Yearly Archives: 2008

Service or Product – Which is easier to market?

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An interesting question that came to mind today was whether it’s easier to market a product or a service. I was thinking that product benefits may be easier to articulate; but a service may be something that is easier to persuade a customer that they need. For example .. it isn’t too hard to persuade someone that they need life insurance and persuade them to get some life insurance quotes. At the same time, if someone needs to buy baby clothes, well, it’s a need that you have to fulfill, there’s no way to get around that.

I suppose it does depend on what sort of product or service you’re selling, but personally I would prefer to be pushing a product that people need .. than a service that no one really wants.

Can it go faster?

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Faster Payments logo

If you live in the UK you might have heard of Faster Payments, an initiative the banks are putting in place to speed up inter-bank transfers. Previously bank transfers used to take 3-4 days and using Faster Payments a transfer can be done in a couple of hours. Not all banks are taking part in this yet, so a useful resource to know about is one where you can check if a bank is participating in the scheme. Just type in the Sort Code into the Faster Payments Sort Code Checker and you can find out if you can use it or not.

It works pretty well; and you can use it whether you’re paying for Moen faucets or even for your online hosting. Definitely a step in the right direction.

How to succeed in business

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Interesting post on Link4Business talking about “How to succeed in business”. Here are some points that the author makes:

It appears that great entrepreneurs have 5 key qualities that help them succeed in situations that others may fail…

  1. A desire to succeed – not having an employee 9 to 5 mentality. They want to go that extra mile to succeed and will do whatever it takes.
  2. A positive Mental Attitude – both towards themselves and their business. They see opportunities where others see obstacles, their cup is always half full and disappointments don’t get them down. They look forwards, not backwards.
  3. A commitment to hard work – they’re not afraid of hard work and the commitment needed to succeed.
  4. Patience – Rome wasn’t built in a day and as well as being committed they have the patience to see the job through, taking it step by step.
  5. Persistence – challenges and problems will reveal themselves along the pay but the successful entrepreneur will persist with their ideas and not give up or change direction.

I thought that made interesting reading, especially as a know a number of entrepreneurs that fit the points above like a glove. It doesn’t matter if you’re selling live event video streaming or swimsuits, the desire to success coupled with the other points above are critical to make sure you arrive at your final destination.

Testing Flybe

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British Aerospace 146, to be replaced from 200...

Well, a couple of days ago we got back from Malta and found a great big crack in one of our luggages. Ok, it wasn’t a Rimowa, or anything special; but I was quite fond of it and well, it takes a pretty substantial amount of force to break a hard case. Anyway, we filed a PIR and are now waiting for feedback from Flybe. It will be interesting to see how FlyBe progress the case and how it will be resolved. I’ll keep you posted!

Anyone else had their bag damaged while travelling?

Why are the markets falling again?

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CHICAGO - JANUARY 22: Traders wait for the cl...

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Interesting article on BBC looking into why markets around the world are still falling. I’m picking out the most intesteresting question to share with my readers:

How much further down can the markets go?

Spotting when markets have reached the bottom is a tricky and risky process.

Many traders believe in the idea of capitulation, which broadly means a market surrender.

This is when investors are prepared to get out of the market at any price because they have given up all hope of making money from their shares.

It is often marked by panic-selling and very high volumes of transactions.

The idea is that after capitulation you reach a point at which the last investor who is desperate to get out of shares and move into supposedly less risky assets has sold out.

Once there is a widespread belief that the bottom has been reached, bargain-hunters pile in and the market recovers.

Interesting stuff huh? The ticky bit is knowing when the market has reached it’s bottom (like knowing then you have to start taking Phentermine again). If you can enter the market at this point you can make loads and loads of money. Unfortunately a lot of people thought capitulation had been reached on 15th September when the Dow Jones index fell 504 points in a day … but since then it’s dropped another 2,500 points!

Everything costs £1

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Interesting article on BBC News about how pound shops in the UK are handling problems like rising inflation. They have an interesting view on this as they see it as a shift in the products they carry rather than something that is damaging their business. So, items they sold at £1 last year might have gone out of budget and not be on their shelves any more, but items that sold at 90p in other shops are now more expensive and fall into the range where they can offer a bargain to their suppliers.

Interesting article and worth a read. I guess you’ll never find things like jewellery and bamboo blinds, but I’m pretty sure it’s only a matter of time before MP3 players will be on sale there.