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New Site Reveals - Specialized Job Sites, Which One Is For Me
I can’t stress how many job sites that are out there that specialize. There are so many. Anything and everything. From, physicians, medical, hospital jobs online, American Association of Blood Banks, for example. It just goes on and on and on and on. You have resources, insurance, IT, engineering, IT and software, landscaping and Trades, whatever job you’re looking for its out there.Whatever employee you’re looking for the net has a job site that specializes. Its all out there, there’s a job board that you can post your requirements and your job duty statement or ad. How do you find what will fit your recruiting needs? Type a search into Google, yahoo or what ever your favorite search engine is and hit enter! You may say that’s not new! Give me something that is of value!? Well, - instead of searching for a short term (i.e. jobs sites in Dallas…) be very specific with your job search. If you are looking for a certain trades person or IT professional search for what you require (e.g. carpentry’s in the (suburb) with 5 years experience). In many cases this gives you a list of defined Job sites. If the search results are not what you are looking for then reduce the search terms you are entering. Make the search a “little’ broader. Remember that there are many thousands of job sites out there. New ones that are the “ in” job sites for job seekers. New job sites that are offering you better deals.Always search specific job terms regularly on the net. This will help to keep you a cut ahead of the rest of companies recruiting, and trying to attract new staff. Another way of finding out what an idea that is out there is… there’s a book called “Everything You Need to Know About Job Advertising.” In that it goes through what specialty job sites are out there and gives you an idea of what you can search for on the Net. It also points out the do’s and don’ts in some

keting companies will require you to describe all Safety features of your idea, and you might save yourself some time by doing preparations ahead of time.

Step 4 - Demographics and Determining who will Use Your Product

Ones you have a clear picture of your product and you worked out all nuances of product design, try to determine who will use your product, when and where. Try to ask yourself the following questions –

1. What is the age bracket of target audience? 2. Is my product designed for Men, Women, or Both? 3. Where and when can it be used?

Correctly answering these questions will help you properly market your product and stay abreast of the competition. In addition, knowing answers to the above mentioned questions will help you in putting finishing touches on your product. How? If your product is designed for children, then it should be bright and colorful. In addition, if your product is designed for cold climate, you should avoid marketing it in areas where it’s hot all year long.

It is very likely that your product is tailored for certain industry (for example, agricultural); then think of those who will benefit the most from your invention! If your product is designed to work with specific soil or crops, then you should target geographical region rich with desired characteristics. As one can see, this step requires a thorough research, planning and leg work; the benefits, on the other hand, will be payoff rewarding!

Step 5 – Produce Full or Small Scale Model of Your Product

It is extremely important

Your Own Business: The First Steps
What an exciting feeling you must be having at this time. You have finally made the choice to “chuck it all” and go into business for yourself. You dream of the freedom from your unreasonable boss and the wonderful feeling of writing your own paycheck. It’s a lifelong journey that has to start at the first step – the very beginning.It is my goal to take everything all those books say and boil it down to a real action plan that is a simple as it can be. Basically making it like a recipe. You really don’t need all that filler; you just need to know how to get started. A bunch of fluff isn’t going to help; in fact it slows you down. Instead of reading, you should be doing!This section will be those most difficult first steps of just getting started. Effectively launching your business and then growing it for success are their own unique steps in the future. For now, I’ll have to assume you have an idea already and have researched it enough to know that it is a good idea and has a bunch of customers clamoring for your product or service. Please be sure you have a good quality product and/or superior service. You are not trying to make a quick buck; you want to have a business that lasts.I also have to assume that you already have some sort of support network in place, trusted friends, professional advisors like accountants and/or lawyers, and a maybe a mentor with excellent opinions. If you don’t have them, you can pick them up along the way. But you’ll need them all at some point.You probably want to know what qualifies me for writing about this. Academically, I have an MBA in Entrepreneurship and Marketing. Professionally, I have been a consultant for many entrepreneurs, I worked at a home business franchise company for several years, and I have a few successful entrepreneurial ventures of my own. I even helped my own family launch a very success

So, a little light bulb inside you head has lit up and you are struck with the idea that you invented something. You are not sure yet how practical your idea is at this time, but something tells you that this might be the Big break you were looking for. What you do next and how you approach your next steps is extremely important and will either lead you on to glory or will doom your undertaking. The steps that I will outline a little later might seem unnecessary; however I want to assure you that in the end you will be happy that you took my advice.

Before we proceed with the discussion, I would like to offer a few words of wisdom. While working on your idea you will encounter people who will criticize your work and try to discourage you from forging ahead. Some of the criticism will be deserved and should be taken into account. If you see that a valid point is raised that you never thought of before - the better off you are. It gives you opportunity to pause and view your idea from another perspective (or angle). However, you may also encounter a so-called destructive criticism that is not based on any facts.

When you learn how to separate these two, you will be better of. My advice to you -

- Don't be afraid to question professionals, because most experts are one-track minded and oblivious to other things

- Don't be afraid to challenge other people's ideas, stand by your principles and be firm

- Don't be afraid to discover that your own idea is faulty. Pause, make corrections, re-analyze and move ahead

When you are ready to market your idea, you will have to deal with large corporations. Keep in mind that the bigger the company is, the more bureaucratic it is. Many big companies lose focus and often hire employees who are either not qualified for the job, or just not interested in what they are doing. If you come across these folks who are trying to make you feel insignificant (and your idea unimportant and impractical) don't get discouraged by this - chances are you will be better off dealing with smaller company that is more focused and willing to take risks!

Step 1 - Stay Focused and Clearly Document Your Idea

This step has huge benefits, because –

1. You will clearly define your idea/invention 2. While documenting your idea, you may find ways on how to expand your invention

Always try to put on paper what it is that you invented - precisely define your idea, its purpose, limitations and target audience. If you cannot precisely define your idea, then this means that you should take a step back, re-analyze your thinking and simplify things. The most common error that people make at this stage is over-complicating their idea. A quick example will clarify this point:

Case Study 1

John K. has an idea on how to improve Automatic Knife Mechanism. While laboring hard on his invention, John K. produces technical drawings and decides that his future product will benefit from the addition of extra items – a scissor and a screw driver. However, the addition of these items makes the final product larger and heavier. In order to make knife lighter, John K. goes back to the drawing board – he compromises his original, Automatic Push/Pull mechanism design in attempt to accommodate unnecessary extra features that have nothing to do with his unique design. By taking away features from his original design, John K. makes his final design very pedestrian and it lacks in originality.

In the final analysis, John K. should have stopped right before making any changes to his original Automatic Knife Mechanism and asked himself the following – am I better off with the original mechanism or with pedestrian mechanism which has extra features? Are the extra features even necessary?

The above example clearly illustrates the following – focus on your original idea and ignore additional, superfluous features that might muddle your vision. Extra features will come into play later, once you clearly described and shaped your invention.

Step 2 Exploratory Stages – Determine if your idea is unique

Once you’ve documented your idea, you should start thinking about the following – how unique is my idea? In order to answer these questions, you will have to do some legwork and hit your local library and internet. Unless you allocated a large amount of your budget to Patent Lawyers, who will do the research for you, you will be better off doing initial research by yourself. Why? Because you may discover during your exploratory searches that your design is not unique and save yourself from paying Big Lawyer fees. A note of caution – don’t get discouraged if you determine that the idea similar to yours already exists and already patented. The fact that someone came to the similar conclusions as you, just a little bit earlier is good – you have a competition! Competition is good, competition is healthy! Carefully examine competing product, even take it apart, if necessary. Determine what differentiates your idea from competitor’s, its limitations and how successful was another person (or a company) with marketing it. As you can see, you can actually learn from mistakes of others, avoid their mistakes and forge ahead fully aware of competition and their limitations.

Step 3 - Product Safety Considerations

Whether you decided to produce a baby product or some type of household appliance, a special care should be taken in describing potential hazards associated with the use of your product. For example, if you invented a new toy designed for small children, try to come up with the list of parts that can potentially harm your little customers. Keep in mind that many people, unfortunately, disregard exploitation manuals. Determine what can or may go wrong with the operation of your product and determine ways on how to improve product safety. The questions that you may ask yourself are the following –

1. Am I using proper materials? 2. Maybe the part that contains the most hazards should be redesigned?

Try to come up with a thorough list of parts that can be potentially hazardous and fix your design before you start marketing your product. You may think of this step as unnecessary, but let me warn you – most marketing companies will require you to describe all Safety features of your idea, and you might save yourself some time by doing preparations ahead of time.

Step 4 - Demographics and Determining who will Use Your Product

1. What is the age bracket of target audience? 2. Is my product designed for Men, Women, or Both? 3. Where and when can it be used?

Step 5 – Produce Full or Small Scale Model of Your Product

It is extremely important

Opening A Dollar Store - How to Advertise Outside Your Front Door
If you are thinking about opening a dollar store, one of the challenges that you will continually face is identifying ways to continually grow your business. There are many obvious methods such as newspaper advertising and seasonal in-store specials. However there are some methods that can be used day after day to keep your presence in front of potential shoppers. The methods include capturing shopper attention as they are approaching the front of your store.One of the methods to capture shopper attention is by creating merchandise displays outside the front door of your store. Displays that are filled with brightly colored items immediately attract attention. Displays that are filled with items for the next big holiday are also make a great attention grabber. The good news for those who are opening a dollar store is that this type of promotion is absolutely free once fixtures are purchased!Displays used for this purpose can include rolling display racks, smaller stacking racks, tables and the free temporary stands that come with some merchandise. All of these are fairly easy to move, taking little time or effort. If you are planning on opening a dollar store many of these smaller, easily moved displays and stands will be available from the vendor who sells other store fixture items. Be sure that there are not restrictions regarding these displays in your lease as well.Since these racks, stands and tables will be moved into the store at closing and then placed back out when opening, be sure that they are fairly mobile. Also be sure that merchandise is placed properly. The heaviest items need to be placed at the bottom of the displays with lighter items placed at the top. This will help to reduce the chances of racks and stands being tipped over when being moved or when customers are examining items that are on display. When opening a dollar store the l

>When you are ready to market your idea, you will have to deal with large corporations. Keep in mind that the bigger the company is, the more bureaucratic it is. Many big companies lose focus and often hire employees who are either not qualified for the job, or just not interested in what they are doing. If you come across these folks who are trying to make you feel insignificant (and your idea unimportant and impractical) don't get discouraged by this - chances are you will be better off dealing with smaller company that is more focused and willing to take risks!

Step 1 - Stay Focused and Clearly Document Your Idea

This step has huge benefits, because –

1. You will clearly define your idea/invention 2. While documenting your idea, you may find ways on how to expand your invention

Case Study 1

Step 2 Exploratory Stages – Determine if your idea is unique

Step 3 - Product Safety Considerations

1. Am I using proper materials? 2. Maybe the part that contains the most hazards should be redesigned?

Step 4 - Demographics and Determining who will Use Your Product

1. What is the age bracket of target audience? 2. Is my product designed for Men, Women, or Both? 3. Where and when can it be used?

Step 5 – Produce Full or Small Scale Model of Your Product

It is extremely important

Promotional Mugs
Crazy for Promotional Coffee Mugs If you’re looking for a way to get your logo seen and your business in the public eye, consider investing in promotional coffee mugs. Presented as gifts to clients, or as part of a marketing blitz, promotional coffee mugs can help you in spreading the word about your enterprise. More noticeable than pens, and more universal than golf balls, coffee mugs can be used by anyone, anywhere. While coffee drinkers will appreciate the addition of a new mug to their collection, non-coffee drinkers can use it for tea, hot chocolate or soup. Promotional coffee mugs offer an inexpensive, yet highly effective means of advertising your business.Personalizing Promotional Coffee Mugs and Glassware From logos to mission statements, personalized coffee mugs are designed by you and custom made to your specifications. Even if you don’t have a business to promote, promotional coffee mugs make great souvenirs of class or family reunions, anniversaries and large scale birthday celebrations. Many suppliers offer photo transfer services that allow your logo and/or images to be permanently affixed to a variety of coffee mug designs. As they are generally purchased in bulk quantities, promotional coffee mugs are extremely cost effective and are adaptable to most budgetary constraints. Don’t let the competition edge you out, get a head start by distributing promotional coffee mugs today.Styles, Shapes and Sizes – The Variety of Promotional Coffee Mugs Personalized coffee mugs to advance your business or cause can be found in an abundance of styles and several materials. Whether you’re looking for an acrylic travel mug with a spill-proof cap, a standard ceramic mug with a high gloss or matte finish, or an elegant glass mug with your logo etched into its surface, promotional coffee mugs are available to suit your taste. Specially sized ju

r to make knife lighter, John K. goes back to the drawing board – he compromises his original, Automatic Push/Pull mechanism design in attempt to accommodate unnecessary extra features that have nothing to do with his unique design. By taking away features from his original design, John K. makes his final design very pedestrian and it lacks in originality.

Step 2 Exploratory Stages – Determine if your idea is unique

Step 3 - Product Safety Considerations

1. Am I using proper materials? 2. Maybe the part that contains the most hazards should be redesigned?

Step 4 - Demographics and Determining who will Use Your Product

1. What is the age bracket of target audience? 2. Is my product designed for Men, Women, or Both? 3. Where and when can it be used?

Step 5 – Produce Full or Small Scale Model of Your Product

It is extremely important

Wholesale Buyers Versus Retail Customers
Are wholesale buyers and retail customers really different? Frankly, there are two answers to this question: yes and no. Yes, because they are different from the buyers and those selling to buyers' point of view and no, because the principles that apply are the same for both types of buying.There is only one real difference, aside that one buys at wholesale prices and the other at retail prices, and that is that wholesale buyers are looking for a selection of items to fill a space or their customers' needs, while retail buyers are looking for one item to fill a space or need. When there isn't any space that needs filling either now or in the future, the customer won't be interested in what you have for sale, which means zero sales.Both wholesale and retail buyers are looking for things that can be either complementary or in contrast to what the are doing or they already have. It is rather a combination of the two (contrast/complementary or complementary/contrast) than a case of complementary or contrast.Contrast/complementary means it's different to what they are doing or they have, but will fit in with other things, while complementary/contrast means it's like what they are doing or already have and yet it's different. If there is a high contrast and it doesn't fit in or if it's exactly what they have, they most likely won't buy.There are two things you will have to do to determine if buyers are in a contrast/complementary or complementary/contrast buying situations. First of all, listen to what customers say and think about these two things: why they are asking the question that way and where they got the idea that generated the question. This is called "listening between the lines". Often, through their questions, customers will tell you what they are looking for. In case they don't, ask them yourself. It helps you by showing interest in what

e idea similar to yours already exists and already patented. The fact that someone came to the similar conclusions as you, just a little bit earlier is good – you have a competition! Competition is good, competition is healthy! Carefully examine competing product, even take it apart, if necessary. Determine what differentiates your idea from competitor’s, its limitations and how successful was another person (or a company) with marketing it. As you can see, you can actually learn from mistakes of others, avoid their mistakes and forge ahead fully aware of competition and their limitations.

Step 3 - Product Safety Considerations

1. Am I using proper materials? 2. Maybe the part that contains the most hazards should be redesigned?

Step 4 - Demographics and Determining who will Use Your Product

1. What is the age bracket of target audience? 2. Is my product designed for Men, Women, or Both? 3. Where and when can it be used?

Step 5 – Produce Full or Small Scale Model of Your Product

It is extremely important

Building Great Customer Experiences - Or Beware Consultants With No Clothes!
It must be one my personal business nightmares, if you can imagine having just flown to New York to meet a new client and the airline has lost all your clothes! So what can one learn from such events about delivering great customer service experiences?The best laid plans of mice and men often go awryTo give you the background, I’d just been to California and had arranged to meet the COO of a potential great new client in New York on my way back home to England. I’d visited them a few weeks before and I’d felt as though I’d wandered onto the set of “The Devil Wears Prada” (or should that be “Ugly Betty”?). So not wanting to be left too far behind the “New York Chic look” of my hosts, I’d gone out and purchased the very best of shirts & ties that London has to offer (OK anyone from Milan is allowed a note of scepticism at this point) combined with my new Italian suit & cuff links, I knew I’d look the part ;-)My plane was several hours late into New York due to “unexpected delays” – I was little nervous as I’d arranged to go out to dinner that evening. Still with my Platinum Frequent Flyer card my suitcase had qualified for a special “Priority Handling” label so I was looking forward to getting my suitcase quickly and rushing off ahead of the pack to the taxi rank. Sadly, after all of the luggage had disappeared off the carousel there was no sign of my case, so I made my way to the airline’s baggage handling office. I was joined by another passenger who had experienced a similar fate. The Airline staff assured me that my suitcase had landed and recommended I went back to check the carousel again. This experience was repeated another 3 times. From my interactions with the airline staff, I managed to get the impression that losing one’s baggage was not a completely unusual experience. My heart sank as I looked at the back wall of the hall which was

keting companies will require you to describe all Safety features of your idea, and you might save yourself some time by doing preparations ahead of time.

Step 4 - Demographics and Determining who will Use Your Product

1. What is the age bracket of target audience? 2. Is my product designed for Men, Women, or Both? 3. Where and when can it be used?

Step 5 – Produce Full or Small Scale Model of Your Product

It is extremely important to create a working model off of your idea. Why? By having a real-life model of your idea (or a scaled-down version of it), will help you to -

1. Identify its limitations and gives you a chance to re-think some aspects of your initial design and make necessary corrections 2. Enhance your final design

In addition to the above mentioned items, the final model will help you psychologically. There is no better feeling then to be able to physically see and touch the creation of your own mind! The fact that you are touching the real-life model of your final design will give you positive psychological boost equal to no other you’ve experienced during design process, motivating you even more to succeed!

The best way to approach this step is to try and draw on a piece of paper the final version of your product, the way you see it at this point in time. Your drawings should show your final idea/product under different angles, in a 2-D and 3-D. The picture might not be pretty because not many of us have the necessary drawing skills. However, this drawing task will help you immensely solidify your design and pin-point items that you still need to work on. In addition, I strongly recommend that you generate your initial product prototype from clay or any other material that is readily available. Why? Because this prototype along with initial drawing will help you explain your idea to technical person who, in turn, will transform your design into highly technical engineering drawing.

Once you prepared your model, try to determine what materials will go in into construction of real-life product. Will your product be build of plaster or metal? If metal, then what kind of metal – is it aluminum, copper or some type of alloy? Once you determined the necessary materials, estimate production cost because the price that you’ll charge for your product will depend on the production cost of each individual unit. You don’t have to be 100% correct at this stage with your material selections, but it’s very good to know what materials will go into production of your product so that you have a ball-park figure on the final cost of your product.

Step 6 – Estimate Cost and Gross Profit

Once you determined who will use your product and where (or your product’s market), it is time to think “big” – try to work out cost/benefit analysis of your product. Below is a case study –

Mary A., a homemaker with three little children, designed a plastic bottle holder for babies and small toddlers. Her bottle holder was designed in such a way that it would hold both the bottles, spoons and bottle caps. Mary A. created numerous drawings of her product and with the help of her husband managed to produce a full-scale version of her product made of clay. Before involving an engineer, Mary A. estimated that her product will be made entirely out of plastic. The estimated production cost of 1 bottle holder is $3.00 (we presume that the manufacturing plant is located in China and shipping costs are already factored in into the estimated production cost). Mary A. did comparative shopping and determined that other types of Baby Holders are selling around $15 dollars. In addition, Mary found out that three local baby stores each serve 1000 shoppers per day (including online purchases); in addition, each stores requires a 40% commissions per each purchase - meaning that $6 is paid as a commission to the store for each $15 purchase. Mary A. immediately figured out that her total profit will be $6 per each bottle holder ($15 - $6 - $3). Presume that one third of all shoppers in each store have either babies or toddlers who still need bottle holders (approximately 330 consumers per store), Mary A. can generate profit in the amount of 330 X 3 X 6 = $5940.

Step 7 – Product Marketing

Correct marketing strategy is absolutely essential to the success of your idea. Partnering with marketing company that you can trust and rely upon will pay big dividends in the long run and should not be overlooked. What should you know about marketing companies? Most of these companies are divided into two groups (I will call them groups A and B) –

1. Group A: These companies claim that they have specific knowledge and inside connections in a broad range of industries. In addition to been expensive, many companies that belong to this group are accused of fraud and inventor should carefully consider who they are dealing with. In the best case scenario, you could potentially lose all your money and valuable time; in worst-case scenario, in addition to losing money someone else may benefit from your invention (unless, of course, you were lucky enough to patent it!!)

2. Group B: These companies give inventor complete freedom in marketing their idea. Inventors choose what to say and focus on emphasize areas that they think are most pertinent to their invention. I would like to point out IdeaJets website (www.ideajets.com): IdeaJets is a marketplace where people with ideas and companies who search for sharp minds meet. In addition to helping you find a right partner who can help you realize your ideas and dreams, IdeaJets also brings inventors in contact with other ambitious people to cultivate and promote the culture of inventiveness and success. You can meet your fellow inventors using IdeaJets messaging system or in Forums. Hopefully, by sharing ideas and opinions, users might view their inventions or ideas in a new light, refine and re-define them to further increase their chances to succeed. As of right now, IdeaJets is completely free!

Conclusion and some Final Thoughts:

As one can see, it takes a lot of patience, preparation and perseverance on behalf of inventor to succeed. The main thing is to not get discouraged by the presence of competition and potential rejections. As I mentioned in my article, competition is good and healthy. If your competitor is enjoying a great success with the product similar to what you’ve developed, then this means that the product that you are working on has great potential. Carefully examine competitor’s product and determine its weaknesses or vulnerabilities. This, of course, presumes that you finalized your initial design, worked out all the kinks and produced a full-s

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Companies are being pushed more and more for cost reductions. Using corrugated plastic returnable packaging will produce considerable cost reductions and improve your bottom line.

The Family is a very important thing in a child's life. They need to be showed love and affection . If we spend time with our children maybe we can keep them from doing so many things wrong like drinking and doing drugs. You can get involved in their school functions and do extra things with them like joining cub scouts, playing baseball, soccer,going to the lake, going to Kentucky kingdom, or just doing things around the house together

There are quite a few uses of sweepers and scrubbers in today’s society. These needs include sweepers for use in parking lots, streets and industrial areas, as well as scrubbers for use on flooring and carpets.

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