Author: Rick Sheldon
Source: articleage.com
Buying your promotional products and corporate apparel online provides five major advantages: a greater selection, better pricing, convenience, customer, quality control, service, and faster ordering time.
Manufacturers often display their entire line of products on the internet, providing you with a greater selection of products. With all of these manufacturers online,, quality control, you gain the opportunity to compare pricing and quality in a simple and accessible online format, instead of wasting time flipping through endless catalogs that crowd your workspace.
Better pricing is readily available online, but you have to search for it. Type any promotional product related keywords into your favorite search engine and sift through the results until you find a company with discount pricing. Another great trick is to choose an item and have a few companies give you a quote with the price of freight included. This will get you a number much closer, quality control, to the total cost.
How do these online companies afford to sell the exact same product for less than other distributors? Traditionally, promotional items are sold by a distributor who has outside sales, quality control, people that will go to your place of business, show you samples, and walk you through the process of placing an order. These outside sales people are the primary expense of an off-line distributor. This expense is then factored into the price of the promotional item, thus raising your total cost. When purchasing discount promotional products online, you can eliminate this huge cost and save considerable amounts of money.
Convenience, quality control, comes with, quality control, the capability of placing your entire order online. All successful online companies offer this service with encrypted order forms to secure your purchasing information. It is always a necessary hassle to send the artwork to your promotional products, quality control, company, quality control, . This is made easy with the online form. With online ordering you gain the convenience of placing your order anytime, twenty-four hours a day.
A few of these online companies also provide customer service departments with long hours. They are set up primarily to take your calls, handle rush orders, and to answer your questions promptly. If you prefer to communicate through e-mail, this is a great way to document your order from start to finish. You can e-mail a question to your distributor, leave for lunch, and have it answered by the time you return.
A faster ordering time is the fifth major, quality control, result of the online purchase. I have personally visited hundreds of clients. This obviously requires an appointment, which naturally must fit into both parties' schedules. An off-line salesperson is forced to interpret your needs prior to your meeting. They bring what samples and catalogs they have on hand, but these may not meet your needs and thus your ordering time will be extended for a second meeting. If you have any questions about product availability, turn, quality control, around time, or any other factory sensitive inquiries, the, quality control, salesperson will have to return to his office in order to contact the factory, in order to answer your question. When you order from an online company, the customer service team is already, quality control, in their office, so they can contact the factory with your questions and call you back immediately.
I have given you five great reasons to buy promotional products online, but I must also remind you that there is always a trade-off. Online promotional products companies work very hard to cut all possible costs and to pass the savings on to you. You will find that this results in a charge for samples and pre-payment requirements. The charge for samples insures that the company will not give away products to non-customers, as this would considerably raise the real customers' costs. Paying in advance is very common among internet purchasing in general,, quality control, and necessary for almost every online company to insure payment. Pre-payment is nothing to worry about. You still have, quality control, the right to a quality product, and you gain an enormous savings.
One other tip, select an online company that has in-house embroidery or screen printing facilities. It has been my experience that these companies have much better control of expediting your orders, a stronger knowledge of branding, experience which allows them to better monitor quality control, and a great tendency to complete rush orders faster.
You will find that many more successful businesses are now placing their promotional product and corporate apparel needs in the hands of these qualified online distributors. The advantages are numerous; convenience, speed, selection, accountability, service, and above all, savings.
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Author:, quality control, Rick Sheldon has 18 years experience in the Promotional Products Industry and is currently CEO of Save on Promotional Products Inc. a Discount Online Promotional Products Company. He can be contacted at 1-800-826-8706;
email: rick@saveonpromotionalproducts.com; or visit www.saveonpromotionalproducts, quality control, .com.
Showing posts with label time. Show all posts
Showing posts with label time. Show all posts
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
How to Grow Your Business by Clearing the Way to Growth
Author: Greg Roworth
Source: articleage.com
Is your business growing as fast and effectively as it could, or is it stuck at the same level it has been at for years? Research (Larry Greiner, 1972) has discovered 5 specific stages of business growth. Most business never grow beyond the second, quality control, level. At this level, the business is characterised by a small group of owners (if not a sole owner), supported by a small team of people at an operational level. This describes the 90 plus percent of businesses, which have 10 or fewer staff.
Why should it be this way? The Greiner growth model describes 5 levels of growth that are characterised by the type of organisational structure and leadership style at each stage. The model describes a very obvious and practical problem that is evident in all businesses that grow over time. Growth is never simply a smooth transition from small to large. It occurs in a series of jumps from one level to the next. Growth at each level is limited by the structure and leadership style. A business can grow at each level to a certain extent, but after a while, the activity created by growth makes the structure at that level unwieldy and inefficient, limiting the growth, until the next evolution of the business occurs to solve the inefficiencies at the previous level.
The issue is not that these growth crises occur, but that there is a clear solution to these crises which few businesses take the time to discover. I am sure there are some business owners who want to keep their business small for lifestyle reasons, but I am also sure that if most business owners could find a way to grow their business beyond the current level, they would.
Most businesses that are stuck at the level where the owner(s) work in the business full time (or more) and there are a handful of employees, don't do what it takes to overcome the growth crises that are created at the limit of growth at that level. These crises are evident in the issues of control, where the business is dependent on the skills and input of the owners for most of the results and the owners can spend little time away from the business because performance will suffer in their absence. When work increases, the informality of communication and organisation become a liability resulting in errors, delays, poor quality and unsatisfactory service. Costs blow out and profits shrink rather than grow with increased sales volumes. Many owners conclude that it was easier and more profitable running a smaller business and revert to a scaled down operation. Unfortunately, this means the business and the owners, quality control, never achieve their full potential and end up living a life far below the level that, quality control, could have been accomplished.
Rather than scale down, the business could continue, quality control, growing by, quality control, scaling up. The solution to the growth crisis at this, quality control, level is very clear and the path to growth is well established by the successful ones who have taken the leap to the next level. The answer, quality control, is to re-organise, quality control, the business with the owners delegating more responsibility to the operator level, appointing managers, quality control, to take responsibility for certain functions, combined with developing systems to assist, quality control, in, quality control, maintaining control.
Many businesses increase the problems at this stage when they only increase delegation without increasing control. This is the key to smooth transition through this level. Control tools provide the information to management to ensure the business performs efficiently and profitably, with adequate cash flow. This development is often beyond the skills and experience of business owners who have come from a technical background and have never had training in finance and management areas. It is wise for owners at this stage to seek professional assistance in creating and establishing effective operating systems and control measures, quality control, . As the business grows, the need for greater professionalism grows as well. Owners are wise to commit to a self education program so that they develop the knowledge, quality, quality control, control, and skills to run a business at higher levels.
At the higher, quality control, levels of growth, the crises are more evident in the leadership areas. With growth, the need for increased management and organisation grows proportionately. Sometimes businesses need to be restructured along functional lines, or sometimes organisation, quality control, is more determined by geographic elements. Whatever the case, the need for strong leadership and communication with management levels about performance issues, motivation of personnel and strategic, quality control, elements of the business are of greater concern, quality control, than the technical issues were at lower levels, quality control, . Business owners need to develop their own leadership skills as well as develop or employ highly skilled managers.
If you are frustrated that your business has the potential to grow, but can't find the way through the current hurdles you are facing, which create increased stress, over work and performance issues, perhaps it is time you looked at changing the structure of your business and becoming, quality control, more professional about how you manage it. Unless you make the changes, your, quality control, business will be forever held back. You will not be capable of further growth until you re-create your business to perform efficiently at the next level. You may be held back because your current situation makes you too busy working in the business that you don't have time to work on it, to develop new systems and controls. It is time to bite the bullet. Unless you free yourself to work on reinventing your business to clear the way for growth, you will continue to bounce up against that invisible ceiling you keep hitting,, quality control, without ever being able to break through.
(c) 2005 Greg Roworth, Progressive Business Solutions Limited
Greg Roworth is the Managing, quality control, Director of Progressive Business Solutions Limited, a business development consultancy firm with branches in Wellington and Auckland, New Zealand. Greg has created a unique business development program that assists business owners transform their business from a state of total dependency on them to a state where the business works so well they don't have to.
Greg is also the author of "The 7 Keys to Unlock Your Business Profit Potential," which descibes the fundamental keys a business needs to achieve this transformation. Find out more, get 2 free chapters, or buy the book online at http://www.small-business-success.ws
Source: articleage.com
Is your business growing as fast and effectively as it could, or is it stuck at the same level it has been at for years? Research (Larry Greiner, 1972) has discovered 5 specific stages of business growth. Most business never grow beyond the second, quality control, level. At this level, the business is characterised by a small group of owners (if not a sole owner), supported by a small team of people at an operational level. This describes the 90 plus percent of businesses, which have 10 or fewer staff.
Why should it be this way? The Greiner growth model describes 5 levels of growth that are characterised by the type of organisational structure and leadership style at each stage. The model describes a very obvious and practical problem that is evident in all businesses that grow over time. Growth is never simply a smooth transition from small to large. It occurs in a series of jumps from one level to the next. Growth at each level is limited by the structure and leadership style. A business can grow at each level to a certain extent, but after a while, the activity created by growth makes the structure at that level unwieldy and inefficient, limiting the growth, until the next evolution of the business occurs to solve the inefficiencies at the previous level.
The issue is not that these growth crises occur, but that there is a clear solution to these crises which few businesses take the time to discover. I am sure there are some business owners who want to keep their business small for lifestyle reasons, but I am also sure that if most business owners could find a way to grow their business beyond the current level, they would.
Most businesses that are stuck at the level where the owner(s) work in the business full time (or more) and there are a handful of employees, don't do what it takes to overcome the growth crises that are created at the limit of growth at that level. These crises are evident in the issues of control, where the business is dependent on the skills and input of the owners for most of the results and the owners can spend little time away from the business because performance will suffer in their absence. When work increases, the informality of communication and organisation become a liability resulting in errors, delays, poor quality and unsatisfactory service. Costs blow out and profits shrink rather than grow with increased sales volumes. Many owners conclude that it was easier and more profitable running a smaller business and revert to a scaled down operation. Unfortunately, this means the business and the owners, quality control, never achieve their full potential and end up living a life far below the level that, quality control, could have been accomplished.
Rather than scale down, the business could continue, quality control, growing by, quality control, scaling up. The solution to the growth crisis at this, quality control, level is very clear and the path to growth is well established by the successful ones who have taken the leap to the next level. The answer, quality control, is to re-organise, quality control, the business with the owners delegating more responsibility to the operator level, appointing managers, quality control, to take responsibility for certain functions, combined with developing systems to assist, quality control, in, quality control, maintaining control.
Many businesses increase the problems at this stage when they only increase delegation without increasing control. This is the key to smooth transition through this level. Control tools provide the information to management to ensure the business performs efficiently and profitably, with adequate cash flow. This development is often beyond the skills and experience of business owners who have come from a technical background and have never had training in finance and management areas. It is wise for owners at this stage to seek professional assistance in creating and establishing effective operating systems and control measures, quality control, . As the business grows, the need for greater professionalism grows as well. Owners are wise to commit to a self education program so that they develop the knowledge, quality, quality control, control, and skills to run a business at higher levels.
At the higher, quality control, levels of growth, the crises are more evident in the leadership areas. With growth, the need for increased management and organisation grows proportionately. Sometimes businesses need to be restructured along functional lines, or sometimes organisation, quality control, is more determined by geographic elements. Whatever the case, the need for strong leadership and communication with management levels about performance issues, motivation of personnel and strategic, quality control, elements of the business are of greater concern, quality control, than the technical issues were at lower levels, quality control, . Business owners need to develop their own leadership skills as well as develop or employ highly skilled managers.
If you are frustrated that your business has the potential to grow, but can't find the way through the current hurdles you are facing, which create increased stress, over work and performance issues, perhaps it is time you looked at changing the structure of your business and becoming, quality control, more professional about how you manage it. Unless you make the changes, your, quality control, business will be forever held back. You will not be capable of further growth until you re-create your business to perform efficiently at the next level. You may be held back because your current situation makes you too busy working in the business that you don't have time to work on it, to develop new systems and controls. It is time to bite the bullet. Unless you free yourself to work on reinventing your business to clear the way for growth, you will continue to bounce up against that invisible ceiling you keep hitting,, quality control, without ever being able to break through.
(c) 2005 Greg Roworth, Progressive Business Solutions Limited
Greg Roworth is the Managing, quality control, Director of Progressive Business Solutions Limited, a business development consultancy firm with branches in Wellington and Auckland, New Zealand. Greg has created a unique business development program that assists business owners transform their business from a state of total dependency on them to a state where the business works so well they don't have to.
Greg is also the author of "The 7 Keys to Unlock Your Business Profit Potential," which descibes the fundamental keys a business needs to achieve this transformation. Find out more, get 2 free chapters, or buy the book online at http://www.small-business-success.ws
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