Ingenious Markets

Looking for a good fundraising idea? Candle sales are easy and profitable. What, exactly, is a candle fundraiser?

Candle fundraisers are your basic order taker fundraiser. You need to do more than just show pictures of candles. Showing fragrant samples will dramatically boost your candle fundraiser’s results.

The basic concept is the same as all order taker fundraisers. You equip your sellers with a brochure, an order form, and a basic sales script.

The brochure describes the various candle selections and provides details on color, aroma, size, shape, weight, and container type. Price points are usually on the order form itself.

Unlike candy or cookie dough, it’s easy for your sellers to carry samples. Their non-perishable nature makes them a great fit for weeklong sales efforts.

One of the great things about candle fundraisers is how the aroma of your samples makes the selling process so much easier. Most buyers will sniff several samples and imagine how the candles will fill their homes with their pleasant smells.

Perennial favorites are french vanilla, bayberry, apple, pumpkin spice, apple cinnamon, holiday pine, melon burst, and citrus breeze.

Candle sizes range from small two-ounce votive candles all the way up to giant three-pound ball or bell-shaped versions with multiple wicks.

Several fundraising companies have candles in decorative shapes like various fruits, animals, wizards, trees, and figurines. In addition, large rectangles, cylinders, half-rounds, and tapers are always readily available.

Some companies also offer container-based candles which burn more slowly and safely. They also avoid messy cleanup problems. Popular styles are Mason jars, jars with handles, jars with screw tops, and square glass containers.

Profitability
Most fundraising companies offer their candles at a 50% discount. Some suppliers also offer a larger discount for higher volume sales.

The average seller makes five to seven sales. Many of these sales are multi-unit buys, so they average about $80 in revenue. That translates to roughly $40 in profit per seller, which is quite good.

Factors affecting your candle fundraisers profitability include freight charges, quantity discounts, quality of the brochure, number of available candle choices, the motivation level of your sellers, and the duration of your fundraising activities. And of course, the most important factor is having fragrant samples in the hands of your sellers.

This product works well for both elementary school and high school fundraising.

Larger groups can easily earn a quantity discount above 50%. As always, do an RFQ fax quote to the candle supplier list and lock-in your best possible discount up front.

Kimberly Reynolds writes about fundraising and how-to advice for fundraiser candle ideas on her website FundraiserHelp.com. Sign up for her free monthly newsletter at www.fundraiserhelp.com

5 Steps To Amazing Word Of Mouth!

It shocks me! It really does! Word of mouth is one of the best ways to grow a business. It’s free, or at the most costs very little. But very few businesses use it to anywhere near it’s potential!

Think about this: if you got just one referral from each one of your customers, you’d double your customer base! So, in my attempt to eliminate world ignorance about this amazing marketing tool, here are 5 steps to grow your business with word of mouth!! I used these same steps to grow my last business by 237% in just 23 weeks, solely using word of mouth!

1. Love your customers.

This is, in my opinion, the most important, yet overlooked element of creating endless referrals. It makes me very sad when I see so many businesses focusing more on profits than on people. I believe that focusing on profits alone is very detrimental to success. Word of mouth success in business comes from looking beyond just profit into how you can enrich your customers lives. When you focus on enriching your customers lives, that’s when referrals come very easily.

2. Create an amazing experience!

If you can make doing business with you an amazing experience, your customers will tell a lot of people. People want amazing experiences! After all, the whole entertainment business is built around this need. When I think of a business that creates amazing experiences, I think of an Australian accountant who placed his desk on a balcony which backed onto a golf driving range. He set up a tee off spot so that his customers could practice their driving while he talked to them about their tax returns! Isn’t that amazing? Obviously, you don’t have to go to these extremes! Even a little extra touch that costs very little can make dealing with your business that much more of an amazing experience!

3. Give your customers incentives for giving you referrals

If you’re being passive about referrals then you’re sitting on a gold-mine. When I grew my hair salon we were very active about asking our customers for referrals. For example, we included a ‘referral kit’ in each members pack that ‘entitled’ our customers to refer friends to us, and get rewarded for it. For example, they could get free gifts such as a 30 minute back massage voucher for referring a friend. We actually got these vouchers for free from a local masseuse because we were introducing her to a new, and potentially lifelong customer! Our customers loved our business and had the motivation to refer a friend because of their free gift!

4. Make it easy for customers to give you referrals.

If you want to get lots of referrals, you must make it incredibly easy for your customers to tell their friends. Don’t expect them go way out of the way to help you grow your business. Make as simple as possible.

5. Ask at the right time!

When is the best time to ask for referrals? I want to let you in on a great little tip! The best time to ask for a referral is when your customer is on a high because you’ve delivered so much, or have gone beyond what they expected. But don’t worry, if you hate asking for referrals face to face, why not write your customers a personal letter that reinforces how much you appreciate them, gets them on a high, and then asks for the referral!

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Michael Norman is the author of Referral Magic, the #1 small business word of mouth marketing system. In his book, Michael reveals how you can easily and maximally jump your business profits using word of mouth, with little or no money. Sign up for his free “Word Of Mouth Marketing Secrets” mini-course by sending a blank email to mailto:referralcourse@getresponse.com. Or, to find out more about Referral Magic, go to http://www.ReferralMagicEbook.com.

The laptop computer market has gone from strength to strength in recent times. But take note if you want the new tech than you need to build up some patience as there could be part shortages. Laptops have just been an incredible business to keep tabs on. There has been no decline in shipments. The histerical thing is that even when you get the latest thing out it’ll be out of date.

One of the growing trends is gaming notebooks. These laptops are also rising in value because of the enormous competition faced from low priced laptops. Speed is also advancing and gaming on notebook computers is becoming more adaquate for gaming by those who need to be mobile. Even more suprising these days I think is how slick the cases are getting especially when you think about much speed is in them. Performance of desktops should always be a step ahead of notebooks but its still encouraging to see. It’s a segment to pay attention to as buyers are searching for mobile, more potent systems as we speak.

I think we are seeing more start-up business exclusively peddling custom built notebooks. Ram and hard drives are typically high performance engineered components in custom notebooks which hardcore users like. You can typically save money on parts you don’t desire by configuring the laptop to your requirements. Prebuilt notebook computers are made for consumers who have like minded requirements and that is probably not you right? Hardcore users require custom notebooks because of this. Brands who provide custom notebooks typically offer a greater personalised and local support as well. Lots of specialist markets recognise they are served better because of this.

The future of upcoming laptop computers seems exciting. Notebooks essentially for accessing the internet etc are coming to the market one after the other. Vast amounts of comparable products have already come out at a fast pace. I really feel that we are bound to see ultra light 15 inch notebooks very quickly as well. If we overlook processing speed I’m certaiin we’d witness those versions of notebooks today. I can think its not too long before we start getting gaming notebooks that are weightless. Us techies will see something exciting in the next few months that’s a certainty.

The Gaming Laptops from Rizeon are considered to perform really well.

Travel for business or pleasure can bring to the fore several health concerns. The most common ailments people experience while on a trip are hypertension, colds, and diarrhea. In order to build up resistance to fight diseases you must adopt a healthy lifestyle. Get adequate rest, adopt a good exercise program, eat balanced meals, avoid fast foods, and food full of saturated fats, and take vitamins and any other medication prescribed by the doctor. One of the simplest rules to stay healthy while traveling is never eat uncooked foods and do not drink water that is suspect.

To protect yourself pack a small medicine kit as well as your medical records and insurance card. To maintain your health be sure to follow an exercise regime while traveling. You must walk, jog, swim, or use the hotel gym. Or you could play an exercise tape on your lap top and do your exercises in the hotel room. The secret to staying healthy is to stick to a routine and eat balanced meals at regular times.

Here are a few tips:

• For every time zone you cross, take a day’s rest to allow your body clock to reset itself.

• Avoid alcohol but drink plenty of fluids. The crucial thing is to avoid dehydration.

• While on the plane try and rest as much as possible and exercise by getting up and moving down the aisles.

• Eat low fat meals on the plane, eat lightly, avoid salty, rich, and fatty foods.

• The CDC recommends that you drink only bottled water and that too the carbonated kind. The water bottles must be sealed and opened by you only. Do not use ice cubes under any circumstances and drink out of a straw.

• Use bottled water for brushing your teeth and for gargling. Wash you toothbrush in bottled water. Try and avoid using tap water.

• Eat and drink anything that is at boiling point or deep fried. Eat freshly cooked food. Avoid meat and seafood if you are traveling in interior areas where the meat is unlikely to be fresh and freezers and refrigerators are not dependable.

• While in flight you should do a few stretching exercises to avoid cramped muscles. Yawn frequently or chew gum to de-pressurize your ears. Avoid drinking coffee before and during a flight. Wear comfortable shoes and loose clothing. Include plenty of greens and carbohydrates in your pre-flight meals. Relax as much as possible and take a few deep breaths before boarding a flight.

• If you suffer from hypertension, motion sickness, an overactive bladder, weak digestion, or allergies consult your doctor before undertaking an extended trip.

Be sure to pack in your carry on bag a bottle of water, a few snacks especially if you are diabetic, as well as your first aid kit. Pack a light jacket or sweater to wear in case there are great variations in temperature.

Paul Wilson is a freelance writer for www.1866Travel.com , the premier website to find help on Travel including topics on online travel directory, online travel planning, air tickets reservation, cruise travel, travel insurance issues, world travel, travel guide, vacation packages, travel agents, travel agencies and make hotel reservation, car rentals and more. He also freelances for the premier Music site www.1888Music.com

For the best abdominal workout, you should focus on each of the areas of your abdominal muscles. To get that six pack look you need to work on your lower, upper and side abdominal muscles. The classic crunch is where you lay on your back with feet on the floor and lift your head and neck off the floor. Crunches like this really focus on your upper abdominal area. For a lower abdominal workout you can lift your feet off the floor at a 90 degree angle and repeat the same motion where you lift your head and neck off the floor. Exercising with your feet in the air will focus more on your lower abs. To work on your side abdominal muscles put your feet back on the floor and tip your knees to one side. When you lift and do a crunch you should feel the burn in your side. Another lower abdominal workout is to put your legs straight up i the air and crunch up to attempt to touch your toes. You should use both your upper and lower abdominal muscles in this exercise.
Another way to really emphasize your lower abs is to lie on your back with your knees in the air, bent at a 90 degree angle. Slowly lower one foot to the floor while keeping your knee bent. Repeat on the other side for 20 reps or so and you will feel it in your lower abs!

While ITIL has provided a proven framework to assist with the increasing challenges associated with maintaining a more efficient, secure and compliant IT organization, only a handful of tools are publicly available to support the execution of ITIL-based improvement efforts. But a quick review of the Visible Ops handbook from the Information Technology Process Institute (ITPI), may give way to more tactical discussions on realistic service improvements for your ITO.

Visible Ops focuses mainly on the effective management of change as it relates to IT processes and applies to all any system related infrastructure component or attribute managed by IT (servers, databases, firewalls, network devices, storages systems, etc.). The handbook takes a common sense approach at leveraging ITIL and industry best practices through a straight forward and primarily non-technical narrative that serves a more functional audience.

Visible Ops was created through an industry study of “high-performing” IT organizations. Over the course of three years, the ITPI examined effective IT operations and security processes within these organizations, documenting characteristics that consistently contributed to the most efficient provision of IT services. In the end, the Visible Ops framework was developed, consisting of four phases driving increasing control over an IT environment. Each phase addresses related issues and provides indicators and descriptive steps to garner specific benefits each step of the way.

Phase 1: “Stabilize Patient, Modify First Response”

This phase looks at reducing the amount of unplanned work as a percentage of total work done to less than 25%. According to the ITPI, an estimated 80% of IT service outages are self-inflicted. Controlling changes that add significant risk to service provision and reducing MTTR through more efficient Change and Problem Management will add the most immediate value relative to process improvement efforts.

Phase 2: “Catch and Release, Find Fragile Artifacts”

Phase 2 focuses on the creation and maintenance of your inventory of IT production assets. As a result of inefficiencies in standardizing the replication of IT infrastructure, the ITPI recommends a comprehensive inventory of assets, configurations and services to identify CI’s and attributes with low change success rates, high MTTR and substantial downtime costs to ensure these components and their associated attributes are well protected.

Phase 3: “Establish Repeatable Build Library”

By establishing a library of repeatable builds with an initial focus on the “fragile” IT infrastructure, IT organizations can ensure the most critical assets and services are cheaper to rebuild than to repair. This phase primarily focuses on implementing an effective Release Management process to gain efficiencies in IT services.

Phase 4: “Enable Continuous Improvement”

Based on the previous phases and the progressive integration of the ITIL Service Support processes (BS 15000 equivalent of Release, Control and Resolution processes), phase 4 concentrates on the implementation of process metrics to enable continuous IT service improvement and ensure alignment with overall business objectives.

Bottom Line: Through continuous exposure and feedback obtained from various IT audiences, the ITPI believes Visible Ops has gained acceptance as a consistent and intuitive framework for IT process improvement when coupled with the ITIL framework. In the end, Visible Ops can foster good dialogue and a starting point for where and how to start your IT service improvement efforts. But more importantly, Visible Ops puts the focus back on common sense as a common practice.

Patrick Moore is a independent consultant and technology writer residing in Los Angeles, CA USA. Patrick can be reached at moorep@itilworx.com.

Connect both of people’s primary pursuits and what you will find is a mania we customarily term a sportsbook wagers site. And seriously: what could be more imaginative. If you visualize a clique of people cheering in support of a given chosen favorite players, and constantly lays are pinned down to go with the hubbub. Aspiring to participate in of the excitement, onlookers will routinely strive to envisage who is the likeliest to win the impending match. In the end, this all comes to be a friendly little match termed sportsbook wagers site.

No doubt it can seem to be addiction prone, though actually sports wagering is, in reality, just entertaining and to team up with your fellow sports fanatics. You can bet a a little amount of dough and yet have an extraordinary time. Below, you’ll find various cues to get you going sports wagering.

In order to place your wager, you’ll probably want to search out a sportsbook wagers site, i.e. a place which tenders sportsbook wagers site. In the United States, there’s currently a total of no less than four states where to do sports wagering legally, but beyond legality you can do it essentially anywhere assuming that you can discover a bookie and you are of age. Included in the sports competitions you’ll have a choice of risking some money on are pro plus, naturally, college level football plus basketball, pro baseball, pro hockey, plus, naturally, bets on both horse and dog racing. You’ll be able to wager on the whole result of a contest, in what round any given competitor will be defeated, and even if a given tossed coin in a contest comes out heads or tails.

The bookies will lean on pure statistics be of assistance to you come to a conclusion which players you may feel is the likeliest to win. First off, there’s the spread, that is to say points advantage pertaining to the disadvantaged competitor expected to be defeated by a set number points. Expectably, there are miscellaneous varieties of antes- straight, parlays, and plenty more, the straight bets being the most common in sports wagering.

Why not just try it out, and enjoy the recreation as well. Only see to it that you won’t get unduly carried away and kill your complete pension plan on a conceit. After all, you’re going to end up in rue all your life. Catch the online and sport and betting bug today! Learn to play here.

A tablet PC functions like a laptop, but doesn’t have a keyboard or mouse. Instead, it has a special touch screen, which receives information as the user writes on the screen with a specially designed pen. The pen can be used like a mouse, to select and open files or drag a file from one folder to another. The same pen can be used in place of a keyboard to write anything in any computer file. A tablet PC screen takes information only through this special pen. It does not take any information from your finger, as certain other touch screens do. If needed, a keyboard can also be attached to a tablet PC.

However, its main advantage lies in the fact that one doesn’t need a flat space to place a keyboard to use the computer. A tablet PC allows the user to work on it even while standing. Professionals such as doctors, salespersons, engineers, police officers and others who have to stand up most of the time while performing their duties can feel much more comfortable by using a tablet PC instead of a conventional PC or laptop. A number of companies are now producing tablet PCs. They differ in speed, design, look and sometimes functions, too.

There are several models of these tablet PCs available in the market such as the slate model, rugged model and convertible model. The market for tablet PCs is expanding at a rapid pace and it is predicted that the trend is likely to gain further momentum, as most of the big players in the market have decided to jump on this bandwagon. There is no dearth of hardware and software support for the tablet PC. It is easy to use, has a high memory and works at high speed – all this without taking up too much space, and it gives the user the opportunity to use it anywhere.

Tablet PC provides detailed information on Tablet PC, Tablet PC Reviews, Tablet PC Software, Best Tablet PC and more. Tablet PC is affiliated with PDA Pocket PCs.

Winning the bid for a cleaning contract doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to be the lowest bidder. The entire bidding and estimating process has an enormous impact on the success of your bid, and should be considered an overall effort, and not just an aim to beat the price of any competing business. The trick is to communicate well with the facility operator in order to create a set of standard expectations and definitions for the job itself. That way, the bid you make will cater precisely to what your prospective client wants and expects, and will justify your bidding price.

Normally the services required will depend on the client, but can include sweeping, dusting, vacuuming, buffing, waxing, emptying trash and recycling, restroom cleaning and restocking, and window cleaning.

When bidding on janitorial contracts, it is best to have a specifications list that you go over with the prospective client. This ensures you and the client both know exactly what is expected, and allows you to bid accordingly. Make sure you check both inside and outside of the building, and include any seasonal or special tasks such as outside windows or sidewalks that require attention. On your tour, be aware of the level of cleanliness already present, and try and gage the expectations of the client accordingly.

Your checklist should contain the following items as a basic foundation, and should have additional points, depending on the specifics of the particular job, as well as any specialties you may offer to provide:

*Total cleanable square footage, including the types of floor surfaces and the measurements per type of floor surface. Floor care services such as carpet cleaning and stripping and waxing is usually bid separately. It is common for a floor care bid to be submitted on a square footage price as an add-on service.

*Tasks and frequency of these tasks.

*Similar to the floors, windows can be bid on in a per-unit basis and can be considered an add-on service.

*Restroom supplies and trash can liners should be identified. An additional bid can be made for their management (and a small profit as well).

*Overhead expenses, fixed expenses, variable expenses, labor, and materials should all be considered in your bid price.

*Production cleaning rates – for example how long it takes to vacuum a space based on square footage, how long a restroom fixture takes to clean (toilets, urinals, sinks), and how many trash cans can be emptied in an hour.

*Initial cleaning cost – you may need to charge separately for the first-time cleaning if the building needs to be brought up to the correct level of appearance by giving a thorough detailed cleaning.

When you leave the site, don’t forget to ask your prospective customer any questions you may have about details and expectations. It’s also important to find out your client’s priorities between price and quality.

Remember that the presentation of your bid is as important as its contents. Put some effort into creating a standard bidding packet, which includes information about your company, a specifications list, references, testimonials, contract, and other information is greatly appreciated and very impressive to potential clients.

Steve Hanson is co-founding member of The Janitorial Store (TM), an online community for owners and managers of cleaning companies who want to build a more profitable and successful cleaning business. Sign up for Trash Talk: Tip of the Week at http://www.TheJanitorialStore.com and receive a Free Gift!

Freight denotes goods that are to be transported from one place to another by a commercial carrier. Carriers that deliver these goods are usually called freight forwarders.

These freight forwarders specialize in moving large quantities of goods over large distances, and may use their own fleet of vehicles or hire service providers of transportation.

In today’s busy world we often take for granted the fact that goods can pretty much be shipped to and from any part of the world with great efficiency and speed. It wasn’t too long ago when transporting cargo to other countries would normally take a couple of months before they reached their destination.

Today, when needed, large amounts of freight can be transported in as little as a few hours. That truly is a long ways off from the time our parents had to wait months and months for their deliveries.

Modes of Transportation

The efficiency of today’s freight service depends on the technological advances to the industry of transportation. In the past century, the development of high-speed, high-load transportation has been dizzying.

These innovations have made the today’s world a smaller place to live in. Because of these transportation modes, there is no place on earth that is too far to deliver to.

Freight forwarders rely on what is called intermodal transportation. This means that the freight they carry does not go on only one type of transportation. The freight may hop on ships to reach a different countries, and then get ferried to a distant location, then trucked to a receiving station.

Popular and Animal Transportation

In the early days, the only means of transporting huge amount of goods was through the use slaves and slave animals.

The caravans that crisscrossed the Middle Eastern deserts and the merchants that traveled over the silk road in Asia all bore trade goods that took as long as half a year to deliver. This accounted for the extreme price of their goods.

The Great Pyramids in Egypt were not built using materials delivered by freight companies such as FedEx (as opposed to the tongue-in-cheek advertisement that company produced). The ancient slave drivers used slave power to transport the materials needed for the pyramids from the quarry to the site.

Maritime Transporation

As the science of shipbuilding and navigation increased, man started to consider ships as a viable means to transport large quantities of foodstuffs to famine struck countries. Grain ships used to ply the European trade routes. Cargos of spice and exotic jewelry from the East made the empires of Spain and Portugal exceedingly rich.

As the development of ironclad vessels came along, freight forwarding as a business began to emerge. These ships could carry tremendous amounts of freight across vast bodies of water.

Land Transportation

Railway transportation was the pioneer of freight transportation. The fact that the term freight train is prevalent says something of the important role railways had in the transportation business.

Although railways were acceptably fast, they were limited to areas that had railways. It would be a few more decades before faster, more flexible means of transportation were available.

Trucks and trucking companies are the most versatile of all freight modes. As long as a location has roads, it is within the scope of the trucking business.

Air Transportation

During World War II, aircraft were capable of delivering tons and tons of cargo to battlefields. Today, this technology lives on to improve the freight forwarding business. Air Transportation is fastest means to deliver freight from country to country.

James Monahan is the owner and Senior Editor of
FreightSpot.com and writes expert
articles about freight.