BOLLYWOOD SURKHIYAN

Upcoming Home Furnishing Sourcing Fairs in Asia

A comprehensive list of Asian home furnishing fairs this spring, with insider details.

February

India Carpet Expo (Feb 12 – 15)

Almost 200 carpet manufacturers and exporters will attend this fair in New Delhi.

Ambiente Frankfurt (Feb 13-17)

The passage sections of Ambiente feature suppliers and manufacturers from around the world. A great show for home décor and housewares.

Indian handicrafts and Gifts Fair (Feb 25 – 28)

The biggest furniture and home accent fair in India. Fantastic products and great values for people looking to source in India with over 1000 suppliers.

March

India Houseware & Gift Fair (Mar 1 – 3)

-Smaller than IHGF, there are still more than 500 suppliers in handicrafts, housewares, and textiles.

MIFF Malaysia (Mar 3 – 7)

-More than 500 Malaysian furniture manufacturers and exporters.

Cebu International Furniture and Furnishings Exhibition (Mar 5 – 8)

-A smaller show with all the top local Cebu manufacturers and designers.

Manila Now (Mar 5 – 8)

-More than 100 furniture and home décor suppliers.

IFFS Singapore (Mar 9 – 12)

-One of the leading furniture fairs in Asia for good design.

IFFINA Indonesia (Mar 11 – 15)

-The largest furniture fair in Indonesia, this is also the best furniture show of the year for finding Indonesian suppliers.

VIFA Vietnam (Mar 11 – 14)

-A smaller furniture fair with around 100 suppliers. This fair has mostly furniture companies, but not as many suppliers as the fall HCMC Expo.

TIFF Thailand (Mar 11 – 15)

-200 Thai home furnishings suppliers

Dongguan Famous Furniture Fair (Mar 16-20)

-A huge furniture fair near the heart of furniture city in Houjie. Also, there is a home accent and lighting section.

CIFF Guangzhou, China (Mar 18 – 21)

The biggest and best furniture fair in China in the Spring. Also running concurrently are sections for home accents and housewares.

SIFE Shenzhen (Mar 19 – 22)

Another huge furniture fair, not as large as the other two shows running at the same time, but still very big and lots of manufacturers at this show.

SFIFC Metal Furniture Fair – Bazhou City, Hebei, China (Mar 23 – 25)

-Primarily dealing with glass and metal furniture including residential furniture, office furniture, business furniture, and outdoor furniture. Over 1000 enterprises will present in the fair,

Premier Vision China (Mar 30 – 31)

-One of the best high end fabric shows in China

April

Hong Kong International Lighting -Spring (Apr 13 – 16)

-The premier fall Asian lighting fair is now twice a year. Manufacturers and suppliers are from around the world, but a majority are Chinese and HK companies. There are not nearly as many companies at the spring event and only occupies one tenth of the floor space.

Manila F.A.M.E (Apr 15 – 18)

-The largest home furnishings fair in the Philippines

The Canton Fair (Apr 15 -19, Apr 24 – 28, May 3 – 7)

-One of the oldest, and by far the biggest home furnishing fair in the world (if you include the surrounding fairs). Phase 2 (Apr 24 – 28) of the Canton Fair is when most of home furnishings suppliers show there. Phase 1 includes lighting, and Phase 3 has home textiles, carpets and rugs. Overall, there are over a million square meters of exhibition space and over 50,000 suppliers. Please note, that while there are more furniture manufacturers now attending the canton fair, it is still not as good as the CIFF for furniture, but it is much better for home accents. Four fairs are within walking distance. To read more about these fairs Click Here.

Hong Kong Housewares (Apr 20 – 23)

-One of the best houseware fairs in the world, there are thousands of manufacturers from China, India, Asia, and other parts of the world. Products are housewares, textiles, handicrafts, and a level of Pet Supplies.

China Sourcing Fair: Home Products + India Sourcing Fair: Home Products (Apr 20 – 23)

-Both fairs are at one location in Hong Kong (the Expo Center, near the airport). This is an unassociated extension of the Hong Kong Houseware fair. Expect to find thousands more suppliers. But, since the HK Housewares is the premium event, suppliers at this event typically are waiting to get a space at the HK Convention Center in the coming years. Shuttles and the train make it easy to travel back and forth between events.

Hong Kong Gifts and Premiums (Apr 27 – 30)

-A huge event, but not as appealing for home furnishing buyers. These are often less expensive products, but some product categories of interest, include picture frames, ceramics, and clocks. Also running at the same time, is the China Sourcing Fair: Gifts & Premiums (Apr 28 – May 1), at the Asia World Expo in Hong Kong.

Tally Piracy: A Never Ending Struggle for Tally

India has a list of successful companies to boast of in the software services space. Despite being the global leader in the IT space, we are nowhere near the global giants in the products segment. Many reasons can be cited including the lack of motivation to substitute R&D activities. However, there are few organizations that walked the road less travelled and also tasted success. Tally Solutions is certainly one of them. The organization is one of those that changed the perception that software systems are meant to be expensive and complex. It made them accessible as well as affordable to all. Tally has nearly become synonymous to accounting. However, the list of praises stops there. With all the promise it exemplified, the company, more than two decade old hasn’t moved much beyond its territories. As per a Tally insider, piracy has hit the company in a big way.

Over the years, what we have seen is a huge loss of value. There are about 40 lakh businesses in India. So far, IT hardware and software vendors have addressed only 50% of it. Tally has about 7 lakh registered users but the fact also looms that most of them use pirated versions. As per a third party research done over few years ago, about 90% of Tally’s usage is through pirated copies. The good news is that it has now come down to close to 70%. Piracy is one of the primary issues that have been bothering everyone. At times it does seem impossible. On the other hand the businesses in mature markets such as the USA that started at the same time as Tally software have now become big buck organizations. This is because the rate of piracy in such countries is at about 25%.

Given the diversity and spread of our client base, it’s physically not possible to trace and stop piracy at the end user side. Unfortunately, business is not growing at the pace it needs to grow and its only growing incrementally. It has the potential to grow at a great extent and can achieve at least 3 times the growth if not more. This isn’t the case with Tally software alone but the entire IT industry. Tally with its entire latest version Tally ERP 9 marks its presence across 54 cities through more than 9,700 partners. The organization has more than 1000 employees operating in 14 cities. With business spreading around the globe the accounting master is expecting that it counters the threat of piracy which looms over it and provides more sophisticated versions in the near future.

Corporate Governance

Institute of Company Secretaries of India –

“Corporate Governance is the application of Best Management Practices, Compliance of Laws in true letter and spirit and adherence to ethical standards for effective management and distribution of wealth and discharge of social responsibility for sustainable development of all stakeholders.”

Standard and Poor – “Corporate Governance is the way a company is organized and managed to ensure that all financial stakeholders receive a fair share of the company’s earnings and assets.”

Objectives of Corporate Governance: –

Corporate Governance is aimed at creating an organization which maximizes the wealth of shareholders. It envisages an organization in which emphasis is laid on fulfilling the social responsibilities towards the stakeholders in addition to the earning of profits. The objectives of Corporate Governance is to ensure the following:

1. Properly constituted Board capable of taking independent and objective decisions.

2. Board is independent in terms of Non-Executive and Independent Directors.

3. Board adopts transparent procedures and practices.

4. Board has an effective machinery to serve the concerns of the Stakeholders.

5. Board to monitor the functioning of the Management Team.

6. Properly constituted Board capable of taking independent and objective decisions.

7. Board is independent in terms of Non-Executive and Independent Directors.

8. Board adopts transparent procedures and practices.

9. Board has an effective machinery to serve the concerns of the Stakeholders.

10. Board to monitor the functioning of the Management Team.

11. Board remains in effective control of the affairs of the Company.

Elements of Good Corporate Governance:-

1. Role and Powers of the Board.

2. Legislation

3. Management Environment

4. Board Skills

5. Board Appointments

6. Board Induction and Training

7. Board Independence

8. Board Meetings

9. Board Resources

10. Code of Conduct

11. Strategy setting

12. Financial and Operational Reporting

13. Monitoring the Board Performance

14. Audit Committee

15. Risk Management

Secretarial Standards:-

The Institute of Company Secretaries of India has issued the following Standards in order to maintain the uniformity of procedure with regard to the Board Meetings, General Meetings, Payment of Dividend, Maintenance of Registers and Records, Recording of Minutes and Transfer and Transmission of Shares.

A brief detail of these standards is given as under: –

SS1 – Meetings of Board of Directors: –

The Secretarial Standard -1 deals with the meetings of the Board of Directors. It deals with the various aspects of the conducting the Board Meetings, the frequency of such meetings in a year, Quorum required for the meeting, powers of the Chairman in such meetings, and recording of minutes of such meetings.

SS2 – General Meetings: –

The Secretarial Standard -2 deals with the General Meetings. It explains the procedure of conducting the General Meetings, the frequency of meetings in a year, Quorum required for the conduct of the meeting, powers of the Chairman in such meetings, recording of minutes of such meetings, a procedure of voting, etc.

SS3 – Dividend: –

This Secretarial Standard pertains to Dividend. It illustrates the calculation of amount payable as a dividend, declaration of dividend, Treatment of Unpaid Dividend, and Transfer of Dividend to Investor Education and Protection Fund(IEPF).

SS4 – Registers and Records

This Secretarial Standard enumerates the various Registers required to be maintained as per statutory requirements. It requires the following registers to be maintained:

Register of members and Debenture holders.

Register for Contracts u/s 301.

Register of Directors u/s 303.

Register for Transfer of Shares.

SS5 – Minutes

This Secretarial Standard deals with the recording and signing of Minutes of the Meetings.

Minutes should contain:

(a) The appointment of the Chairman of the meeting.

(b) The presence of Quorum.

(c) The fact that certain registers and documents were available for inspection.

(d) The number of members present in person including representatives.

(e) The number of proxies and the number of shares represented by them.

(f) The presence of the Chairman of the Audit Committee at the Annual General Meeting.

(g) The presence if any, of the Auditors, the Practising Company Secretary who issued the Compliance Certificate, the Court appointed observers or scrutineers.

(h) Reading of the notice of the meeting.

(i) Reading the report of the auditors.

(j) Summary of the opening remarks of the Chairman.

(k) Summary of the clarifications provided.

(l) In respect of each resolution, the type of the resolution, the names of the persons who proposed and seconded and the majority with which such resolution was passed. Resolutions should be written in the present tense.

SS6 – Transfer and Transmission of Shares

This Secretarial Standard deals with the procedure of Transfer and Transmission of shares held singly and jointly. The register and records pertaining to transmission should be preserved permanently and kept in the custody of the secretary of the company or any other person authorized by the Board for the purpose.

Factors Influencing the quality of Corporate Governance:-

1. Integrity of the Management

2. Ability of the Board

3. Adequacy of the Process

4. Quality of Corporate Reporting

5. Participation of Stakeholders

6. Quality of Corporate Reporting

Committee Reports on Corporate Governance:-

Narayana Murthy Report on Corporate Governance: –

Corporate Governance is beyond the realm of Law. It stems from the culture and mindset of management and cannot be regulated by legislation alone. Corporate Governance is all about openness, integrity, and accountability.

It is a key element in improving the economic efficiency of the firm. Credibility offered by Corporate Governance also helps in improving the confidence of the investors – both domestic and foreign. It involves a set of relationships between a company’s management, its Board, shareholders, and Stakeholders.

Kumarmangalam Birla Committee on Corporate Governance: –

All companies are required to submit a quarterly Compliance Report to the Stock Exchanges within 15 days from the end of financial reporting quarter.

The Report has to be submitted by Compliance Officer or by the Chief Executive Officer after obtaining due approvals, on the following clauses:-

Board of Directors

Audit Committee

Shareholders/ Investors Grievance Committee

Remuneration of Directors

Board Procedures

Management

Shareholders

Report on Corporate Governance

CII – Desirable Corporate Governance: –

Corporate Governance helps in maximizing the long-term shareholder value. It is more a way of business life than a mere legal compulsion. Four ideas, which should be the guiding force of company’s philosophy on Corporate Governance are:-

– Transparency

– Accountability

– Disclosure

– Value Creation.

The Code of Business Conduct and Ethics helps to ensure compliance with legal requirements and other standards of Business Conduct. All company Employees and Trainees are expected to read and understand this code of ethics, comply with all applicable policies and procedures, and ensure that all agents and contractors are aware of, understand and adhere to these standards.

The Company expects all employees, agents, and contractors to exercise good judgment to ensure all employees, agents, and contractors and to maintain competitive, efficient, positive harmonious and productive Work Environment and business organization.

Insider Trading:-

Insider trading is the trading of a corporation’s stock or other securities (e.g. bonds or stock options) by corporate insiders such as officers, key employees, directors, or holders of more than ten percent of the firm’s shares. Insider trading may be perfectly legal, but the term is frequently used to refer to a practice, illegal in many jurisdictions, in which an insider or a related party trades based on material non-public information obtained during the performance of the insider’s duties at the corporation, or otherwise misappropriated.

Prohibition on dealing communication or counseling on matters relating to inside trading: –

3. No insider shall –

(i) either on his own behalf or on behalf of any other person, deal in securities of a company listed on any stock exchange when in possession of any unpublished price sensitive information; or

(ii) communicate, counsel or procure, directly or indirectly, any unpublished price sensitive information to any person who while in possession of such unpublished price sensitive information shall not deal in securities.

(iii) Provided that nothing contained above shall be applicable to any communication required in the ordinary course of business or under any law.

3A. No company shall deal with the securities of another company or associate of that other company while in possession of any unpublished price sensitive information.

How Can Businesses Benefit From a Graphic Designer?

Some people think that since their business is not creative in nature, they do not need a graphic designer. However, they may not realize the benefits their business can get from hiring a professional and might be surprised with the reasons why they need one.

What does graphic design mean, and why is it necessary to hire a professional?

Graphic design is the form of art that communicates messages through visual content. These designers make use of images and text to solve visual problems. They visually communicate ideas to sell products or send out a brand message.

A professional can efficiently get the required graphic design work done. They have enough skills and years of experience to make a project come alive. They are also equipped with the right tools to ensure that the project is professionally done and meet the industry standard.

It will let the business save money in the long run. Though a business owner can try to do the project by himself, it will never be as fast and efficient as a professional designer.

What is the job of a graphic designer?

He/she can produce anything that tells a visual story or communicates a visual message. The description is quite vague since the field of graphic design is very diverse.

This type of professional can address numerous problems, ranging from small tasks to huge projects, including letting a website become more readable or modifying a logo to use on social media. Adding a creative mind to the team will enable business owners to see things in another light and even improve the way to do business.

The work of graphic designers can include the following but is not limited to:

Logo

He/she can come up with a unique business logo. A logo is one way for people to remember a business as well as to stand out from the rest. Though companies can try to design their own logo, they do not realize the impact given by a professionally designed logo. A trained professional knows how to create a design that appeals to a company’s target audience and which can be used in different forms of media such as business cards and clothing, among others.

Branding

Graphic designers can create a brand that will bring a company to life. This brand includes a company logo and so much more.

Business cards

A business card is one way to give a good first impression, which is critical in the busy market nowadays. A graphic designer is the best person to create the business card that complements the branding so that this would let the business leave a lasting impression.

Stationery

If a company uses ordinary letterheads, note cards, envelopes and compliment slips, it is about time to make a switch. Stationery with the name of the company lets the business look more professional. The company should make sure, though, that when the brand leaves the office, it reflects what the business is all about.

Brochures and Booklets

These professionals can come up with the brochure/booklet required by the company in a professional way.

Posters and Flyers

Companies should invest in a professional to design their posters and flyers so that they can be sure to attract their target audience and catch their attention. It is plain to see that a poster that has been designed by an amateur does not relay the right message and its design is not retained in the memory of viewers – businesses should not allow this to happen.

The Importance of Asking Permission in Sales Calls

I talk a lot about establishing and maintaining control on sales calls – it’s important for us as sales professionals to steer the conversation in such a way that we obtain the information we need to determine if the prospect is a fit for our offering – and if so, how best to position it to them. In this post, I’ll be discussing one area in where a small and easily implemented adjustment can make a measurable difference in results: asking permission.

Why Bother Asking Permission?

On the surface, asking our prospects for permission seems like a weak play. We’re temporarily forfeiting control – handing the reigns of the conversation briefly to the prospect, and giving them an out if they’re really looking for one. So why do we do it? Before looking at the benefits, let’s take a look at the potential drawbacks to understand why they aren’t all that disastrous after all.

You’re giving control of the call to the prospect.

Are we? Asking permission most often takes the form of a close-ended (yes or no) question to which we are fairly certain the answer will be yes. We have given the prospect control of the call in the way a McDonald’s employee has given a patron control of the menu by asking if they’d “like fries with that?”

You’re giving the prospect an easy out!

Absolutely. This concept of ‘giving prospects a way out’ is dated, and worth getting away from entirely. Your call should strategically incorporate ways for the prospect to get off the hook if they’re not interested for two reasons:

It is a litmus test against the prospect’s interest – if they are looking for ways out, you haven’t done your job in piquing their interest.
The corollary is that if we are giving the prospect outs and they are not taking them, we know that they are interested – and we are subtly reinforcing that interest in our prospect’s minds by forcing them to repeatedly demonstrate it!

Having addressed the apparent disadvantages, let’s take a look at the benefits:

We reinforce our image as a polite professional.

Asking permission is the polite thing to do – and with the vast majority of prospects, being polite will go a long way in establishing trust and respect.

We give the prospect the ability to provide input while restricting their ability to misdirect the conversation.

No one wants to be on the receiving end of a one-sided conversation. Even if the prospect has shown that they’re okay with us leading the call, we still want them to feel included in that conversation. Open-ended questions have their role as well, but a simple ask for permission can go a long way in making the prospect feel involved while keeping our grip on the wheel.

We are getting the prospects to further engage in the conversation, and in our service offering by escalating the consent we seek.

This is the most important benefit – closing a deal is simply the last step in a chain of escalating consent. Ultimately, we need the prospect to say “yes” when we ask for the business – it therefore works to our benefit to “get them in the habit” of responding in the affirmative before we go for that close. Asking snaps the prospect’s attention back where you want it, and makes them feel more invested in the call. Subtly – subconsciously, even – they think to themselves “Well, if I weren’t interested I could have just said ‘no’, so I should pay attention.” Asking for the business should ideally always be framed in a context of prior consent. We start by asking their permission to pitch them – to show them our website, do a live demo, send them a proposal, call them back at a specific date, and ultimately – we ask for their permission to get working for them.

To illustrate these benefits, I’m going to run through a couple examples of situations where a salesperson might ask for permission, and highlight how it benefits them:

Opening The Call

Rep: Hi, John – my name is Bill with XYZ Company – I’m reaching out because I took a look at your website, and believe I can help improve its lead generation capabilities.

Prospect: Thanks, but I haven’t got time for this right now.

Rep: I certainly understand, John – would it be okay if I took two minutes to briefly explain what we can do for you? If it sounds interesting we can schedule a follow-up call, and otherwise I’ll leave you alone.

Prospect: Sure. Two minutes. Shoot.

It would have been easy here to just blow through the “I’m busy call me later” objection and just start pitching anyway. But then, you’re not being very polite, are you? You also have no idea whether the prospect is listening to you, or if they’re mentally checking out to return to whatever they were doing before you called. Finally, we’re missing out on the opportunity to begin establishing “yes momentum” – at the end of the day, if the prospect stands firm and doesn’t give you two minutes, you’ve lost nothing – you can still call them back later (maybe they were really busy), or cross them off your list. There’s virtually no down-side.

Segueing into Demo

Rep: John, are you in front of a computer?

John: I am.

Rep: What I’d like to do, John, is take you to a website we’ve worked on for a client of mine. He’s in your industry, and I think it will give you a more concrete idea of what exactly we can do for you. Does that sound fair?

John: Sure – what’s the site?

Again, it would be easy to just ask if they’re in front of a computer and, if they are, direct them to the site – but we would be missing a great opportunity to ask permission. We make ourselves look polite – we’re not forcing anything on the prospect – merely suggesting a course of action that will allow them to better-evaluate our service. Again, if the prospect turns down your request, it’s not because you didn’t bulldog them – it’s because you hadn’t done enough work building interest on the front-end of the call before you attempted your segue (or maybe they just have legitimate time constraints, in which case they should be willing and eager to arrange a follow-up call). Either way, you are getting them to lean in – to further engage, and admit to you (and to themselves) that yes, they are interested in seeing a live demo. Subtle, but powerful.

The Close

John: Well, this all looks great – what are the next steps?

Rep: Glad to hear it John – how about I run a few packages past you, and you can tell me which one makes the most sense – work for you?

John: Sure thing – shoot.

This is just one example of a way to work permission into our close. Here we can see our intrepid hero has opted for a multiple choice close (a form of closed-ended closing question in which we present the prospect with a series of options to choose from – none of which are “no thanks”, or “give me some time”.) It’s a powerful close by itself, but adding an ask for permission is the perfect complement. One of the problems with closed-ended closing tools is that we can make the prospect feel boxed in – they get cagey, and even though everything lines up, and they want to buy, they put up last-minute walls for that reason. In this case, we’ve side-stepped that concern by giving them an out. We’ve said, “Hey, Prospect – I’d like to multiple choice close you. Is that okay?” And they have acquiesced. BOOM! That’s power. We’re also slicing the close up into more digestible chunks that will be easier for the client to swallow – “Yes, it sounds good.” “Yes, I want to work with you.” “Yes, I’d like to hear your options and choose one.” By escalating the consent we ask for slowly, we warm the prospects up more and decrease the likelihood of scaring them off by asking for the business.

These are just a few examples, but there are many more ways in which asking permission can be worked into your sales calls. As with any tool, it should be sprinkled throughout the presentation so as not to sound forced or scripted, but it’s an effective litmus test of the prospect’s interest, and it helps bring us closer to the close with minimal risk of rejection. Do you ask for permission in your calls? What are some of the questions you like to ask, and why? Any comments or questions are welcome in the section below – and as always, if you’ve found this information useful, please share it with anyone else who might enjoy it as well!

5 Significant Cyber Security Risks Businesses Should Ponder

In the recent years, it has been observed that many businesses have been rapidly affected by various types of cyber attacks. Companies continue to be under great pressure and strive to keep their information safe and secure. Some of the common security risks businesses continue to face have been listed below:

1. Human factor and peoples’ reactive mindset: The employees working in the business could form the major base for cyber threats as they are more prone to open phishing emails or download links that could turn out to be malware. Moreover, the top level management or people at the C level will be less prone to become malicious insiders. Due to this a serious concern of privilege abuse by lower level employees is more common as they become malicious insiders and measures need to be taken to overcome this problem.

2. Password protection measures play vital role: Businesses should be extremely aware that they should maintain all important business accounts with a two factor password authentication such that it may not be easily hacked. This password needs to be changed and maintained effectively once in 30 or 45 days to keep it more safe and away from any security attacks.

3. Aging Infrastructure and drastic Patch Management necessary: In addition to the above security risks, hardware can also be a major issue as lifecycle of most of the devices is becoming increasingly shorter these days. Purchase only new hardware that can uphold updates such that aging factor can be taken care off. Recent attacks such as the WannaCry and Petya outbreaks have underlined the importance of regular software updates that needs to be taken up. Even for Eternal Blue, it allowed the malware to spread within corporate networks without any user interaction, making these outbreaks particularly virulent. The above incidents do show the importance of protecting vulnerable systems and patching is a key way to do it.

4. Difficulty with Data Integrations: It is interesting to note that the amount of data that flows through an organization could for reasons overwhelm anyone as it contains very critical information. This could be about employees, partners, stakeholders, service providers etc. But integrating various data sources is crucial to have a clear understanding of various risks involved within or outside the organization.

5. Lack of a Proper security recovery plan: Most businesses are still unaware of the impounding risks with cyber security and lack a proper plan to overcome such situations. They need to draft a plan that contains the actions that could be taken up when there is a cyber attack and thus can quickly and efficiently minimize the risk and save information or other economic losses.

How Can Businesses protect themselves?

Certain solutions like SecOps provide superior customer experience along with a robust cyber security. This security product has capabilities of secure operations while focusing on delivering a seamless customer experience. This specific Security and Experience go together approach finds the right balance between the ease of user experience and effectiveness of security protection. These solutions cover the entire software lifecycle, from secure design to security testing in development and QA, app self-protection and monitoring in product and patching. Security is an enabler of new business opportunities in addition to helping protect your company’s people, data, and systems. Cloud Security is achieved through following certain cloud adoption strategies with specific focus placed on security and privacy to improve all operations and make them secure.

10 Rules for Composing Terms and Conditions for Your Invoices

Solid terms and conditions for your invoices are extremely important for your small business. If your invoices are complicated to understand or confusing to read, you may do some severe damage to your cash flow. Why? Mainly because if the client can’t understand your invoice they’re not going just pay. Your client wants to be sure that they’re being priced the proper amount of the goods or services that they requested.

1. Start thinking about all potential legal problems and scenarios.

The first thing that you must do before writing down your terms and conditions is to list all the probable legal obstacles or circumstances that could happen.

As an example:

What measures will you take if the client does not pay the invoice?
What will happen if you’re past due on delivering your services or products or service to the customer?
What will you do if the client is dissatisfied with your goods and services?
What will happen if the product or service is damaged when being provided by your client’s delivery service?
Are there any incentives if your customers pay beforehand?
What kind of rate of interest would you like to charge for late payments?
What if the customer is interested to renegotiate the contract just after the two parties agree to the terms and conditions?
Can your customer request a reimburse? If it does, what scenarios would allow for this?
What will happen if the scope of the work becomes wider?
If there was a misestimate on a budget or quote, who is going to pay for it?
Who is responsible if a product breaks after being bought?
What strategy will you undertake it the agreement or contract is terminated?

It might take a little time to think about and formulate this list, but as soon as you have got all of this written down you will be in a position to write future conditions and terms in a flash with the other clients that you will add to your client list. Most importantly, having the most appropriate terms and conditions for your firm will ensure that you are compensated and take care of your business if legal action is ever undertaken.

2. PROVIDE ALL CRUCIAL PARTS OF AN INVOICE.

Featuring the all-important elements of an invoice isn’t going to only speed-up the payment process, it will also answer whatever questions that the client has with regards to the goods or services that you provided for them.

When generating invoices, ensure that that you include:

Your logo
Invoice number
Your contact information
Your client’s contact information
The due date
The products or services you provided and their costs
The forms of payment that you accept
Early payment invoice discounts or enforce late fees

Before mailing out the invoice, ensure that all the information is right and that it’s being sent to the correct person. Any errors can easily slow-up the payment process and make you appear less professional.

3. CLEARLY EXPLAIN THE PRODUCTS/SERVICES BEING PROVIDED OR SCOPE OR THE PROJECT.

This is certainly the most relevant part of the terms and conditions on your invoice. Why? Because it describes what particularly the client is paying you for.

Like for example, if you are hired to make an internet-site for a client and it’s more than the client has imagined, having a description of the time and expenses it cost you to finish job answers any kind of questions or doubts relating to the final sum of the invoice.

4. SHORTEN YOUR PAYMENT TERMS

This should be {is kind of} obvious, but when you give customers a lot of time to make a payment, the longer it takes for you to get paid, which in turns leads to a slower cash flow.

So if you have a customer 45 days to pay an invoice, for instance, and that customer paid you a couple of weeks late, that means you’ve waited 2 whole months to receive a payment.

A payment term of 30 days or even less is the standard when it comes to invoicing simply because it’s helpful in keeping the cash flowing. Nevertheless, review your industry’s invoice standards and check with the client when their pay cycle runs. These factors can help you establish your payment terms.

5. HIGHLIGHT GUARANTEES AND WARRANTIES

It is not unusual for any business that is selling goods and services too often give guarantees and warranties. It makes them look more legit and reputable and gives the customer assurance. If you do provide a guarantee or warranty, make sure that is clearly outlined in your terms and conditions.

Never forget to address topics like situations where the client/customer loses their guarantee or warranty.

6. PURSUE LATE PAYMENTS.

Generally, there will be times when customers won’t pay invoices by the due date. Instead of being passive, you need to be persistent by tracking down those particular late payments.

Regularly keep track of your customers’ payment due dates and get in contact with them by telephone, e-mail, or mail if they have not paid you by the due date and feature late-fee terms on your invoices, like charging interest on over due payments – which a trusted cloud-based invoicing software will do for you automatically.

In case you can’t get a hold of the late-paying client, or they are not responsive to follow-ups, you may possibly have to send a collection letter, hire a collection agency, or take them to court. Make all of this information crystal clear from the beginning.

7. ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL.

Be sure that your terms are specifically created for your business. Remember, your business does not have the identical requirements, resources, and clients that other businesses have. Because of this you can’t really just copy and paste the terms and conditions from a commonly used template or another business considering that they probably won’t address your particular needs.

A template is really good for starting and directing you in the right directions, but ultimately you have to write terms and conditions that best match your business and clientele.

8. ALWAYS BE PROFESSIONAL AND POLITE.

Being polite can have a beneficial influence on your business. Simply adding a phrase such as kindly pay your invoice within twenty-one days” or “thank you for your business” can, in fact, increase the number of invoices getting paid by more than 5 percent! This may not sound like much, but this can result in thousands of us dollars per year right into your banking account.

Aside from assisting you get paid faster, being professional and polite can easily make improvements to your brand’s image.

9. MAKE THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS UNCOMPLICATED TO READ.

Keep the language in your conditions and terms simplified and intuitive. Put yourself in the shoes of your clients’ customers and realize that they’re not all familiar with industry terminology and even bookkeeping terms, like for example “net 30.”

Additionally, don’t aim to hide every single thing on just one page by using a small font so that your clients are not able to read the fine print. It will look tricky to your client and will ruin your reputation (regardless if there is nothing tricky on your invoice).

10. WHEN IN DOUBT, ASK FOR HELP.

When all else fails to perform as expected, or you wind up in a sophisticated or specialized situation, don’t hesitate to seek guidance from your mentor, fellow business managers, or your attorney. These are individuals that have experience in writing terms and conditions and are more acquainted with laws and regulations then you are.

The Benefits of a Facebook Fan Page for Small Businesses

Setting up a Facebook fan page for your small business can seem like a daunting task. However, with over 900 million active users, the site provides an advertising opportunity that should not be missed out on. This article discusses some of many benefits of setting up a Facebook fan page, including advertising, understanding customer demographics, getting feedback, and driving traffic to your company’s website.

Creating a Facebook fan page for you small or local business can seem like a daunting task, especially when you are trying to keep up with the day-to-day responsibilities of running a company. However, with over 900 million active users, the social network is a valuable free advertising tool that should not be missed out on. Facebook Fan Pages have several important uses:

1. Advertising

Facebook offers a range of innovative advertising options which allow you to promote your products and services with ease. By posting details of new offers and events to your fans, you can build up public interest in your company and reach out to potential customers. Offering unique content, such as vouchers, gives fans a reason to stay up-to-date with your business through Facebook and can help you develop a closer relationship with them.

2. Understanding Your Customers

Facebook Fan Pages give you access to detailed statistics about your followers, including their gender, age, location, and even the language they speak. With this invaluable information you can make sure that your company adapts and develops in a way that meets your customer’s needs.

3. Getting Feedback

Understanding your customer’s opinions is important when developing new ideas. On Facebook, your fans are able to leave comments on any updates you post, making it a completely free way to canvas opinion.

4. Drive Traffic to Your Website

By displaying links to your official website, you can redirects fans who have developed an interest in one of your products to the page where they can buy it.

5. Build up a Relationship with Customers

Being quick to respond to any questions and comments left on your fan page is a good way to build up a close relationship with your customers. However, to maintain a positive bond it is also important to put a good practice into places, such as not bombarding fans with inbox messages which aren’t applicable.

6. Google Ranking

Your Facebook fan page will be visible even to people without an account. Facebook is a popular website that ranks well with Google, so by posting key word optimized content, you can ensure that your company features highly searches.

Creating a Facebook fan page for your small business is quick, simple, and completely free. By taking advantage of this easy advertising solution, you can help to ensure that your business survives and grows for years to come.

Small Business Opportunity: The Top 7 Reasons to Start a Painting Business

House painting is a skill that most people can pick up quite easily. It is one of those rare home based business opportunities that actually work and it is very possible to make $30- $50 an hour without much effort.

Here are the top 7 reasons why anyone with basic painting skills should consider starting a painting business of their own.

1. Residential and Commercial Painting is a 22.5 Billion Dollar a Year Industry!

Every day homeowners across the country (and around the world) spend millions of dollars to have a living room, bedroom, kitchen etc painted. This is an industry that indeed has an unlimited amount of work available.

There is far more work then there are painters. Listed in the top 10 businesses in 2006 and predicted to grow into the foreseeable feature, there has never been a better time to start a painting business then right now.

2. Basic Painting Skills Are Easy to Learn.

It doesn’t take much time at all to develop basic painting skills. Just about anyone can do it. Most painters who learn through “On the job training” pick it up in just a few weeks. All it takes is a little practice.

3. Very Low Start-Up Costs

A painting business is one of the best businesses because it doesn’t require a lot of money to start. For under $250.00 (depending on where you live) you can get a painting business up and running and earning money.

With start up costs this low it doesn’t take long to become profitable and if you target small high paying jobs your overhead costs are next to nothing.

4. No Expensive Advertising Needed

Unlike most other business, a painting business doesn’t require a huge monthly advertising budget. In fact it is completely possible to build a profitable painting business without any traditional advertising at all.

Smart painting business owners spend time building relationships with people who “know people” that can refer them jobs.

5. Earn Professional Income Working Part Time Hours.

Many successful painting business owners earn $60,000 – $100,000 per year working less then 35 hours per week. Once you develop your skills and become proficient, it is not uncommon to make $300-$500 per day working just 4-6 hours.

It is possible to earn more in one day then most painting employees make working a 40 hour week. Every day painters sell their valuable skills to a boss for a measly $12-$15 when they could be earning top dollar running their own painting business.

6. Freedom, Lifestyle and Security.

The best thing a house painter can do to secure their future is to start a painting business of their own.

The potential to earn an above average income working part time hours is one of the biggest benefits of owning a successful painting business.

Many painters are making a great living running their own painting business. They drive nice vehicles, live in nice homes and have the time and money to do the things they love.

7. Outstanding Tax Benefits

Running a small painting business out of your home offers many outstanding advantages like high profit potential and low over head. Expenses like gas, tools and your vehicle may be write offs. (Be sure to check with your accountant) But the tax benefits of owning a small business are wonderful.

As you can see the sky is the limit for painters. Unlimited work and top pay draw a lot of people to the painting trade every year.

Internet Marketing – Uncover 5 Secrets to Breakthrough in Internet Marketing

Making money online will come easy if you know the ropes of internet marketing. Through this, you’ll easily be able to sell any type of products and services and earn amazing revenue in the process.

Here’s how you can breakthrough in internet marketing:

1. Improve your writing skills. Right now, the best way to promote items over the internet is through information base products like article marketing, ezine publishing, forum posting, and blog marketing. Unless you have the money to spare to hire ghostwriters, I recommend that you improve your writing skills. You can easily do this through constant practice, by working closely with some of the great writers in this generation, and by reading relevant online and offline resources to get insider tips and amazing techniques.

2. Define your audience. There is only one way to make your internet marketing strategies more focused and highly targeted and that is to get to know your potential clients on a deeper level. Make some time to spend talking to these people using several internet mediums. You can communicate with them through relevant blogs or forums, invite them when you are hosting free teleseminars, encourage them to email you, and by sending them newsletters on a regular basis.

3. Choose your marketing tools wisely. Although there are so many marketing tools that you can use, not all of them will be able to help you make a sale. You need to choose your marketing tools based on the online behavior of your clients. For example, if they are avid fans of forums and blogs, you can incorporate forum posting and blog marketing on your marketing strategies to easily connect with them. However, if they seldom sign up to free teleseminars, there is no need to include this on your marketing campaign as it will just mean total waste of time and energy.

4. Outsource. If you think that there is no way that you’ll be able to perform all you marketing related tasks, I recommend that you hire some people who can help you out from various freelancing sites. Depending on your needs, you can hire SEO specialists, bloggers, forum posters, ghostwriters, affiliate marketers, etc. Don’t worry as you don’t need to burn your pockets just to get the services of these people as most of them charge as low as $2/hour.

5. Monitor your progress. At least twice a month, analyze the effectiveness of your internet marketing campaign. Compare the results from your pre-set goals. It is through this that you’ll be able to determine if you need to improve on something or if there are other tools that you must use to reach your marketing goals faster.