Invest Archives - BOLLYWOOD SURKHIYAN

Why Your Business Should Invest Into Direct Mail

Like any good entrepreneur, I’m always thinking of ways that I can develop and grow our businesses and brands. One of the best marketing strategies does not occur in the digital world. Each week, one of my companies sends out over 1,000 pieces of direct mail. We have an excellent response rate, even with a younger demographic target audience.

Think about it; people are deluged with emails, social media posts and instant messaging. In the digital world, it’s a novelty to receive a great piece of direct response material in the mail. However, there are a few differences in what we do in our direct mail than what was done in the old school days.

We experiment with all types of colorful pieces.
We rarely send any letter.
The pieces are always vibrant with images and very little copy.

There are a couple of reasons why your business should consider direct response to prospect and grow your business.

Response Rate: Last year, Compu-mail noted, “Direct mail household response rate is 5.1% (compared to.6% email,.6% paid search,.2 online display,.4% social media). This is the highest response rate the DMA has ever reported, since coming out with the Response Rate Report in 2003.
Personalization: When your prospects receive mail (not including bills), particularly those who are of Generation X or older, there is a familiar feeling. The older generations still like to receive something in the mail with their names on it. They can touch the piece, and there’s something novel about it in today’s world.
Generational Myth: Believe it or not, a sizable portion of Millennials also like direct response because it’s something they too can touch and hold. According to a Forbes article, 36 percent of people under the age of 30 like to check their mailboxes, and 95 percent of those between the ages of 18 and 29 have a favorable view of mail, such as personalized cards.
QR Codes and PURLs: Companies have been experimenting with testing QR and PURLs (personal URLs), which redirects a person who receives a piece of mail back into the digital age. Since most people now have a smartphone, these codes can be scanned by the target audience for more information.
Messaging: If you’re doing a particular project or sale, consider using direct mail to bolster the urgency. My team and I have gotten high response rates to direct mail pieces that have had a deadline to partner with our companies. One of the key reasons we have seen this work is because with all of the emails people receive, lots of times they are dismissing this form of communication quickly just to get through their email box.
Multi-channel Marketing: Direct response is an excellent way to support your digital marketing efforts. We know that people have to see your brand and logo multiple times for it to begin to “stick” in their minds. Direct mail helps reinforce your brand’s digital efforts. Prospects not only see you in the digital world but also in the “real world.”
Testing: Direct mail provides your business with an opportunity to test another method for reaching out to your prospects. We’ve tested direct response with high-level prospects in our target audience, and the new accounts we’ve obtained has paid for the mailing expenses
Easy Analytics: Direct mail results are straightforward to understand. You don’t need to have anyone on your team sign-into a digital platform to pull a report for you. Direct response provides you an easy way to see how much you spent against the amount of new business you achieved.
Credibility: Direct mail, because it’s familiar and tactile, gives the recipients an automatic sense of your credibility. We live in a world of “fake news” and raging social media debates about content in the digital space that is authentic and real. Direct response cuts through the noise and instantly gives credibility because of the investment and its familiarity.
Creativity: Direct response is an excellent way to experiment with color, size, shape and different packaging for your pieces. Sophisticated marketers are experimenting with many different types of mailings to stand out from a regular sized and traditional letter and envelope, which encourages people to look at the piece.

The Data & Marketing Association (DMA) has reported that direct mail has declined. However, in a digital world where people are inundated with massive amounts of content, direct mail stands out as a creative way to cut through the noise. At the very least, direct mail is an excellent complement your digital efforts, and at best, it’s a great way to obtain new business.

Best Company to Invest Your Money – Guidelines for Evaluating Stocks and Financial Strength

First of all, it’s never a good idea to put all of your money into a single investment. Always keep your portfolio as diverse as you possibly can. It is very common to ask questions such as “best company to invest your money”. It’s ideal to conduct research on a few companies or products at a time and invest regularly. Be sure and join an investment newsletter that offers the top picks by the experts who really have an innovative approach to the stock market.

A beginning investor should never begin with an individual stock. If you’re new and just starting with your portfolio, it is much riskier to buy an individual stock than it is to buy a low-cost mutual fund that includes a group of stocks.

Regardless of your experience level a lot of people recommend that “FAANG” is a way to go, or at least used as a starting point. These are the “Big 5” Facebook / Amazon Apple / Netflix / Google. These 5 tech giants have their hands in just about everything these days and still have the potential to disrupt the industries and economy that they don’t already.

Do some research on all of the industries these big 5 are involved in to help you make your decision on the best company to invest your money in. Consider competitors as well, such as Disney, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Baidu, etc… Baidu (BIDU) has a huge stronghold in China, and is slowly growing on a global level.

Is There a Best Company to Invest Your Money In?

Always consider factors like debt, price, and valuation when investing. Do research on a company’s background and current financial situation to find out if it’s in debt. The more debt a business is in, the more money it has to spend on payments and interests. Also, look into dividends, and the company’s history in paying them. Are the dividends being increased or not?

Don’t make the mistake in assuming that a stock is going to be a bargain just because the price is very low. You must understand why and how that price went down and if it is going to rebound. Volatility is to be expected on occasion as well, so don’t panic or be surprised over it.

Some classes or training can really go a long way – especially if you want to try and make a living with investing in the stock market. You won’t get rich overnight, but you will likely find success after a while if you learn about the common evaluation metrics, like price-to-earnings ratio, debt-to-equity ratios, dividend yields, etc.

One way to learn about the stock market and get some ideas on the best company to invest your money is to join Capitalist Exploits. The newsletter is provided by professional money managers who track trends and capital flows to establish where the true value lies.

ZARA Franchise: Invest in Your Future

When we look at the current market scenario where jobs are a scarce commodity as the economy is in a downward spiral, there is a big cause for concern. Therefore, it is of a paramount importance that we meticulously plan our future well in advance. For a middle class person like me, it’s a dream to own a business and ZARA Franchise gives you that rare opportunity. It is a business model which yields relatively high returns on a low to medium investment. ZARA is a very well-known and a very well respected brand all over the world. An opportunity to associate with the ZARA Franchise would give you an entrance into, and understanding of, the ever growing and extremely lucrative industry of apparel retail.

ZARA Franchise was founded by Amancio Ortega and Rosalía Mera in A Coruña, Galicia, Spain in 1975.It was however opened out of desperation and as a last resort, when a wholesaler cancelled a large order in which all of Ortega’s capital was invested. So he decided to sell the merchandise himself and opened the first ZARA store. The first store also featured low priced lookalikes of popular high end brands and it proved to be a huge success.

As the ZARA Franchise gained popularity, Ortega started the global expansion of the brand in 1980 and entered the US in 1989. ZARA is controlled by the parent company called Inditex group which also own the companies like Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Oysho, Pull and Bear, Stradivarius, and Uterqüe. As of 31st January 2012 ZARA has over 1631 outlets in around 82 countries and has over 42 stores in the US. With the contribution of US being marginal at the moment to the $2.5 Billion profits posted by Inditex, the growth opportunities of the ZARA Franchise in America are immense and with ZARA planning to open multiple outlets in all the major US cities the future of the brand is looking very bright.

The business model of the ZARA franchise is based on the motto “High Fashion at affordable price”. ZARA stores don both men’s and women’s clothing and subdivided into lower and upper garments, accessories, shoes and cosmetics. ZARA boasts low prices for smart in-fashion clothes. It takes two weeks for ZARA to develop and display the products in their stores. ZARA Franchise launches over 10,000 different designs in a year which is way higher that of the industry average. ZARA has over 200 designers who design new products keeping in mind the current trends. They also take into account the feedback received from various store managers from all over the world and therefor keep abreast with the consumer’s likes and dislikes and design their products accordingly. They produce in small batches per product with an extensive variety.

The other unique factor in ZARA Franchise business model is that, it’s a vertically integrated retailer unlike other apparel retailers. This gives them a tremendous control over all the aspects of production like supply chain, designing, manufacturing and distribution of it’s product. This makes the business more cost effective as they don’t have to outsource the different processes. ZARA also boasts “word of mouth marketing” as they believe that if the product is good it will sell. Window displays also play an important role in promoting the products.

ZARA offers their franchisees full access to corporate services, such as human resources, training, and logistics at no extra cost. They also allow the stores to return up to 10% of purchased merchandise, which is a higher level than many other franchises. The ZARA Franchise usually runs into profit by the end of the first year and if there is any debt on the start-up cost, it would be recovered by the end of the third year. All you have to do is contact the corporate office and depending on the city you live in, you can apply for the ZARA Franchise.

Invest $100 Dollars and Grow Enough Seed Capital to Start Your Own Business

Do you have ideas for a business you want to start but do not have the seed capital it takes to get your business idea off the ground? Are you tired of being turned down for small business loans because of your credit or financial status? There is a way you can grow enough seed capital to start your own business and even build a substantial income. If a sixteen-year-old can do it with his lawnmower in one month, then so can you!

One summer day I observed my neighbor’s teenage son as he went door to door with his lawnmower offering to cut grass in our neighborhood. I asked him how many lawns he had cut that week and he said four and needed two more to make $120 dollars. I admired the young man’s determination and ambition and I asked him if he was saving for anything in particular. He told me he wanted to buy a car that cost $1200 dollars that he hoped to have saved by the end of summer.

My neighbor’s son didn’t realize that what he was doing was similar to the concept of compounding money. If he repeated cutting the lawns of the neighbors that paid him weekly and added one more lawn per day each week, his money would grow exponentially. His $120 dollars from the first week of cutting one lawn a day would double the second week to $240 dollars; by adding one more a day the third week to $360 dollars and by the fourth week he would make $480 dollars for his week’s labor. His earnings for four weeks would have totaled $1200 dollars. If he thought he could make enough to buy his car by adding one lawn a day, six days a week, for four weeks, I’m sure he would have done it without any problem. Otherwise, it would take him the entire summer at $120 dollars a week to make his $1200 dollars to buy his car.

This is how compounding your money works. The goal is to take the initial investment and increase it by 30% or higher. Using this example, the first $120 dollars never left the young man’s pocket; his investment object (which was his physical labor) increased his investment ten times by adding to his weekly earnings. He would have earned ten times his initial goal of $120 dollars a week in just four weeks, a 1,000% return!

Imagine if this was your $120 dollars that you started with as your initial investment. The difference being, instead of doing a laborious type work for your money to grow, you used the internet to find investment objects with intrinsic value that you could purchase. You would have enough of a profit margin built-in to locate buyers to purchase your investment object that would give you a Return On Investment (ROI) of 30% or higher. The key to this method of compounding money is to repeat this process by reinvesting your profits back into purchasing objects of greater market value and reselling for a higher ROI.

The great thing about compounding is you can start with whatever amount of money you have to work with. You can start with $100 dollars and build enough seed capital to start two or three businesses. Use the internet to search for investment opportunities that you can invest in and build on. If a sixteen-year-old can do it with his lawnmower, you have a much greater advantage; you don’t need a lawnmower as your tool, you just need the knowledge and then the skill. Knowledge can be acquired, and the skill will come through experience. So gather together your initial start-up capital and get started!

Perfect Time to Invest in Nepal

Business opportunity in Nepal has been underestimated for far too long. Entangled in political revolution for almost two decades, investment in Nepal was definitely a risky proposition. However, as political agenda has now rightly shifted towards economic growth, with a stable government in place, Nepal has become the perfect place to invest.

Achieving a GDP growth of 7.5% in 2017, the signs of a revitalized economy have already been felt. In recent years, there have been notable improvements from government in eliminating crippling power cuts and crafting investment friendly bills. The drastic increase in Foreign Direct Investment in Nepal is a clear sign that it is high time to capitalize in the economic boom that is here and now.

Hydropower, tourism and cement industries are thriving. The service sector and small to medium enterprises aren’t far behind to benefit from the rapid growth in business activity in the country which has been parallel to development in infrastructure. The entrepreneurial movement has taken pace and young entrepreneurs with big visions are emerging in Nepal whose contribution can be directly felt in every sector. With the very large potential and inexpensive labor, the return on investment in this unsaturated market would definitely be higher than investing in any saturated market.

WHY 2018?

Political Consensus

After two decades of political unrest, the Central Government formed with majority and committed to promote investment and economic activities

All political parties incorporating economic issues as major agenda

Stable province and energetic local government focused and dedicated to the improvement of livelihood of people.

Regional Presence

Nepal recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on the framework agreement on China’s One Belt One Road Initiative (OBOR)

Government of Nepal Committed to improve connectivity with both neighboring countries through road and railway

Being a Member of South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) and the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectorial Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) Free Trade Agreement, it savors a duty and tax-free experience

Ease of Doing Business

Nepal was ranked third after Bhutan and India among South Asian countries in the ‘Ease of Doing Business Report 2017’ by the World Bank.

Nepal has recently revised its law and regulation to make it more investment friendly and is in continuous improvement process.

100% ownership to Foreign Investors is allowed in most sectors.

Investments as per Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (BIPPA) signed with Finland, India, Germany, Mauritius, Qatar, United Kingdom, and France Mean a more friendly investment opportunity.

Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement signed with Austria, China, India, Korea, Mauritius, Norway, Pakistan, Qatar, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

Location and geographical convenience

Nepal is located between two of the world’s largest economies known for their highly accelerated economic growth: India and China

It has an access to the market of approximately 2.7 billion population.

Open border and a duty free trade with India and a duty free access to China for over 8000 products.

Capable Human Resources

Government initiation to improve technical skill and competence of work force required for rapid economic development

Out of 28 million population 61% are the working population.

Participation of women population is comparatively high among the South Asian countries.

The labor cost is low.

Where to Invest?

a. Hydroelectricity

Being the second richest country in hydroelectricity potential, Nepal has a huge future in this sector. Supported by its geographical inclination, Nepal has a large number of steep, eternal rivers; development of massive hydroelectricity projects is a possibility. Since Nepal is a developing nation with a crunch of funds, resources haven’t be used to their potential. Also, India, the southern neighbor will always have a demand for clean and cheap electricity due to which there is always a market for the hydropower projects in Nepal. With more than six thousand large and small perennial rivers flowing all over Nepal including three major rivers Koshi, Gandaki and Karnali, there is a huge business opportunity in hydropower in Nepal.

b. Transport

Nepal is a landlocked country with a topographical diversity making transport evidently difficult. Thus, the need of proper transportation facilities is acute. There is a need of different transports such as cable transport, railways, water transport etc. As a result of geographical diversity, there is a lack of roads all over the country, and even the roads in the urban areas are in bad condition and need expansion; therefore developing better roadways and investing in new road projects are a priority for the government making this a good venture to invest in. Availability of a huge mountain range benefits the cable transport projects. Also, Railways could have a huge potential of replacing other transport facilities in the southern plains. Existence of only one international airport is a major problem and therefore a major business opportunity. Transportation projects which have big budgets are the perfect sector to invest in Nepal.

c. Agriculture

Agriculture sector being the largest contributor in the GDP of the country is the factor that dominates the economy. Till the 1980s, most people were dependent on agriculture for earning a living, however lesser number of population is reliant on agriculture as their livelihood. Agriculture as business is still not seen as a profitable venture by a large segment of population.

Nepal is geographically and topographically fit for agriculture and with perfect climatic conditions. This is also a plus factor for growing and reaping rare medicinal herbs. New technologies contributing to agriculture is very rare, making the possibilities of introducing this is a huge investment opportunity in Nepal. Production of cash crops as a business idea could be a profitable business as commercial agricultural projects are still not big in Nepal.

d. Tourism

Bearing a diverse geographical condition, a very rich and divergent culture Nepal attracts a magnificent number of tourists making tourism a leading economy. Eight out of the ten world’s highest peaks and other various mountain ranges dwell in the country which shapes it as a hub for mountaineers, rock climbers, hikers and others who seek adventures. Nepal is the birthplace of Buddha and a home to a lot of Hindu and Buddhist shrines, attracting a huge mass of pilgrimages on a yearly basis. The temples and monuments dating back to history and having huge archeological importance, a lot of archeologist are also welcomed annually. The number of tourists entering Nepal is inclining at an exponential rate, with foreign tourists staying in the country for an average of 11.78 days. The unique flora and fauna is another reason for the possible growth of tourism. Every year a new attraction, new wilderness and new adventure unfolding in one of the remote areas of Nepal. The country has a whole lot of skilled porters and guides who could be hired in a very low wage. All these factors make tourism perhaps the best sector to invest in Nepal.

e. Infrastructure

Infrastructural development is one of the vital needs of Nepal. Due to the large earthquake in 2015, there were devastating losses in the major areas of Kathmandu valley and other areas, which called for a dire need of creation of earthquake proof infrastructures. Since the transportation facilities need a lot of improvement, this could be a sector to invest in as well. The Nepalese government has always been supportive of investors trying to work in the infrastructure sector.

f. Information Technology

IT field has dominated the world at this point and Nepal is no exception. Nepal has a mass of skilled IT graduates who could be hired in very cheap wages. As it is an upcoming interest in the Nepalese scenario, new talents and ideas could surely be explored. IT companies emerging as a new business venture; the competition is less if you decide to invest right now.

g. Mines and Minerals

Nepal lies in the central part of the Himalayan Belt, making it very rich in minerals. The Himalayan region consists of clusters of metallic and non-metallic minerals. Nepal is also known for exporting a range of beautiful decorative stones. Even with the presence of bulks of minerals scattered all around the Himalayan range, Nepal itself has not been able to extract these minerals. The existing mineral extraction businesses are less in number and are not very effective. Ample opportunities exist for the investors who could invest in cement factories, lime extraction, coal, magnetize, talc clay etc. So if anyone decides to invest in this sector, this could be a very profitable business endeavor in Nepal.

h. Health & Education

Health sector is in a very poor state in Nepal. It needs a lot of improvisation and improvement. Therefore, it would be very profitable for someone who is interested in investing in Nepal in this sector. Likewise the education sector is largely lagging. A lot of students go abroad each year for quality education. These should be good reasons to invest in Nepal.

I. Telecommunication

With the increment of population and growing business and technology, telecommunication is a pressing need. There are only a few telecommunication companies in Nepal, and therefore less competition. Geographical conditions being challenging in the country, even the existing networks have not reached the remote areas. This generates a massive opportunity for anyone wanting to conceive a profitable business in Nepal.

Nepal is moving towards a liberal foreign investment policy and is aiming to create an investment friendly environment to allure Foreign Investments in the nation. Foreign investment both as joint venture operations with Nepalese investors or as 100 percent foreign-owned enterprises are highly encouraged by the Nepalese government. With comparatively lower taxation and ease of doing business, Nepal is one of the ripest destinations to invest for both Nepalese and Foreign Investors.