Business Opportunities Weblog

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• Here Comes The Bridal Biz
• No Wedding Is Complete Without A Car Decoration Kit
• Having Two Playbooks
• Small Bizs Taking Steps Toward Online Networking
• Incorporate Audio Products in Your Biz
• Accurate Leads For Your Company
• Triangular Buttons Key To Success
• What Your Customers Really Want From You
• Kiva Now Allows Investment In US Small Bizs

Here Comes The Bridal Biz Posted: 11 Jun 2009 11:11 AM PDT Fast Company: Here comes the bride! And another! And another! And another! June is peak season for getting hitched — and for the lucrative nuptial industry, from gowns to flowers to catering. Here’s a look at the facts and figures of weddings. 2,190,363 couples were wedded in the U.S. in 2008. The world’s longest-married living couple, Zelmyra & Herbert Fisher of North Carolina, were, at press time, preparing to celebrate their 85th anniversary. $707,051,028 worth of wedding cake and fondant frosting (more than 16 tons) was consumed last year in the U.S. The average American wedding costs $28,704. Behemoth David’s Bridal claims roughly 30% of the wedding-gown market, with dresses that start at $99. The discount chain Filene’s Basement has held its Running of the Brides event at dozens of stores each year since 1947. At one store, shoppers cleared the racks of 3,000 marked-down dresses in a record 37 seconds. In 1960, an American bride was typically 20 years old and a groom was 23. Today, they’re 27 and 29, respectively. Photo by pixelfairy. From Business Opportunities Weblog.

No Wedding Is Complete Without A Car Decoration Kit Posted: 11 Jun 2009 09:30 AM PDT If you’re getting married in Israel, Haponpon (for English, go here) has all you will need to decorate your car. If you’re located elsewhere, then maybe you’ll be interested in one of their franchises instead! Yochai, the founder of Haponpon, found himself unemployed and down on his luck when he was struck with inspiration. With absolutely no prior knowledge on the wedding industry, he taught himself what he needed to know and launched into the industry feet first, successfully. As Haponpon continues to grow, Yochai continues to think ahead. This time he has franchising on his mind. Although you can’t quite purchase a franchise yet, it is an opportunity that will hopefully become available soon. Tell us about Haponpon. Haponpon (same as pompon or pom-pom ) was established before three months ago in order to give a good solution to grooms and brides that wants to decorate their wedding car and not pay a lot of money. In fact, until about eight months ago, when I was 47 years old (married + 2 kids), I worked as salesperson at an israeli high tech company, than I was fired. At that moment I decided that I will never have been fired again. In my age, it is almost impossible to find a job, so I was thinking a lot about my future and I got an idea to invent a new nich and create my new job. I thought about number of business ideas and after a lot of examination, I decided to build a business which will design, produce, create, manufacture and marketing wedding car decorating kits, and will give a wedding car services on site. Www.haponpon.com . I also manufacture a gift car decorating kits. Today, after three months of working, Haponpon receives orders every day. Haponpon use high-quality raw materials to produce god products with a reasonable price and comfortable. I want to emphasize that Haponpon contributes 10% of his earnings for the benefit of charitable institutions. for customers who can not pay because they do not have money, Haponpon give them a free of charge wedding car decorating kit. What inspired you to launch your business? After I was fired from my work, I did not know what to do. I started thinking about kinds of ideas in order to establish my own business. My wife bought me a book from “Rich dad poor dad” series, and I got a lot of motivation to establish my successful business. because I am an artist painting, I was looking for a business that will be related to creativity, aesthetics, design, colors, and of course money. I wanted to run a business that receives cash from customers and pay with credit to suppliers. in this way I can control my cash flow better. One day I woke up early in the morning with the idea - to establish Haponpon. I wrote immediately the idea in my notebook. From that moment I developed the idea of what is today. It took about one month to find a name to my new business. As far as I know there is no Israeli business like Haponpon and it is a big advantage for quick market penetration. After I decided to establish a businesses that will create a wedding car decorating kits, I decided to manufacture also a gift car decorating kits. Today I offer 7 kits of wedding cars and 2 gift car kits. Haponpon also provides an option to order a Kit where the client component itself the elements that he wanted, and we prepare it especially for him. How many car decoration sets do you have available for purchase? Regularly I have in stock about 10 kits ready, so I can supply instantly receiving invitations from day today. My ambition is to reach orders month in advance, so I can organize the production according to supply, and without pressure. Haponpon allows customers to order the kit with his favored colors, so not always the kit in stock fitting and match the requirements of the client. I think that there is no economic justification to hold larger inventories. Haponpon based on production per invitation in order to decrease inventory cost. Because I have 7 styles and each style usually consists of two colors, and I got 10-12 colored films, the options are very many. In order to satisfy the customers, I really try to give solution to customers which make order from day today. Because I do not want to hold in stock many pompons that takes up much space, I create a work plans which allow me to prepare in advance half production process. as soon as I receive an invitation to the manufacturing, the manufacture process is very short. How long did it take you to build your business from idea to launch? From the moment I got the decision that Haponpon will be the business I will establish, until I launched it, there is three of hard work months passed. during this period I learned well the matter, I created the designs, I’ve built by myself Haponpon website, I have written texts and I did a lot of promoting work in order to be first in Google (hebrew). I checked with many weddings couples which prices will be friendly and attractive for them, and I made my prices accordingly. I must note that just two days passed since Haponpon website was launched, Haponpon was take place at the first page on Google in most relevant search words. Today, Haponpon website located at the first places of many search words. My most referrals I’m getting comes from Google. I spend a lot of time to promote Haponpon website in Google. Haponpon located at first places in many connected words relevant to wedding car decoration. Google responsible about 80% of my visitors. What previous knowledge did you have that you were able to bring with you into the business? In fact, I did not have any knowledge and experience in wedding car decoration. On the last 16 years I worked as salesperson in the israeli high tech and computing field, and as you know, wedding car is not high tech. Haponpon is my start up, but it is certainly not high tech. Since I was painting for my enjoyment, I think I have a natural talent for creating hand feel design. This was also the reason it’s easy for me to choose the field of wedding cars decoration. The process of acquisition of knowledge was long. I spend thousand hours to collecting photos and information from the Internet. There are many sources of information available that allow each one to learn to do things himself. However, not everything can be learn on the Internet and it took me a long time and many attempts to find solutions for serious problems in the process of development and manufacture. What lessons has your business taught you? Because most of my life I was a salaried employee who was getting a regular salary once a month, I would not need to worry too much. Today, my income comes only from what I manufacture and marketing, I am more aware that the business should recruit a new customers every day. If an hour passes and I did not get a phone, I check if my phone is active. Wedding car decorating kit is a product that usually people buy once in life, and therefore, there is no permanent customers, unless you did a deal with limousine companies to sell Kits for their limo. I make efforts that customers will be satisfied from my products and services, so they will recommend to their friends, which it is indeed happens. The fact that I am self-employed now, force me to learn how to manage a business, how pay taxes, filling forms, work with bank, do marketing and advertising, do negotiation with suppliers and management my cash flow. What goals do you hope to accomplish over the next year? During the coming year I want to base Haponpon As a leader in the wedding car decorate area in Israel. I also want start selling franchises all over the world. Haponpon is not complicated business and it is suitable for creative people which do not want to be Employees or looking for more income. The economic crisis caused many people to lose their jobs, and in order to make money themselves, I think they should have their own business. I want to sell Haponpon franchises only to serious people, people with commitment. Haponpon will provide all the knowledge required to establish the business, including support in the first months. Haponpon will teach the franchises how to build the business, how to operate it, how to set up a Web site to place high on Google, which materials using to create decorations, and how to succeed as I do. These days, I started to build a unique program to train franchises that will be wedding car decorators, and I assume that on September - October I will I start marketing Haponpon franchise. Meanwhile, I begin to register candidates. The plan is to recruit 1,000 candidates all over the world, and choose 100 people that will establish it own Haponpon . Any such franchise will calls ponponier (the person who make pompon). If I could succeed- anyone can. I believe that every person with a creative talent and good hands can succeed in establishing a business as Haponpon. You mentioned that you were thinking about expanding your business into other countries. What are you looking for in someone that might help you do that? As I mentioned, in order to expand Haponpon activities to other countries, I plan to sell franchises. This week I start the registration for franchises candidates. I want to get 1000 candidates, so I have to publish Haponpon in many places. Today, when there lot of Social Networks it is more easy to reach almost every person in the world which using the Internet. I should publish the idea of Haponpon around the world so I can recruit much more candidates. Haponpon will not sell two to franchises in the same geographic area.I do not want that Haponpon will compete Haponpon. It is important to give the franchisers the ability to be unique, in order they can earn money within a short time and return there investment. Do you have any advice you’d like to share with those who are thinking about starting their own business? In the 70’s, an American rock band called Boston, sang a song called "Don’t look back". This is the most important advice I can give. Don’t look back. Always look forward to the mountain you not climb yet. Don’t look what you had in the past. Whether success or fail. Do not Look for the money you earned while you was laborer, looked ahead for tomorrow. You should always be optimistic and enjoy from now on, enjoy from the moment. Learn from the past, but don’t cry about making your mistakes. This is the life school. Once you on top and once you in the bottom. Even you have been fired like me, take this opportunity to make a lemonade from the lemon. Look at the current situation as an opportunity to build your business, so that nobody will fire you anymore. From Business Opportunities Weblog.

Having Two Playbooks Posted: 11 Jun 2009 09:30 AM PDT photo credit: Ana_Cotta Many businesses have two playbooks, meaning they have one for when their business is doing good, and one book is for strategies on when their business is going through a difficult time. This is a good idea  and practice to have, however, it is not 100% sufficient. There is a lot more that needs to be done other than just having two different playbooks on hand. Business is now exposed to continuous turbulence, not occasional turbulence. We aren’t going back to normal times. The “new normality” is one of turbulence coming from two big forces, namely technological advances and globalization. All this spells higher risk and vulnerability. Harvard Business suggests possibly lowering your prices, decreasing costs by taking away some features, and adding more benefits to the products for lower prices. This I don’t think is such a good idea as your customer’s will come to expect those low prices with added features even when your business is doing well. I would think that good old fashion state of the art customer service and adding more features to your products would be a better way to go. Maybe even shortening your hour’s of operation temporarily until the business starts doing well again, but make sure to provide plenty of notice when changing your hour’s. What are your thoughts on these options? From Business Opportunities Weblog.

Small Bizs Taking Steps Toward Online Networking Posted: 11 Jun 2009 09:09 AM PDT The New York Times: By choice or necessity, successful small-business owners are earnest networkers, gladly shaking hands, handing out cards and attending local meetings to find and keep customers, solve problems, seek feedback or support and bolster their bottom lines. Now, the Internet is starting to upend those long-established methods; online networking on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and newer niche sites can be instantaneous and far-reaching. The sites are efficient and free, which is especially important in an economic downturn, as owners scramble for new customers, said Rob King, vice president for strategic marketing at Sage North America, a unit of Sage P.L.C., a global supplier of business management software and services. Fast, free and efficient — those attributes appealed to Brighter Planet, a socially responsible start-up based in Vermont, which built social networking into its DNA. "There's almost a grass-roots quality to it," said Patti Prairie, its chief executive. "As a start-up, we can't afford to be buying ads anywhere. We have to use our outreach." What's more, when asked which networking opportunities they used most, 46 percent of small-business owners identified traditional methods like conferences, trade shows, local in-person groups or chambers of commerce. Of the remaining respondents, 16 percent cited "other" networking opportunities, 8 percent cited online sites, 7 percent said e-mail messages and 22 percent said they were not sure. Rob King of Sage North America estimates that small businesses have a 12-month window to figure out online social networking. "I hate to say it, but if they don't, they'll get left in the dust," he said. "It's here to stay." Photo by claymor. From Business Opportunities Weblog.

Incorporate Audio Products in Your Biz Posted: 11 Jun 2009 09:09 AM PDT bizzia: One of the easiest things you can do is incorporate audio products into your business. You can give them away or sell them on your website. One may ask, how do you create audio products? * Hold a teleconference with guests and listeners while recording the entire call. * Interview someone by phone and record it as you do the one-on-one call. * Setup a call-in line so that people can leave a testimonial message about your business. * Use a software program or online program to create audio by recording on your computer with a microphone. Editor’s note: Audacity is a free digital audio editor and recording application. Audacity is cross-platform and is available for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and BSD. Photo by CMSeter. From Business Opportunities Weblog.

Accurate Leads For Your Company Posted: 11 Jun 2009 08:30 AM PDT photo credit: doug88888 I am not one who believes in buying peoples information in order to sell them on a service, I have always thought of that as an invasion of one’s privacy. However, I do realize that many businesses use this approach in order to up their sales. The only problem is that how do you know that your getting viable accurate information on these people? SmallBizTechnologyrecently stated that Jigsaw and Linkded are two great ways to obtain accurate lead information. Stating that Jigsaw and Linkded allows you to link your CRM tools to their server in order to generate an unlimited amount of accurate information. I find this hard to believe as I have been in a job before that required I use leads, to which when calling them many almost all in fact were the wrong phone number, the person no longer lived there, the person was not interested even though the lead stated they were, etc. People do not always tell the truth when being surveyed, and people do not always change their information when they move or get a new number, so I find it hard to believe that any service out there can provide accurate unlimited lead information. From Business Opportunities Weblog.

Triangular Buttons Key To Success Posted: 11 Jun 2009 08:08 AM PDT Register Hardware: A British inventor has submitted a patent application for a wacky touchscreen keyboard design which, he claims, could spell the end for accidental key presses. David Baker's Crocodile Keyboard is so named because its keys are shaped like the reptile's sharp teeth. Baker told Register Hardware today that each triangular key has significantly more dead space around it than you'd find on a standard Qwerty layout. Consequently, users are more likely to press the correct key each time they tap. Although originally designed as a physical keyboard for the Palm Pilot – the project was speared due to manufacturing costs, says Baker. The inventor is adamant that a virtual Crocodile Keyboard could be successfully ported onto the iPhone. Apple’s publicly available iPhone OS software development kit makes this possible. Photo by David Baker. From Business Opportunities Weblog.

What Your Customers Really Want From You Posted: 11 Jun 2009 07:30 AM PDT photo credit: osde8info In business it is very important to stay on top of everything in your field, your customers, vendors, new items and services etc. But there comes a point in every business person’s life when they must stop and ask themselves what do my customers really want from me? The New York Times recently posted an article explaining what most of your customers actually want from you. Try being agressive with your customers. In today’s time it is important to hang on to all the customers you can, so if your not sure what they really want from you, then just go out and ask them straight forward. Another great way to find out what they want is to ask the employees that most often take care of your customers. "They already have (or should have) relationships with customers so it should be easy," he says. "They're already in contact with them so it should be convenient. Make it part of their job. Train, motivate and encourage them to have conversations with customers that result in your company knowing more about what your customers want." In the end be prepared to possibly be taken back from what your customers truly want. Sometiems they request either very odd things from you, or simply request things that you just can not even comprehend. From Business Opportunities Weblog.

Kiva Now Allows Investment In US Small Bizs Posted: 11 Jun 2009 07:07 AM PDT ReadWriteWeb: Microlender Kiva announced it will begin a pilot program of loans to U.S. small enterprise. Kiva began in Africa, and after four years has since expanded to 44 countries, mostly in the developing world. The test will start with 45 U.S. businesses, ranging from baked goods deliveries to child care and taxi drivers. For now, the loans are limited to New York and California, though Kiva is actively seeking new Field Partners to move in to more regions in the U.S. The Kiva platform works basically as a middle man, providing profiles of entrepreneurs for lenders to choose from, collecting the funds to be distributed through Kiva partners, and giving the capital back to lenders (either to re-lend, keep, or donate to Kiva) once a loan has been repaid. To date, more than $75 million for entrepreneurs in the developing world has been raised through the site. Photo by Kiva. From Business Opportunities Weblog.

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