Do you want to venture on the World Wide Web

As an entrepreneur, you have to face the truth that once you embark on an internet home based business, this very thing will be your life. It’s like turning work into your obsession as to eliminate the work attitude and all factors that go with it. Once you leave work, you really have to leave your old job. Most entrepreneurs practice breathing their own business so they need not experience fatigue while working and will therefore be able to dedicate long hours on their work without even getting fed up with it.

Making money would be impossible unless you take charge of really selling your business. Well that would surely be a task that you would have to dedicate yourself into. Initially, you invest days of unrest for getting your home based business through its second juncture. And the same would be true until you can actually settle yourself and realize that everything is going great.

Remember that there is no sure path to success, even if we are to talk success in its many facets, than to toil and really sweat for it. In the end, you’ll be happy that you did. After all, all your toil will boil down towards your earnings. -
Before your eye gloss with the thought of establishing your own home based business via Internet, let us first have a reality check and check the trends.

Entrepreneurs venturing into the World Wide Web typically have dreams of having time all for themselves, sitting on their couches with laptops on and money pouring continuously with every click. That’s possible, all right but this normally is not a case.

Though we are talking of home based business in here, it is still not true that we can get things easily. Or that we can earn hundreds of thousands even while we sleep. Don’t be lured with business opportunities in the web that offer too-good-to-be-true fantasies. If they’re dealing with a motto like “be a millionaire in 1 month” then it is time for you to have doubts. Success don’t come easy, you know that. Only those who have a perfect combination of events and ideal attitude towards works would be the people who can be showered with success. The specific idea of becoming a home based internet business entrepreneur is that of leaving an old job of stressful deadline buzzing and annoying bosses overlooking your works, in exchange for a flexible job that you are in total control of.

That’s true. You really would have these benefits when you switch to home base jobs and perhaps, you’ll gain even more.

Well, working home based in the internet is totally relieving. You wont have to abide with company cultures or deal with people you refuse to see every working days. You will also get around spending on transportation, clothing and eating allowances and most especially, you’ll be freed from the worries of stress and tension.

However, it’s not always easy to sail on with internet businesses. They are equally risky as compared with off line business ventures. We are not putting a scare in here, it’s just that we want you to open your eyes to truths that you would sooner or later face. Truths that are inevitable parts of internet business transactions.

After quitting your job, which most home based Internet entrepreneurs do, you have to be ready with loosing many things. However, if home based internet business works well for you, those losses will become insignificant as compared with the gains you have acquired through taking risks.

One great risk is you’ll stop getting your fixed source of income. There are good and bad sides to this. And depending on your case, they may either make or break your business life.

All jobs have some degree of uncertainty in them after all, business would have to deal with risks of failure or of success. However, entrepreneurs have a good argument of controlling your own income is better than having other people fix it for you. That way, you’ll have greater elbow room for growth. However, you must also be prepared for periods of losses.

Remember that even the largest establishment fail. No one can ever be assured that Internet sales would keep on coming. You would surely have great and bad months and the only thing that you can be assured of is that you always have to deal with unpredictability of trends. If you are not a risk taker, a steady paycheck may appeal to you more than an unsteady business earning.

As an entrepreneur, you have to face the truth that once you embark on an internet home based business, this very thing will be your life. It’s like turning work into your obsession as to eliminate the work attitude and all factors that go with it. Once you leave work, you really have to leave your old job. Most entrepreneurs practice breathing their own business so they need not experience fatigue while working and will therefore be able to dedicate long hours on their work without even getting fed up with it.

Making money would be impossible unless you take charge of really selling your business. Well that would surely be a task that you would have to dedicate yourself into. Initially, you invest days of unrest for getting your home based business through its second juncture. And the same would be true until you can actually settle yourself and realize that everything is going great.

Remember that there is no sure path to success, even if we are to talk success in its many facets, than to toil and really sweat for it. In the end, you’ll be happy that you did. After all, all your toil will boil down towards your earnings.

Bad News = Opportunity for Innovation

It comes down to capitalizing on opportunity . . . “When written in Chinese, the word crisis is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.” — John F. Kennedy (1959).

Topics like recession, economic stagnation, climate change and bursting bubbles have been bantered about for quite some time, but it seems to be getting worse before it’s getting any better. Yet, turning issues into opportunities is in the genetic make-up of savvy ENTREPRENEURS who tend to anticipate, rather than fear, rollercoaster-like highs and lows. What do these tumultuous times spell for the PR and Marketing industry? Here are a few predictions:

-Adversity breeds better innovation. In strong economies with business cranking at full steam, it’s easy to fall into a reactionary trap. It’s hard enough just to keep up, let alone thinking about long-term, strategic planning. In tough times, it takes more creativity and staying one step ahead to survive. It forces the industry to raise its collective game, charting new territories and opportunities.

-Partisanship turns into partnership. It’s reflected in politics and the same can be said about business. While always competitive, difficult conditions tend to force realizations that it may be time to cross party lines and strategically join together to take advantage of collective powers. Non-competing companies will see greater value in pooling limited resources and forming creative partnership in order to maximize their brand message.

-Talent rises to the top. There’s no skating by in tough times. The pros who work harder to raise their game by pursuing things such as advanced degrees, going after their professional and networking associations, volunteering, staying active and engaged; and networking with others will be the standouts in an increasingly tough job market. That’ll have a positive ripple effect on the entire industry.


-Right now, it’s anyone’s game. The old saying is that the best time to be heard is when others have fallen silent. It may sound obvious, but it’s also hard to take risks when everyone else is heading for cover and resources are tight. However, the true market visionaries will capitalize on the fact that the market is running scared and pulling back on their efforts to become even more aggressive. For those who have simply been drafting the market, this could be the chance to overtake them.

-Value and measurement become essential. Proving results is more than just lip-service, it will be what all companies and clients will demand from their marketing efforts. As a highly measurable discipline with tremendous potential for value-add, Marketing and PR will be in a sweet spot when it comes to efficient, cost-effective marketing solutions.

-The total is more than the sum of its parts. Marketing and PR strategies will need to accomplish multiple goals, and no one discipline can afford to operate in isolation. For example, more robust Marketing and PR programs created with multiple goals in mind, for example, to not just generate publicity, but also foster corporate goodwill and showcase social responsibility, drive Web site traffic, development of social media platforms and build short term sales, will be prioritized. The opportunity for creativity by knitting together multiple channels and driving the message has never been stronger for those in the Marketing and PR field than it is today, in great part due to the global exposure many companies are determine to pursue to stay competitive and generate higher profits.

As the local industry faces greater challenges as opportunities, the time is now to take advantage of the tools offered by Innovation, Technology and International Trade. I welcome you to tell me more about how you or your company plan to remain competitive in a tough economy in 250 words or less by emailing me attn: Carmen Bracamonte at clb@largernet.com. The submission deadline is August 25, 2008 (COB). The best response will be printed in LargerNet's Blog and the author will receive one free admission to an upcoming professional development event: "THE ENTREPRENEUR LAB" hosted by CNBC The Big Idea and LargerNet. For more information on "THE ENTREPRENEUR LAB" join the conversation at LargerNet's Talk Radio Show every Sunday at 11:00 a.m. (EST).

Until then, enjoy the ride. Good Luck!

International Trade Cost of Promotion- Where The Opportunities Are!

Collaborated Research- The Key To Success

The Promotion Marketing Association (PMA) reported nuanced collaboration is essential to building successful retail and manufacturing marketing initiatives. Presented during a panel discussion during PMA’s Shopper Marketing Conference, “Making Shopper Marketing Work for You — a 360 Degree View,” the reports findings are based on the proprietary research commissioned by the PMA Shopper Marketing Center of Excellence with Nielsen Business Media, CSNews Online’s parent company.

In March, a comprehensive online survey underwritten by Convenience Store News, Brandweek and Progressive Grocer polled manufacturers and retailers as well as the agencies and marketing service organizations working with them. The study highlights the latest practices and trends in shopper marketing.

The survey found that more than 60 percent of respondents currently practice shopper marketing, while 94 percent of retailers perceive that all or some of their competitors are already practicing shopper marketing. Carlson explained that the PMA shopper marketing must include three essential elements: grounded in an actionable understanding of the shopper; involves reaching/connecting with consumers when they’re in the shopping mindset, whether within or outside of the retail environment itself; and a joint effort between manufacturers and retailers.

Key findings of “The PMA Survey on Managing and Measuring Shopper Marketing”
are:
– Retailer: two-thirds have seen increases in sales and improvements in profitability.
– Manufacturer: two-thirds have also realized enhanced profitability. All reported increased sales, enhanced brand equity, stronger retailer relationships/greater cooperation and stronger consumer relationships.
– Two out of three manufacturers report that they are conducting primary quantitative and qualitative research to better understand shoppers, and their shopper insights could be stronger.
– Only one-third of both retailers and manufacturers report that they agree on the metrics for evaluating programs even “most of the time.”
– Nearly two-thirds of manufacturers said they only “occasionally” or “never” reach agreement with retailers on how to measure programs, while no retailers reported that they agree regularly with their vendors.
– Some 44 percent of retailers responded that they are more likely to support shopper marketing programs than standard initiatives, and none indicated that they receive a lesser level of support.
– Nearly six in 10 manufacturers report that retailers are giving more support to shopper marketing than they did just one year ago, although just one-third of retailers said they are seeing more support from manufacturers over this same period.

The WOM Strategy Credibility

Word-of-mouth (WOM) conversations that take place in person and over the phone are overwhelmingly more prevalent than those online, according to a study released last week by theKeller Fay Group and media agency OMD.

Also, face-to-face communication is more positive in tone, more likely to be judged highly credible and more likely to lead to strong purchase intent than online talk, the study found.

Below, some of the findings issued.

On average, 3.5 billion WOM conversations occur daily in the US. Offline WOM accounts for 92% of these (75% face to face; 17% by phone), and email, IM/text messaging and chatrooms/blogs account for a combined 7%:





Also:

-Offline is the predominant mode of WOM across all age groups, ranging from 80% among the youngest group to 97% among the oldest.
-However, teens participate in a higher percentage of online WOM (17%) than members of other age groups.
-Consumers under age 18 are also more likely than others to drive advice-giving in online talk. Though only 13% of offline advice-givers are age 13-17, 35% of advice givers in online conversations fall within that age bracket.

In New Delhi, IT has given business a new life

In the last two decades, information technology’s scope of involvement has widened in business ventures, driving a large number of business processes. In fact, across India Inc, companies are increasingly realising the importance of IT. By 2009, the enterprise spend on IT is expected to exceed $36 billion. Yet, a lot more needs to be done to increase IT penetration across large, medium and small enterprises.

Realizing the role of IT in deriving high performance from enterprises, The Economic Times magazine brought together top executives and experts from the industry at The Economic Times IT Intelligence Conclave 2008 held in New Delhi on Friday to encourage and explore opportunities for a competent integration of technology with business initiatives. Gartner was the knowledge partner for the conclave and Nasscom’s ex-president Kiran Karnik was the conference chairman.

“IT has given India visibility on a global scale, taking development to the hinterlands and enabling expansion of skills development,” said Ashwini Kumar, minister of state for industry, in his keynote address to a select gathering of over 100 CIOs and business leaders. However, real growth is possible only if we can grow in manufacturing and agriculture, the minister added.

Mr Karnik noted the need for fostering a relationship between advanced technology developments and business modules for boosting efficiency and revenue performance of a company. “Advanced IT operations incorporated by a company give it a global face to stimulate competition,” he said. He emphasised the use of IT for enhancing top line performance and revenues of companies.

Partha Iyengar, regional research director, Gartner India, focussed on the need for chief information officers to assume leadership roles in the business. “CIOs need to move from being a risk to becoming a trusted ally of the CEO, involved in strategic decisions made by the company. CIOs must not merely be IT leaders but must also be responsible for key business functions,” he said.

A whole host of industry experts were among the speakers dwelling on the importance of IT in enterprises. These included Jai Menon, group CIO, Bharti Airtel, Manish Gupta, CIO, Fortis Healthcare, SB Roy, director, passenger services, Centre for Railways Information System and Sandeep Phanasgaonkar, president & CTO, Reliance Capital.

The conclave discussed a spectrum of topics including the use of IT for business transformation, issues surrounding business continuity, green IT and sustainability, security aspects of IT and how information can be transformed into a profitable asset.

The 360 Degree Turn in Global PR Strategies

CONVERTING 4Ps to the 4Es – this is the idea Christopher Graves, president and CEO of Asia Pacific, Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide fervently wants to push forth and bring to Asia Pacific.

Clearly, Graves is passionate about public relations (PR) in this region as it a gold mine of opportunity. He believes the PR industry in this region, which includes South East Asia, China, India and Australia is worth US$200mil-US$300mil – and set to grow even bigger in a few years’ time.

The 4Ps refer to the four key elements in marketing – product, price, place and promotion. But according to Graves, it takes more than the 4Ps to change the mindset of marketers. For him, product means experience, price means exchange, place means everywhere and promotion means evangelism, hence 4Es.

He says marketers need to have attention, engagement and permission from customers if they want their products to sell. “It is all about mesmerizing customers via innovative solutions, especially in this region where consumer spending is on the increase.”


This is why Graves is all excited about Ogilvy’s 360 degrees digital influence – a whole new concept created by the company: “Nearly the entire world is online. For instance, with millions of virtual watercoolers (via online advertising) to choose from, how can a brand identify the best channel to get its message out in the most efficient manner?

“Ogilvy PR’s 360° Digital Influence program clarifies the digital channels and web sites that are most effective at reaching target audiences – then provides “road maps” to engage and influence them,” he explains.

“People are at the core of every happening in any organization. In fact the drivers of corporate success are its people”, he says with a rush in his tone.

All About Branding

“Which is why in a move designed to enable clients’ brands to move to a new height, we have pioneered the 360 Degrees stewardship”, Graves notes.

So, how was brand communication prior to the roll-out of 360 Degrees at Ogilvy? Graves says it was done in a “silo” manner, where there was no proper coordination – quite common among traditional large one-stop advertising agencies that handle the whole gamut of advertising, PR and media management.

“The 360 Degrees practice moves the brand to centre stage before any communication strategy is even thought out. This is particularly important in developing economies such as Malaysia.”

Graves explains that SME’s in this country do not understand the intricacies of PR – “which is why Ogilvy’s 360 Degrees initiative is important”.

“This way it will be easy to carry out branding programmes in the most cost-effective and focused manner.

“We set clear parameters that prioritize on the problem, which will eventually point out to the most appropriate channels and activities that can be activated to deliver the solution,” he adds.

New Trends

On that note some new trends that Graves has noticed that has taken this part of the world by storm are new forms of reporting.

“Yes, citizen blogging or social blogging is a new found force and a trend that is here to stay. The landscape of media communication has changed tremendously, which I personally believe is addictive.”

Alongside this phenomena, is the emergence of “tagging.” “It is a process whereby bloggers tag a particular person by creating their own identity labels – and not necessarily by names. This is particularly used in social blogs like Facebook or Flickr.”

“For instance, a blogger who likes rock music can come across a person in Flickr, who also shares the same interest in rock music. He or she just tags this person as “rocker mania” or any name he or she likes.”

This kind of blogging has proven to be important in today’s dynamic consumer market – where customers are king and buyers are very savvy about what they want to purchase.

These types of new communication models can be considered disruptive models – as they could either make or break your company and its products.

In short, Graves believes every point of contact with your customer builds your brand.

“At Ogilvy we take a holistic look at interactions and use what is necessary from each communications discipline to build a brand. We want to build enduring brands that are part of our customers’ lives and develop long-term strategies, create one-to-one interactions between customers, establish and extend the brand online, and finally reveal the true potential of the customers’ data.”

“From empowering the unconnected in rural India, to high-tech gaming in Australia; from logistics in Hong Kong, to driving foreign investments in Thailand, the insights-driven work of Ogilvy PR shines through, especially in Asia Pacific – and we are proud of it,” he sums up.

Incidentally, Graves comes from an interesting background. He spent nearly a quarter century in media and communications, having worked in TV news (CNBC, CNN, Wall Street Journal TV), Internet (WSJ.com and putting content onto mobile platforms), and print (managing director of the leading English business magazine in Asia) and now, PR and loving it.

He moderates, hosts and speaks at events such as the World Economic Forum and 3G World Congress. He came to Asia back in 1993 to set up Asia’s first TV news network and has not returned to the US ever since.

Five Radical Ideas a Company or an Individual Can Do to Improve their Bottom Line

As we celebrate another 4th of July in the most wonderful country of the world, I think about what I can do to make my little contribution to help keep the United States of America, WONDERFUL. We cannot expect others to solve our problems, nor our government neither other countries. The solution must start with everyone of us.

Big Plans make for some tough execution. But as I’ve been learning about a number of organizations lately, we all have big plans, good intentions and a certain chutzpa to put it together. But before we dive in and start making things happen, take a very small step back and ask, “Does this organization have the heart to see it through?”Heart? How does that affect the bottom line? Very well, I think. In her book Planet India, Mira Kamdar, explains the necessary business structure of “Doing well, while doing good.” In other words, focusing on the heart.

Here are five heart issues that you can start to immediately do in your business — starting with yourself.

Be willing to change direction.

I was driving to an appointment the other day and my trusty GPS that my mother got me because I’m constantly getting lost when I leave her house has now become an important companion for me. I was starting to rely on it more and more and over time have grown to admire its programmable wisdom. Except this time it took me to a dead end. The road was blocked (permanently closed with barriers and signs and everything) — so I did what every common sense person would do. I turned around.

Turn around.

How often are you not practicing little U-turns in your organization and find yourself at a dead end? I’ve found that I’ve had to cultivate a habit of turning around in my personal life in order to get to the goal. It starts with recognizing that I’ve deviated off the path a bit – recognize my mistake and instead of covering it up, I get to turn around and correct it. This can be as easy as expressing to a colleague that you’re sorry for offending them in a meeting, or fessing up to a project manager that you really don’t understand what the next step is? I’ve been guilty of both. But as you practice these small U-turns in private, it will save you from having to announce them in public. Do you and your staff value the small U-turns in life?

Know who you are following.

Everyone is talking about Leadership but I’ve only known a few who talk about following. Following is a dangerous course to take. Dangerous because if we evaluated who or what we are really following, we might find ourselves embarrassed at the very least – or lost. My friend Jeff has a training exercise he does with groups where he blindfolds one person of a pair, then the second person shouts instructions to them while they are thrust into a crowd of other blindfolded fools. The chaos ensues and it’s great fun to watch. (Go Left, Go Right, WATCH OUT! Crash) But one of the points of the exercise is to show how easy it is to get confused as to who you’re listening too (that is, who’s instructions you are following). I had a colleague who was very good at seeing the end from the beginning. I wish I had his prescience vision, but I don’t. Where the way was clear to him, unfortunately it often looked foolish to the rest of us. It takes a lot of courage to follow one voice especially when others are beckoning you to follow them. So, who are you following?

Fix the attitude regardless of the problem.

I love problems. I actually thrive on them. It’s part of my culture; it’s been a huge part of my profession. I’ve even developed a maxim that states that any good project team needs an American on it Why? Well — most American’s are good crisis managers and problem solvers. I believe it is part of our DNA and probably will become our biggest competitive advantage in the future. (So if you have a global project team, then put at least one American on it. At least one, out of kindness if for no other reason).
But the problem with problems is that they always come with an attitude. Hopelessness, despair, anger, depression, grumpiness, arrogance (the I told you so syndrome), etc etc. Matt reminded me of the old saying, “If I knew it was as bad around here before I was hired, I never would have signed on.” How much of the problem is in your attitude? The attitude of the team? The organization? What would happen if you fixed that first? If you can’t fix it for the company, what if you fixed in yourself?

Bring things out in the open.

I live out in the sticks. One nice thing about living in the sticks is we have less light pollution and can actually see the stars. One late summer evening, I found two students from Korea who were staying with us, lying out on the picnic table looking up in the sky. I question them as to what they were doing. “Looking at the stars.” was their obvious reply. Duh! But why?
“Because in Seoul we’ve never seen the stars” they answered.
Light brings things out in the open when it’s dark. But it can also cover things up that were intended to be uncovered. “Let your light shine” takes on a whole new meaning depending on if you want to display, expose or conceal something. How is your light shining? For what purpose?

Integrity.

I have scrawled on a page in my notebook — Integrity = wholeness. Wholeness as a word has the idea of something healthy and complete. Like whole wheat bread. I know a lot of broken organizations. They are not whole. They are not healthy. They are not working in integrity.
On several job descriptions I’ve seen some variation of the following phrase under the candidate’s requirements section stating, “Above all, acts with integrity”.
I think we are seeing this because we just went through an era where integrity wasn’t followed. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act will always be a watershed event for me. That’s the day all the perks dried up. So if a lack of integrity put a couple of people in jail, bankrupted many others and caused thousands to loose there investment portfolios, what will striving to “Above all, acting with integrity” do? Let’s find out – together.

Do you have radical ideas that anyone can adopt? Think about it, then tell me.