite some time and has transitioned over onto the internet quite successfully. The strength behind this particular advertising technique is in its ability to help businesses spread their marketing message a whole lot faster and with less effort. In this way it helps to not only boost your exposure but also your ability to work much more efficiently as well!

Here are 3 significant ways in which any online business can expect to benefit by using this particular promotional strategy.

Time Efficient

Typically this advertising technique involves little more than sharing your marketing message with a relatively smaller crowd who then spread the word. Working online offers the advantage in many cases of automating your efforts even further resulting in greater savings of time! As any entrepreneur will tell you time is money and therefore a precious commodity that should be used wisely!

Cost Efficient

In most cases advertising in a viral manner online involves distributing free reports or leaving business links at social site, forums, bookmarking sites or even blogging. In every case there is little or no out of pocket expenses making this advertising technique very cost efficient!

Energy Efficient

By leveraging the efforts of others you are able to channel the energy you have saved into other areas of your business. As an entrepreneur this is extremely important since most functions and/or business tasks are left up to you to complete. Avoiding fatigue in this way helps you maintain a mental alertness that can be use in more constructive and creative ways. Your mistakes will be minimized and your ability to produce more and stay motivated will benefit as well!

Remember when fatigue does set in your ambition will naturally decrease and as mentioned above and you will be more prone to making mistakes. What happens here is that not only do your miscues create business inefficiencies but they also require more time and effort later on to fix!

The biggest advantage viral marketing offers a business or person is its ability to leverage the efforts of others to spread your marketing message. When this advertising technique is put to use online the benefits it offers magnify due to the automation and global audience the internet can supply! The single biggest advantage this promotional strategy offers is the increase efficiencies a business can experience as reviewed above. It therefore stands to reason that if you can increase efficiency you will also boost productivity thereby leading to greater sales and profits. With that said there seems to be little reason as to why you would not want to include this very effective promotional strategy into your online marketing mix!

Here at Forum Publishing Company we have been using Facebook and Twitter to expand our reach to new readers every month for our monthly magazines, Retailers Forum Magazine and Swap Meet Magazine.

COUNTERFEIT MERCHANDISE TAKING A TOLL

Saturday, January 28th, 2012

One headline about the scourge of fake consumer goods read The Fake and the Fatal. Fake consumer goods do a lot of harm. While some offer purchasers lower prices than they might pay for an original, the counterfeit goods are usually of poor quality. They unfairly compete with the originals, too, causing losses in revenue; cost people their jobs when sales of the originals are diminished by unfair competition; undermine economic growth; tarnish the reputation of the original brand; and  have the potential for causing sickness, injury, and even  death.

The sale of fake consumer goods also breeds crime. Because knockoffs are produced so cheaply, the profit margin is high, attracting criminals and organized crime groups who provide consumer goods at the wholesale level to vendors, discount stores, and even higher-end merchants who then sell them to the public. These criminals, gangs in particular, then use the profits to fund other criminal activities, which in turn damage lives and destroy neighborhoods.

The taxpayer is hurt, too. Tax revenue that could go to schools, parks and municipal employees like firefighters and law enforcement officers is lost because the manufacturer—and the seller and the buyer—don’t pay taxes. There is even the loss of income tax revenue from the people who lose their jobs at legitimate manufacturing plants.

Just about anything can be counterfeited and just about anything is. While everyone is familiar with the knockoffs of handbags, apparel, and CDs and DVDs that are available from street vendors in any major city, what many people don’t know is that auto parts and even parts for airplanes and spacecraft have been counterfeited. Most are imported from countries where labor is cheap. Real danger occurs when products like baby formula and soap are counterfeited. Even birth control pills have been counterfeited.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimates the value of pirated consumer goods and knockoffs at $650 billion a year, a staggering sum.  And more than 750,000 U.S. jobs are lost because of the trade in counterfeit consumer goods each year.

Even though government agencies such as the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice are hot on the trail of many counterfeiters, they have trouble keeping up with the sheer volume of fake, imported consumer goods, most of which come from overseas, particularly from China and other Southeast Asian countries.  China accounts for 79 percent of all knockoffs that are imported into the United States. In 2009, the Customs and Border Protection Agency of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Department of Homeland Security, made 14,841 seizures of counterfeit goods, straining resources but putting a dent in the supply of illegal goods.

Some of the most prevalent fake products are auto parts. These fake products range from decorative items like grilles and hubcaps to critical safety components—including brakes. Not only do these fake goods compete unfairly with the originals they mimic, but they pose danger to drivers. According to one car manufacturing company executive, fake car parts cost the U.S. auto industry $12 billion a year.

The owners of copyrights, trademarks, and patents can take legal action against counterfeiters—when they know who they are—but that is an expensive option. Individual owners need to protect their rights, though, and should always secure their legal rights by

  • Copyrighting their creative products
  • Applying for patents
  • Registering their trademarks
  • Putting proof of ownership on the product

Contractors should always

  • Thoroughly inspect the goods they purchase and use
  • Look for copyright, patent, and trademark information
  • Look for a recognizable logo that is precisely rendered

A trained eye will frequently detect a fake. An inspection can go a long way toward eliminating a product from the counterfeit supply chain.

Individual consumers should also be savvy when purchasing goods, especially when the prices are steeply discounted. They will be protecting themselves from purchasing a shoddy product that may also be unsafe. They can

  • Examine the product carefully for signs of bad construction or design
  • Look closely at the logo
  • Try the product out, especially if it is an electronic good
  • Ask where the product came from
  • Ask who the seller is sharing the profit with
  • Ask about any warranty or guarantee

Crime prevention professionals can help mitigate the sale of fake consumer goods by providing education about the dangers of these products at schools and community group meetings.

The dangers posed by the sale of fake consumer goods are well documented. In the long run, the low price for a cheaply made good may end up costing more in the long run when it needs to be replaced. Not only do consumers risk being ripped off when they aren’t sure of the quality or source of the goods they are purchasing, but they may unknowingly be encouraging the spread of gangs and organized crime.

This article brought to you by the REAL THING… Retailers Forum Magazine for wholesale merchandise!

SMOKY MOUNTAIN GIFT SHOW SHIFTS 2012 DATES

Thursday, January 19th, 2012

Responding to overwhelming onsite feedback from buyers and exhibitors during the 2011 edition of Smoky Mountain Gift Show at the Gatlinburg Convention Center in Gatlinburg, TN, Urban Expositions has announced plans to open the show one day earlier to run from November 8-11 in 2012.  The move now allows Gatlinburg’s Smoky Mountain Gift Show to open on the same date as Sevierville’s International Gift Exposition of the Smokies (IGES). Previously, the Gatlinburg show opened a day after the Sevierville show.

We were overwhelmed by the requests we received from buyers and exhibitors alike who asked us to find a way to open both shows on the same date,” explained Doug Miller, President, Urban Expositions. “From independent gift shop owners to corporate and chain store buyers, countless retailers told us that the staggered opening of the two shows created significant challenges for their travel and store staffing needs. Our exhibitors echoed these comments, agreeing that a unified opening date was the right decision for the overall marketplace. Our customers spoke and we listened.”

The move now shifts the Smoky Mountain Gift Show’s date pattern from a Friday – Monday to a Thursday – Sunday pattern, which also gives buyers the chance to be back in their stores and/or corporate offices by Monday.


The November 2011 edition of the Smoky Mountain Gift Show was the first one under the management of Urban Expositions, who  acquired the show in February of 2011.

“This first show was a great learning experience for us,” explains Miller. ”We’ve gotten some wonderful input from all of our customers and want to continue fine-tuning and enhancing this show to make sure we’re creating the best possible business environment for our exhibitors and customers. We also want to continue to maintain open lines of communication with M&M Gift Shows, the management team for the IGES event.”

In addition to a unified opening date, Urban Expositions also plans to continue other cooperative efforts with M & M Gift Shows that were put into place for the 2011 editions of the Smoky Mountain Gift Show and IGES event, including honoring show badges and sharing costs of shuttle service between the two venues.

MORE INFO: Exhibitor information – Christina Bell, cbell@urban-expo.com, 800.318.2238, ext 0335

Buyer Information – Amanda Berry, aberry@urban-expo.com, 800.318.2238. ext 0329;
www.smokymtngiftshow.com

Forum Publishing Company is a proud Media Sponsor of all Urban shows and invites all of our readers to pick up the latest copy of our wholesale merchandise magazine, Retailers Forum at the registration area of the shows.

NATIONAL RETAIL FEDERAL LOBBIES OBAMA ON PRIORITIES

Friday, January 13th, 2012

The National Retail Federation is responsible for a massive lobbying effort encouraging President Obama to tout the benefits of the private sector when it comes to job creation and urging him to push Congress to move on its priorities.

A recent letter sent by matthew Shay, the group’s president and CEO and Terry Lundgren, it’s chairman, highlighted the need for businesses of all sizes to create the jobs needed to put America back to work and restore the United States as the leader of the global economy.

The letter added that the retail sector employs twice as many people as health care and four times as manufacturing. The President is urged that in order to keep growing, retailers need sales tax fairness – a legislation that would require states to collect sales tax from online retailers. The NRF also called for corporate tax reform and more free trade agreements.

Shay refers to retailing as the “bright spot” in the economy and the NRF is putting its grass roots and political energy behind the policy priorities outlined in this letter to the White House as part of its “Retail Means Jobs” campaign.

Forum Publishing Company is a long time supporter of the retail industry and hopes the NRF is successful in promoting their agenda that will assist all traditional retailers around the world.

AMAZON.COM IS ON THE ATTACK AGAINST BRICK & MORTAR STORES

Thursday, January 5th, 2012

The mega-retailer Amazon.com is upping the ante against brick and mortar retailers by enticing shoppers to compare prices using their mobile phones while shopping at a rival store. The company is offering a 5% discount to users who try its Price Check mobile app that lets in-store shoppers scan product bar codes to check  Amazon’s online prices.

Talk about killing traditional retailing! This brings us to stores like Best Buy, who had a miserable last quarter of profits. A lot of shoppers have been using Best Buy as a showroom to see and feel the merchandise and then go online to make purchases elsewhere. No retailer can survive by being a showroom and not making sales.  We here at Retailers Forum Magazine would like to know your opinion on this APP from Amazon and if you have experienced shoppers using your store as a showroom. Share with us.

GROUPON – NOT AS EXCITING AS YOU WOULD THINK!

Thursday, January 5th, 2012

The social media marketing sweetheart, Groupon, which went public late last year to not so exciting response turns out to not be all that exciting to the businesses who use the site as well. The model is a mixed bag for businesses. More than one quarter of the vendors offering a daily deal lose money on the venture, and another 18% merely break even. These figures were released by a Rice University study.

Many established online sites like Amazon, Google and even eBay have started their daily deals which makes the quality of the offer more important than ever. It was also pointed out that one-third of all daily deal sites were either bought or went out of business in 2011. Not so great!

I signed up for Groupon and a couple of other daily deal sites and quickly opted out because I was getting a tremendous amount of emails each day from each of them.

Have you had any success with Groupon or other daily deal sites? Share your experiences with our readers here at Retailers Forum Magazine.