Hub You - Business

How To Find A Job In The Hidden Job Market
What's the deal with the hidden job market? Why is everyone always talking about it? What is it?The hidden job market is comprised of jobs that are filled before they are advertised. It is estimated that about 75% of all jobs are in the hidden job market.Why? Because employers hate to hire. The hiring process is extremely expensive and time-consuming.They have to advertise the opening, sort through hundreds of resumes and spend weeks, sometimes even months interviewing and trying to select the perfect applicant.Employers only hire when they have a need to be fulfilled, and even in that situation they will avoid actively seeking applicants as long as they possibly can.So how does this help you? How can you find jobs that are in the hidden job market? Most importantly, how can you get interviews for jobs in the hidden job market?One way is to network - which we briefly discussed in Part One of this course.While that is one very effective way to find jobs both advertised and unadvertised, it's not necessarily the fastest way to find a job.The quickest and most powerful method for accessing jobs in the hidden job market is cold-calling.Employers love a candidate who is bold and assertive enough to go this route. Cold calling

ing offered somewhere in the store. Be just as nimble with your product range - it should never be set in stone. Be prepared to strike out poor sellers and try out new lines. Change the range when there is a major festival such as Christmas in order to accommodate different buying patterns. Remember, though, to keep changes limited and as gradual as possible so that customers can still find what they want and don't feel excluded. Get to know your customers' buying habits and anticipate demand patterns. Keep a close eye on possible out of stocks and react quickly when out of stocks occur.

Purchasing Outsourcing
Businesses compete in the real world with core competency. The core competency can be, for instance, excellence in design and low cost manufacturing. The purpose of businesses is to satisfy customers. Businesses, with its number of functions and process flows, have to add value to the product in order to satisfy customers. The satisfaction of customers is attained by providing value for money experience.The value addition in each stage of the process flow is dependent on the cost of that particular process and the perceived value addition. If the cost exceeds the perceived value or the perceived value is not significant, businesses have to look at that process. Outsourcing is one of the ways to solve a business problem. It is a process by which a process flow is given to the third party, thereby utilizing the resources for any other value added activity.The value addition in purchasing depends upon the criticality of the items purchased. In the Bill of Materials, usually 80% of the items are recurring and non-critical. The remaining 20% of the items are critical because of their high cost-low volume nature, which means large inventories are not necessary. In industries such as automobiles, where early stage supplier involvement is necessary for design and modular manuf

In this tenth and final part of a series of articles about how to survive as a small retailer, I will summarize the main points from the articles and have a look at what the future holds.

Retailing is one of the toughest businesses there is. The reason is that, although trade may be steady, it is a low margin business. This means you work long and hard for little reward. You are in a market where the customers are very knowledgeable about the products they are buying and the have a preset idea of what range of price they are prepared to pay. You are in a business where "the big order" never comes. All you can do is grow your business steadily and hope that a superstore doesn't open over the road and steal your customers. If you seriously struggling as a small retailer, the first thing to ask yourself is "am I ready for the fight?". If you have doubts, it may be time to quit right now. On the other hand if you are up for it, by working to your strengths as a small retailer and by hanging in there, the rewards may be better than you imagined.

Some people bemoan the demise of small stores and blame the large chains for their downfall. Superficially this is true, but this is like Yahoo! blaming Google for its downfall (should it ever happen) or radio stations blaming television for losing audience and advertising revenue. I suspect that few of the people who want small stores kept as museums would be prepared to support them by buying goods from them if they are given the choice of better value for money in a chain store over the road. So get real. Forget blaming the opposition. You need to do this for yourself. You never know, you may one day expand your business into a large chain yourself - and then the little guys may all blame you!

If you are struggling as a small retailer then the most obvious thing you need to do is to change what you do. Some changes may be low cost and easy, others may require you to invest in the business and will mean a lot of effort and commitment. The key thing is to compete with other stores by working to your strengths. The greatest strength a small local retailer has is that it is small and local. Large chains cannot be small and, although an individual branch is local, it's primary focus is to the company and not the community it serves. Large chains will never be good at buying local products. Fragmenting buying power from localities is a contradiction of the way large chains are structured. They buy in bulk for a large customer base spread over large areas - that is why their prices are competitive. On the other hand, a small retailer can forge links with local producers. There may be a factory down the road that makes toy cars (OK then, a factory down the road that imports and packs toy cars that are nowadays made in China). You may also have a local dairy that sends their milk to a large store chain but may be happy to sell you a few pints each day. Explore your locality - you may be surprised at what you discover, and the bargains that you can negotiate by going straight to the source rather than through a wholesaler. Offering your customers local products is a good way of demonstrating one of your greatest strengths and having your own unique selling point (USP). You may even be first in the queue for new product trials. This will give your store a very specific and potent USP.

A small retailer can't offer the lowest prices. This is usually impossible in the face of the buying power of large chains. What a small retailer can offer is intelligent pricing. You may reduce prices at certain times of year or even on certain days of the week. You could offer a buy-one-get-another-product-free deal by combining healthy sellers with less healthy ones. What you need to do is avoid giving customers the impression you are always more expensive than the large chain down the road. By majoring on price reductions for limited time periods you will give a quite different impression: your store will be a place where customers can often pick up a bargain and where most days there is a bargain price being offered somewhere in the store. Be just as nimble with your product range - it should never be set in stone. Be prepared to strike out poor sellers and try out new lines. Change the range when there is a major festival such as Christmas in order to accommodate different buying patterns. Remember, though, to keep changes limited and as gradual as possible so that customers can still find what they want and don't feel excluded. Get to know your customers' buying habits and anticipate demand patterns. Keep a close eye on possible out of stocks and react quickly when out of stocks occur.

Scranton, PA; A nice place to live, work or play
Scranton, PA who has copied the Painted Horses from Casper WY to draw in tourism has a few tricks still up their sleeves. For a town with a lot of old history, it is having some good growth in newer parts of the city and surrounding areas. One college age student we had a chance to talk to says most college age kids try to figure out a way to make thier place in the world outside of their hometown of Scranton, this maybe why these kids would good family values choose other cities to make their way in. Scranton of course known for it's history in coal mining and it's closeness to the Pocono Mountains, which are still and East Coast Favorite get away.http://poconofunguide.com/ .Coal mining in PA goes way back to the middle of the 1800's and it was always dangerous, if you ‘google’ the mining industry accidents in the state you will see what we mean. The demographics are good in Scranton, although it has been economically challenged as of late. Under-represented with minority populations but it is a good market never the less. Of value is the many industrial parks in the North Eastern Penn area and the good road situation South of town on I-81, well at least if they ever get done with the project. Scranton has a bit of an alcohol and drug situation due to probably the wor

etter than you imagined.

The Difference Between a Job and a Career
It is estimated that the average worker will have 14 jobs in his or her working lifetime. It is no longer a bad thing to change jobs. But that doesn't mean you should wander aimlessly from company to company. If you know the difference between a job and career and think long-term, you will prosper wherever you go.A job is:A regular activity performed in exchange for paymentA position in which one is currently employed.A career is: A chosen pursuit; a profession or occupation. The general course or progression of one's working life or one's professional achievements over timeBottom line: your job is what you are doing today. Your career is what you’ve done over the past years and what you plan to do in the future. So when you think “career”, you have to think long-term. And when you think long-term, you begin to realize the following: Everything you do counts Everything you do needs to have a good reason behind it You have to make good decisions Always think “What’s my next step?” What you do today determines your tomorrow Mistakes can potentially haunt you for a long timeYo

working to your strengths. The greatest strength a small local retailer has is that it is small and local. Large chains cannot be small and, although an individual branch is local, it's primary focus is to the company and not the community it serves. Large chains will never be good at buying local products. Fragmenting buying power from localities is a contradiction of the way large chains are structured. They buy in bulk for a large customer base spread over large areas - that is why their prices are competitive. On the other hand, a small retailer can forge links with local producers. There may be a factory down the road that makes toy cars (OK then, a factory down the road that imports and packs toy cars that are nowadays made in China). You may also have a local dairy that sends their milk to a large store chain but may be happy to sell you a few pints each day. Explore your locality - you may be surprised at what you discover, and the bargains that you can negotiate by going straight to the source rather than through a wholesaler. Offering your customers local products is a good way of demonstrating one of your greatest strengths and having your own unique selling point (USP). You may even be first in the queue for new product trials. This will give your store a very specific and potent USP.

The Buying Process - Helping Your Customer Discover Their Unsatisfied Need
The successful sales rep matches the steps of their selling process to the customer's buying process. In other words, for the customer's Need, Requirements, Solution, and Deal, the sales rep;helps the customer Explore their Need;helps the customer Define their Requirements;Proposes the Solution that best meets their requirements;and Closes the Deal. The move from one step to the next depends on your ability to ask the questions that leads the customer to realise the need, build a set of requirements, and accept that your solution meets the requirements. It’s important to remember that you can’t recommend a solution when they’re just starting on the buying process. Only when they’re looking to finalise the solution does it makes sense to offer one.Let’s start at the beginning and talk about exploring need.The total of those you do business with is, by definition, 100%. Of that total, maybe 15% are buying at any one time. That leaves 85% in the Need phase. Of the ones in the Need phase that you can reach, you’ll discover they divide into two categories. S

gh a wholesaler. Offering your customers local products is a good way of demonstrating one of your greatest strengths and having your own unique selling point (USP). You may even be first in the queue for new product trials. This will give your store a very specific and potent USP.

Employee Motivation: It's More Than A Paycheck
Managers often ask, usually with exasperation, “How can I keep my employees motivated? I pay them decently. What else is there?”Offering competitive salaries is certainly important. But a paycheck is what helps people get to sleep at night, not what gets them going in the morning.What keeps them committed to come in on the weekend or stay late or go that extra mile is more than money – it’s the day-to-day ‘stuff’ like respect, fairness, recognition and feeling in control of their small piece of the world. Here are 10 powerful ways to gain employee’s cooperation and commitment to the team, department or organization.Don’t play favorites. People make judgments about what they see in the workplace. Are promotions fair? Is low performance dealt with quickly? Is their equal treatment for the top floor as well as the shop floor? If the answer is no in their eyes (regardless of the ‘truth’ of the matter – it’s their perspective) then this perceived unfairness will stand in the way of their giving of themselves fully to the job or project.Share the limelight. When credit and compliments come your way, spread them around to all who helped. And if you think you're solely responsible for that honored achievement, think again.ing offered somewhere in the store. Be just as nimble with your product range - it should never be set in stone. Be prepared to strike out poor sellers and try out new lines. Change the range when there is a major festival such as Christmas in order to accommodate different buying patterns. Remember, though, to keep changes limited and as gradual as possible so that customers can still find what they want and don't feel excluded. Get to know your customers' buying habits and anticipate demand patterns. Keep a close eye on possible out of stocks and react quickly when out of stocks occur.

Customer service is one area where you have the ability to beat larger store chains. No matter how well they treat their customers and how polite they are, you can treat them even better and be even more polite. The same goes for hygiene: make your small store a beacon of cleanliness. You'll be amazed how many customers you will win over by having a spotlessly clean store. Also, consider extending customer service by having a home delivery service, perhaps teaming up with other local retailers. You may consider refitting your store, but before you dive in, make sure you employ good people to do the job. A refit can be a nightmare but, when it is done well and for the right reasons, it can do wonders for your sales and profits.

If you put into action some or all of the above ideas, then, if you were just ticking over before you will probably see an improvement. If you were seriously struggling before then you may at least survive. You may be thinking "just surviving doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun". I would agree with that. The point is, though, that things are bound to change for the better. This is not wishful thinking, this is based on an analysis of the retail market in most countries.

The nature of retailing is varied across the globe, but there has been a general power shift towards the large retailers at the expense of others in their supply chains, such as producers. This is set to change. In more mature economies, retailers have put a great deal of effort into cutting their costs. They have done this by shifting much of their work to third parties and this often means the producers. They have deskilled their staff away from the tradesmen that they once employed to a slick operation where no skill is required. Nowadays most goods come into the store ready to sell where no skilled preparation is required. The latest thing is for whole sections of pre-merchandised fixtures to be delivered to stores, to the point where store staff never actually handle the products. Distribution is usually carried out by a third party. Even the management of distribution can be farmed out. Often, head office functions such as regulation enforcement, including labelling and hygiene requirements, are farmed out to others. Even the buying function has been consolidated. Whereas buyers have historically dealt with a large producer base, many large stores have rationalized these producers into a handful of companies who will then go on to buy smaller lots from around the world. Buyers in large chains may rarely see the products being produced. Also, in to order release cash for expansion, many large chains sell their capital assets such as buildings and then lease them.

Producers in particular are now starting to think: "what assets do the large retailers actually have?". They have virtually no plant and machinery, some own very little real estate or vehicles and they have very few skilled workers. Apart from some sophisticated ordering systems, the only real asset that they still have is goodwill - lots and lots of customers going into their stores. Retail customers are fickle, though. If better value for money can be found elsewhere then that goodwill would vanish very quickly. Without the assets and the skills required as a base to recapture customers, today's big retailers could become tomorrow's casualties. And what seismic shift would need to take place in order to lure customers away? Remember where you read this first. The people with the skills, the machinery and with the contacts with small producers worldwide are the producers themselves. Wholesalers - the middle men - had already been cut out of large and mature retail supply chains many years ago. This time, though, the time is coming when the end-men will be cut out - that is the large retailers.

In any large supply chain, the largest profit is made by the most dominant member of the chain. Nowadays that tends to be the retailer. If producers set up their own distribution or use a third party distributor and they acquire their own stores (either by building them, or more likely buying up another retailer), they will not be adding greatly to their current workload, as they do a much of the work anyway. They will not need to take on many more skilled people as they already have them and they will not need to invest in production as they have it already. They will be able to undercut their old master by a substantial margin and still have plenty left over to make handsome profits. They will not need to withdraw their su

HTTP = HTML link (for blogs, profiles,phorums):
<a href="http://www.iadvice.info/article/41635/iadvice-The-Small-Retailers-Survival-Guide--Part-10-The-Future.html">The Small Retailer's Survival Guide - Part 10 The Future</a>

BB link (for phorums):
[url=http://www.iadvice.info/article/41635/iadvice-The-Small-Retailers-Survival-Guide--Part-10-The-Future.html]The Small Retailer's Survival Guide - Part 10 The Future[/url]

The Most Important Thing You'll Ever Do

Leaders do a lot of things, but one is more important than all the others. If you aren't building the confidence of your team every day, you aren't really doing your job. The upside potential is unlimited and there is no downside. I'll show you how to make it happen.

Add Extra Value to Your Product and Sell More

People buy things because they expect to get back something more valuable than the amount of money they spend.

Gravitational Marketing for Small Businesses - Seventh Law: Effective Marketing Is 95% Systems

Effective Marketing Is 95% System And Only 5% Creative. Want to learn how effective systems can turn your success around and make your business and your Enjoyable, Simple and Prosperous? Read This Article NOW!

Bookmark it:

Tags

Links

Hub You - The Small Retailer's Survival Guide - Part 10 The Future

Related Articles: