Market Archives - BOLLYWOOD SURKHIYAN

Capitalism, Socialism, and the Affordable Housing Market

One of the cornerstones of capitalist economic theory, as taught and practiced in the business, governmental, and academic sectors of the United States of America, is called the “efficient market hypothesis”.

That hypothesis claims that a free market is an “efficient” market, meaning that it perfectly provides for the needs of consumers in a nation, at prices they can afford.

I disagree.

“Efficient market hypothesis” claims that markets are rational, meaning that they will make automatic adjustments in prices, to match supplies of (and demand for) particular commodities (whether they be food, clothing, housing, or gasoline).

However, one of the problems with the efficient market hypothesis, is that markets are not rational, because markets are made by human beings, not computers, and most human beings (from my observation) are not rational.

In fact, from what I’ve witnessed, I would claim that most human beings appear to be famously irrational.

So it would only stand to reason, that markets made by human beings (for things like food, clothing, gasoline, and housing) will not naturally fluctuate with the needs of consumers, but rather, will usually charge prices set as high as the sellers of those various commodities can get away with charging.

But what if thousands of people, in a place like a snow-covered environment, can’t afford to pay what the sellers of housing are demanding to be paid?

Should they merely sleep outside in the snow?

I don’t think so.

Yet many of them do.

Why?

I can’t say definitively, but while visiting the city of Boston, Massachusetts in the Spring of 2012, I had the opportunity to meet a fairly large number of the many, many thousands of homeless people who resided in that city then, and what I found was shocking:

There were what appeared to be, over ten thousand homeless people in that city then, contrasting sharply with the large number of “for rent” signs I saw on various houses and apartment buildings in the city, and it’s various suburbs.

I met former businessmen and women, many of whom had lost their jobs in the mass-company-firings of the recession of the 1990’s and 2000’s, (which apparently caused their companies to permanently downsize their jobs), in what resulted in tens of millions of Americans being put out of work (and in many cases, they and their families being evicted out of their homes).

While learning about the struggles of the homeless in the United States of America, the first thing I noticed is that the formal and informal network set up to help the homeless, in actuality accomplished very little to help in any real, tangible way when it came to housing people whose primary need was just that.

Instead, most of the organizations I contacted, and interacted with, seemed to offer everything but.

Food, clothing, toiletries, (and at a few of the better facilities, phone calls, and occasionally, showers), were often available, but real progress towards attaining permanent housing seemed to be continuously (and maddeningly) elusive, not just for myself, but for almost all of the hundreds of homeless people I met and spoke with.

That lack of the one crucial thing homeless people need the most, appeared to lead to a very high level of despair among many of the dozens of homeless people that I spoke with, and that despair appeared to often led many to engage in self-destructive behaviour, and even angry verbal outbursts.

More depressingly, that despair appeared to be intensified by the self-hatred many homeless people seemed to experience after such (usually-justified, yet often misdirected) outbursts, and many of the people I met seemed to be descending down into a deeper and deeper predicament.

Many began to resort to the habitual use of alcohol or drugs, in an apparent attempt to numb the feelings of resentment and self-hatred that seemed to engulf them.

Then, when those same suffering people went to seek housing, those incidents of self-medication with alcohol or drugs would be included in their “client profile”, and many of them would be shunted off into a “bad client” category, and often be:

1) forced leave the homeless shelters,

2) forced to “meet with the police”,

3) forced to attend burdensome anti-“substance abuse” classes and meetings, (despite the fact that some of them had no place to sleep at night),

or…

4) forced to “leave the immediate vicinity” of the homeless shelter, and go…

where?

As a result, many of the hundreds of homeless people I met in Boston, Massachusetts, Manchester, New Hampshire, Miami, Florida, San Diego, California, and Los Angeles, California, seemed to find themselves having no choice but to live outside for many months, years (and some, even decades), at a time, sometimes even in the ice and snow.

I met a few men who had spent entire previous, New England winters outside, some in tents in the snow-blanketed woods, and some feebly attempting to sleep on top of heating exhaust vent grates, to escape the bitter (and sometimes deadly), below-freezing, winter night-time temperatures.

It appeared that every few nights in one of the major north-eastern United States cities, someone would die from sleeping outside in the bitter winter cold. In a rare effort to avoid such tragedies, police officers in progressive Cambridge, Massachusetts would drive around, all throughout the night just before, and during, major snow storms, on the lookout for people who had fallen asleep outside.

While exploring the back streets of Cambridge, Massachusetts in the middle of a few of those bitter cold nights, I occasionally saw people bundled up inside cardboard boxes, feebly (and perilously) attempting attempting to survive the night without freezing to death.

Even more shocking, was the fact that most of the major cities I visited (such as Boston, Massachusetts, Miami, Florida, San Diego, California, and Los Angeles, California), all appeared to have their main homeless shelters located in their downtowns, often within close walking distance (and sometimes in sight of) luxury, high-rise, residential condominium towers, many of which had dozens of empty apartments for rent.

So, despite what many of us may have been taught in college economics courses, the fact is, the free market for housing in the United States of America is not at all efficient. In fact, if you explore the intricacies of many major, urban, United States housing markets, you will often find that they are woefully inefficient.

To make matters worse, the extreme contrast between the levels of contentment of the well-heeled, housed urban professionals, and the barely-surviving homeless appeared to lead to levels of hostility that were, not only disheartening, but even dangerous.

As a result of the predictable frustration experienced by those two extremely alienated groups of “have-more-than-enoughs”, and “don’t-have-anythings”, conflicts would often erupt, with the housed scurrying away to hide inside, and the police sometimes arriving to accost and interrogate the homeless, who were usually intimidated back to “wherever they came from”.

As a result, many of the homeless people I met seemed to be developing an increasing level of resentment towards the United States of America, and the wealthy (or those perceived to be).

After 5 months witnessing the social schisms, and other social unrest caused by homelessness and wealth inequality in Boston, Massachusetts, I boarded a bus for Manchester, New Hampshire, where I witnessed the exact same, corrosive social dynamic at work, actively undermining our national unity and sense of connectedness.

Being unable to find sales work in Manchester, New Hampshire, and knowing that the bitter-cold New Hampshire winter was quickly approaching, I boarded a plane on November 3rd, and flew to Miami, Florida.

Upon my arrival in Miami, I hopped onto a bus straight to Miami Beach, where I witnessed the exact same, depressing social inequality, occurring right alongside the winter-long festivities of one of the most lively international tourist hot-spots in the western hemisphere.

While there, I again noticed the same super-luxurious residential high-rise condominiums that I saw in Boston, Massachusetts, many seemingly built in the last decade or so, during the supposed “recession” that saw millions of American workers jobs (and paychecks) offshored to foreign countries, while corporate profits sky-rocketed, sending the Dow-Jones Industrial average, and wealthy peoples bank accounts, to before-unheard of heights.

Even more disturbingly, while in Miami Beach, I noticed that many of the poor homeless women I met seemed to feel compelled to sell their bodies, in order to afford to pay for basic, life’s necessities, such as food, clothing, shelter, or medication.

Many of the homeless people I met there appeared to spend at least half of their time hiding from the police helicopters, cruisers, and all-terrain-vehicles, that appeared to patrol the beaches relentlessly, in an attempt to chase them away from the sight of the well-heeled international visitors who flock to that city all winter long.

When not resting in my tent concealed in the sand dunes adjacent to the awe-inspiring “South Beach”, I spent my days socializing on the seawall running parallel to the beach. While walking by there one day, I met a homeless African-American Iraq war veteran, just returned home from combat.

He appeared to be suffering from a serious case of “Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder”, as a result of having his foot blown off by a suicide-bombers attack on the Humvee caravan he was travelling in, and he appeared to be in terrible daily pain, even though army doctors had somehow surgically re-attached his foot.

He spent his days sitting near the seawall adjacent to the boardwalk, and seemed confused, depressed, and very, very angry at the way he had been used, and apparently abandoned and disposed of, by our countries government and military establishment.

After a few months in Miami Beach, the police presence there persecuting myself, and the other homeless people, became too overwhelming, so I decided to relocate to Hollywood Beach, Florida.

Hollywood, Florida is an interesting city. Most of it isn’t anywhere near the beach, but is inland, being despairingly separated from the beachfront by the “intracoastal waterway”, and so is very humid, though very calm and sociable, inland.

The beach-front itself is almost entirely for tourists. It has a beautiful boardwalk, is very clean and quiet, and is great for:

– families with children,

– those who don’t like (or can’t tolerate) diverse or international crowds,

or

– those who need a break from the faster paced, party beaches, such as Miami Beach.

However, while in the inland part of the city of Hollywood, I met men who revealed to me that one of the homeless shelters there was charging “rent” to people who slept there, even sending disabled people out onto street corners to sell homeless-advocacy newspapers every day, in order to earn the money to pay their rent.

While walking down the street one day, I met a man in a wheelchair with withered legs due to a serious neurological disease. While listening to him speak, he recounted to me that after he had had a disagreement with the manager of the homeless shelter regarding his pain medication, he was unceremoniously evicted out onto the sidewalk a few blocks away, and left there all by himself, even though he couldn’t walk.

Subsequently, the shelter where he formerly resided was seized by the city, and condemned, and the man who operated it was intimidated out of that Florida town for being:

“too nice to criminally-prone homeless people”.

That was the first indication that there is a trend in many warm-weather cities to be hateful and hostile towards homeless people, and the more I investigated the phenomenon, the more disturbed I became.

For example, in both Florida and California, I heard repeated accounts of serious, even murderous violence being repeatedly directed against homeless people, with some cities and towns in Florida appearing to have reached epidemic levels of such repeated outbursts being directed against poor (and sometimes disabled) people living outside, as discussed in this article here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/16/florida-homeless_n_4453312.html?temp-new-window-replacement=true

Sadly, such crimes appear to also be on the rise in California as well, as evidenced by this section of the “Huffington Post” news website, which discusses the rising epidemic of violence against the homeless:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/homeless-hate-crimes/?temp-new-window-replacement=true

My belief is, that at least part of the reason for this, is that poor and working-class Americans are so angry and frustrated because of their recent economic difficulties, that they are striking out at convenient, socially-acceptable targets, and in the United States of America, where we worship rich people, poor people within easy reach are becoming the targets of choice.

The worship of rich people, and the resultant demonization and dehumanization of poor people, are just two symptoms of the extreme wage, income, & wealth inequality that exists in the United States of America today.

In fact, from my research, I would estimate that the last time wealth inequality was so unjust in the United States of America, was during the late 1800’s, in an age of income inequality so extreme, that the chief corporation-owning beneficiaries of our collective labors were frequently called “robber barons”.

Because of the refusal of the corporation owners of that time to equitably share the fruits of their corporations (and thus, their workers) efforts, an organized labor movement began to take shape, and by the 1950’s, it managed to secure adequate wages and working conditions for tens of millions of American workers, many of whom still do the bulk of the physical work in this country.

That organized labor movement led to the creation of the often idealized “American Middle-Class”, which many credit for the social stability that came to encapsulate the idea of the “American Dream”.

However, during the 1970’s, a new mentality began to infect the hearts and minds of the collective consciousness of the American intelligentsia, and many economists and business-people began to promote a new world-view, which disturbingly extolled the perverse paradigm that “greed is good”.

In fact, such dangerously infectious slogans were charismatically advocated by the protagonists of movies glorifying such selfish mentalities, as evidenced by Michael Douglas’ “Gordon Gecko”, in the 1987 greed-inspiring movie, “Wall Street”.

From the 1980’s, through the 1990’s, up until the victory of President Barack Obama in the mid-2000’s, this countries “greed-is-good”, and “it’s all about money” paradigms were also advanced by mind-warping, wealth-worshipping television programs, such as:

“Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous”,

and

MTV’s: “Cribs”.

As a result, the level of hyper-materialism in the United States of America reached such epidemic proportions, that people who don’t have enough money are no longer merely viewed as “undesirables”, but increasingly, as an entire underclass who are “good for nothing” but to be exterminated.

I believe that this new form of socio-economic fascism represents a very clear and present danger, not only to the millions of homeless people in our country, but also to the tens of millions of us who are merely a paycheck, illness, or missed mortgage payment away from homelessness ourselves.

So, contrary to the idea promoted by generally accepted “free-market” economic theory, the free market for housing in the United States of America does not appear to be at all adequate when it comes to meeting the shelter needs of the people who reside within our nations borders.

And so I believe that our elected government officials have, not only the right, but also the responsibility to intervene, and insure that all of the people dwelling within our nations borders of authority have their basic, housing needs met.

Unfortunately, when broaching such topics in economic discussions, it isn’t uncommon to see some contentious mass media commentators irresponsibly launch socio-economic extremist labels at their opponents, in an attempt to marginalize and demonize them, usually utilizing one of the following nebulous labels:

“Communist”, “Socialist”, “Redistributionist”, “Collectivist”, et cetera…

Yet, very little thought is often invested into what the exact definitions of those terms are.

With that in mind, I’d like to offer my opinion as to what I perceive to be the correct definition and appropriate usage of such socio-economic labels to be:

First, a “communist” is generally viewed as a person who believes in completely equal ownership of the means, and output, of production, of a nations industry.

(In the past, that goal was frequently attained by government mandate (usually through “nationalization” of a nations private corporations (a form of seizure and redistribution generally regarded as unpleasant by most.)).

On the opposite end of the socio-economic philosophical spectrum, we have what are generally called “capitalists”.

Capitalists are those who believe in allowing vastly unequal ownership of the means, and output, of production of a nations industry.

(In recent American history, that philosophy has been pursued almost to the extreme, by unjust recalibration of of our nations tax policy and codes, and has created many tens of millions of “working poor” in our nation (whose ranks appear to be growing by the day)).

Both of those extremes (of Communism, and Capitalism), have generally proven to be very ineffective forms of economic policy in the past, and sadly, they can occasionally result in widespread violence (as witnessed in the cases of both the French & Russian revolutions).

More intelligently, would be a theoretical balance between those two extremes, called “Socialism”.

Socialism, (provided it is not enforced by violence, or accompanied by racial, religious, or ethnically supremacist theories) is usually the best economic approach for a nations economy, as both the extremes of “capitalism”, and “communism” have historically proven to be ineffective models for meeting the material, and spiritual, needs of a nations populace.

Such deficiencies in meeting the needs of a nations populace can sometimes result in:

Violent internal “civil” wars (a.k.a. “revolutions”), as in the case of pre-revolutionary Russia (where a Tsarist aristocracy attempted to forcibly rule the nations repressively unequal feudalistic peasantry-based agricultural economy,

Violent, externally aggressive wars, such as those we are seeing in the modern-day United States of America, the leaders of which appear to be on endless Quixotic quest to (mis)-identify and displace their disenfranchised citizens rage at their increasing economic impoverishment onto convenient, external, foreign targets.

Instead, it might be helpful for our nations leaders to temper our current hyper-capitalist orientation with more socialist economic principles.

China’s Chocolate Market Dominated by Foreign Brands

Foreign chocolate brands such as Dove, Cadbury and Hershey’s have now captured about 70% of the Chinese chocolate market. As Barry Callebaut, the world’s largest chocolate manufacturer with 25% of the global market, recently opened its first chocolate factory in China in Suzhou City, the top 20 chocolate companies in the world have now all entered the Chinese market. But in the face of global competition, China’s local chocolate companies have been further suppressed down the value chain.

Second largest chocolate market

As the CHF 4 billion-revenue-per-year Barry Callebaut set up its first production line in Suzhou, a complete multinational chocolate industry chain is also emerging. Industry insiders suggested that this would be a blow to local Chinese chocolate companies in this globalized competition. It further indicated that keeping up with international competition is particularly important, or the Chinese industry chain will become even more vulnerable.

In recent years, the global chocolate market has notably slowed down, with only 2-3% growth per annum. This is mainly because per capita chocolate consumption in developed countries is already at a high level, averaging 11 kg. On the other hand, China’s per capita chocolate consumption is only 0.1 kg, and its domestic chocolate market has been growing at a staggering 10-15% per year, with an estimated market potential of US$2.7 billion. Thus China has become the world’s second biggest chocolate market only behind the US. The world’s top 20 chocolate companies have all entered China, and there are more than 70 imported or JV chocolate brands in today’s Chinese market.

Barry Callebaut has made it clear that they are coming to share and participate in China’s economic growth. It plans to build the Suzhou factory into the largest among its 38 factories globally, and achieve a 6-fold sales increase in the next five years via the Suzhou factory’s high capacity. “We hope we can fully utilise this factory’s capacity to rapidly increase output from 25,000 tons to 75,000 tons, making it the world’s largest chocolate factory,” said Barry Callebaut CEO Patrick De Maeseneire.

Multinational ambitions

It is understood that Barry Callebaut’s new plant in Suzhou will become the company’s Asia-Pacific headquarter, as well as a sales network centre for serving China and multinational food manufacturers and specialised customers. Major brands, such as Cadbury, Hershey’s and Nestle, all currently have large quantity of outsourcing manufacturing contracts with Barry Callebaut, whose OEM output of cocoa liquor and chocolate products amounts to 15-20% of each of the three major brands’ annual output. So the Swiss Barry Callebaut is indeed the Big Brother of the global chocolate industry.

In fact, even before the arrival of Barry Callebaut, China’s local chocolate companies had already been losing market shares to multinational competitors. The US Hershey’s has determined to plough the Chinese market, planning to achieve 23% share of the local market by 2010 and the runner-up position in China. Meanwhile, Korean and Japanese chocolate producers are also accelerating their entry into the Chinese market.

Local companies not in the local market

Although the rapidly growing Chinese chocolate market is good news for its local chocolate companies, Chinese consumers today are frequently referring to foreign brands such as Dove, Cadbury, Hershey’s and Ferrero but seldom mentioning local brands.

As a foreign product, China only has a chocolate manufacturing history of less than 50 years, so there is inevitable gap behind foreign brands in terms of production techniques and technologies. Due to inappropriate processing equipment and incomplete production facilities, product quality assurance is difficult for many local chocolate companies. Furthermore, most Chinese chocolate companies are weak in product R&D, resulting in slow product changes and updates. At present, most local chocolate companies are stuck in an embarrassing situation of low product quality.

The above industry issues have costed local companies’ opportunities to participate in the competition for the Chinese chocolate market. Multinational chocolate brands have come to the Chinese market one by one since the 1990s, and now they are in a dominant market position. With their considerable financial power, multinationals can play their technological and cultural cards, as well as promoting their premium quality and unique tastes, to rapidly capture the Chinese market.

As Barry Callebaut finally entered the Chinese market, its Suzhou factory will make chocolate production even cheaper for multinational brands. For local Chinese companies that are mostly in the low-end market, they may no longer hold this market segment firm.

Keep up with the globalization

Statistics showed that there are about 63 large-scale local chocolate companies in China, with annual production of 150,000 tons. Statistics from industry associations also revealed that China currently has about 250 chocolate companies in total.

Industry insiders pointed out that the Chinese food and beverage industry is a highly and internationally competitive market. The vast potential of China’s chocolate market is not only for foreign brands, but is also laid in front of local chocolate producers. The local chocolate industry is now in a structural change and survival-of-the-fittest stage, and no doubt the entry of foreign brands will present challenges to the local industry. But if local chocolate companies can participate in this international competition, it could not only drive the chocolate demand from Chinese consumers, but also promote development of China’s chocolate market.

Local Chinese chocolate companies need to constantly improve their product quality, select finer raw ingredients, upgrade production facilities, adopt international technologies, enhance product innovation and brand management. Only then can they compete with multinational companies on a level-playing field, and make a breakthrough in this foreign-dominated Chinese chocolate market.

For more information on Chinese businesses, please visit www.chinabizintel.com

The Unique Way to Market With SEO

SEO which stands for “SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION” is method to increase your website or a page raking in Google, Bing, YouTube, Facebook any other social media platform for personal or business purpose. It’s working is simple I.e it helps you to increase the visibility of your website, web-page, product, services thought organic search results also called as earned results. It may target different kinds of search, including image search, video search, academic search, news search and industry-specific vertical search engines. The browser and the language in which a web-page or website is generated plays a vital role as the more the web-page, website is readable the easier or better chance is of that page or site is to get a top rank in search results.

SEO service is one of the technology through which a single or a team of people can make a product or a service visible to users in today’s world. It is a new and optimal way to market or promote a products, services, a cause, a article, new tech, a campaign and many other things. It is the new and growing way to make people aware of the things or objects the world is offering today. It is kind of a service that is use by a single man to optimize its page to small business to rank its business to multi-national companies to generate more business and gain more potential clients, but to that you should have a proper knowledge of SEO.

Many people don’t understand of SEO as they don’t have the proper skills or knowledge they try it but there product or page don’t get properly ranked as it requires skills, time it is too technical, getting the traffic but not getting any business or less business from expected perception and many other factors, but through proper skills, time and resources you to can get the benefits of SEO.

In today’s era on the firms that operate online or have a major online business knows that it is vital part of there business as without it they won’t be able to list there product or services in the up-growing market and humongous completion that is why they use SEO as a resource to target audience to get the things done.

A person with the correct skills can present it’s brand or services in its market or international market without spending a whole lot of money on marketing and any other resources.

So to get a better chance of success in this market you should consider SEO as a tool that when used properly can get the things done easily without any hassle. With it you also require other tools as well. So you can’t get professional help from different service provider or experts who can help you achieve your target.

100 Tips to Market Your Music – Part 2

Even if an artist has an outstanding talent, record deals do not fall out of the sky and land in your lap without music marketing. In this Internet age, A&R at most record labels is not what it once was, so those reps are looking for artists that already have CD sales, a great fan base, and already have the look and feel of being made even more marketable.

We started a list of marketing tips in 100 Tips To Market Your Music and continue more great ideas here, so tweak any of them as you will!

Promo Tip #55 Tag your MP3s with your name or band name, not just the song name. They need to know WHO did this material when they happen across it months later.

Promo Tip #56 Know who you are! Get into an appropriate category so that you can be found. People have to be able to identify your sound into a category that they can identify with. You may want to portray a new edgy sound, which is fine, but there are still general categories that people search on in record stores or online and you have to be found in one of them.

Promo Tip #57 Throw a listen-in. Contact record stores, coffee shops, book stores, malls, recreational areas, galleries, cool clothing stores or nightclubs that are willing to support local music. The free listen-in could have talk session and discounted CDs with coupons.

Promo Tip #58 Keep it simple silly, web sites that take a long time to load, are not easy to navigate, and are not interesting will not keep the viewer’s attention long enough for them to get to know you. So don’t make your personal website or any site that can be customized, so frilly that it turns a potential opportunity away.

Promo Tip #59 Join local communities and organizations and go to meetings periodically and pay attention. Listen for opportunities in what they are saying and perhaps volunteer. Help them and they will help you. Nonprofit organizations are likely to have access to media outlets that may give your some exposure.

Promo Tip #60 Check your public and local radio stations that play your type of music and try to get some air time.

Promo Tip #61 You will hear a lot of no’s and negativity. That is to be expected as everyone’s taste is different. Hopefully someone will give you some constructive criticism. Learn from it what you can but keep moving forward.

Promo Tip #62 Develop yourself as a complete package. Record labels do not spend the money on A&R as in the day. Educate yourself as a well-rounded music artist and present yourself as such.

Promo Tip #63 Elevator Pitch – If you only have one shot to make an impression in 30 seconds or less, can you do it? You will need to, so practice it!

Promo Tip #64 Post your gigs on your website(s), class ads, Craigslist, Backpage and other sites for your location.

Promo Tip #65 Submit your music to songwriting competitions, musician competitions, singing contests – try out for American Idol, for gosh sakes!

Promo Tip #66 Do a free conference call to chat with fans using your website. Record the call and follow up by posting the MP3 on your site. Promote it for all its worth.

Promo Tip #67 Never release an inferior product, send out professional, and only your very best demos and new releases.

Promo Tip #68 Get testimonials and reviews from people that matter and start locally if you have to. Add them to your press kit.

Promo Tip #69 Make sure you make it easy for potentials sales to happen whether on your site or at a show. Make the payment process, safe, secure and EASY.

Promo Tip #70 Have a house concert. Invite the neighborhood to your backyard.

Promo Tip #71 Give your fans insider, behind the scenes, back stage with the band info and videos. This is great info to include in newsletters – people that signed up to learn more about you on purpose.

Promo Tip #72 Take the good with the bad, and take it all graciously. You must keep your image clean or at least maintain the aforementioned image.

Promo Tip #73 Don’t waste time, prioritize and go with the best bets. Put your energy into the correct market for YOUR music.

Promo Tip #74 If you can write well about a music subject, write and distribute articles. Always source the article back to your website. Let it be redistributed with the bottom author source info to spread your message and link.

Promo Tip #75 Gig swap with other bands from another area to widen your fan base.

Promo Tip #76 A music profile or bio, press kit and press releases should all be well written, free of misspellings, kept current, and to the point. Schedule updates of your various online activities.

Promo Tip #77 Find a business in your area that you can partner with for mutual benefit. If something about a song, style, or image would boost a local business, develop a cross promotional relationship.

Promo Tip #78 Respond to all your correspondence in a timely, businesslike, and correct manner – appropriate to the sender. Be considerate of your audience.

Promo Tip #79 Give people what they want. It’s all about the fans. If they come to your website, give them information that makes THEM feel good. If they come to your show, entertain them, thank them and thank the venue for the experience.

Promo Tip #80 Don’t disappear. Once you have started building your momentum, it is a continuous onslaught.

Promo Tip #81 Attend music conferences, indie showcases, music festivals. Gain exposure and network.

Promo Tip #82 Be easy to work with and be flexible. A good reputation carries a lot of weight. Flexibility can also mean possibly adjusting areas of your work or image so as to get your foot in the door if need be.

Promo Tip #83 Have a cause. Create an event to promote that cause. Team up with other like-minded bands and make a news worthy event out of that cause.

Promo Tip #84 Business Cards – When talking to anyone, hand one out. You must include the link to your website. Consider your link as your online business card.

Promo Tip #85 Rolodex your contact list (some sites have contact managers in their member consoles). Make a list and keep it current of all the places online and offline that you need to post to when you need to send out reoccurring press releases of news and events. Be aware that many sites have limits in number and/or time frames, be careful to not exceed them.

Promo Tip #86 Invoke your personality into your writings to make your invitations, announcements and introductions fun and effective.

Promo Tip #87 Clearly define what you are about – quickly, online or offline. People have short attention spans and are short on time – not just the music industry, but most people in general. This is very important! Don’t waste words. Make anything you have to say about yourself or band enough to give the important necessary information and cut out the nonsense.

Promo Tip #88 Create a band calendar with some humorous photos of the various band members at various events.

Promo Tip #89 You heard it through the grapevine. Share “some” inside knowledge with other bands and songwriters in your area. Start your own information highway.

Promo Tip #90 Create an automated template for emails. Take the time to add the person’s name with a personal tidbit, but save time with a ready made email guide. Respond to unsolicited emails with your own personalized marketing message and a link to your website.

Promo Tip #91 Play for free if you have to, any where, any time. Create an event, an event with a cause and donate the proceeds to a charity. This can open up some interesting contacts and opportunities. Sponsor an event.

Promo Tip #92 Reach out and touch your fans. Whether someone else is maintaining your online presence or not, occasionally touch base with fans personally.

Promo Tip #93 Include every ounce of contact info needed upon every available surface.

Promo Tip #94 Borrow an idea from other sources, even outside the music industry. If it works for that company, perhaps you can adapt the idea to market your music as well. Find a way to put a new twist or slant on a successful bands tactics.

Promo Tip #95 Send birthday cards to your fans…of course you need to get their birthday info when they sign up for mailing lists.

Promo Tip #96 Get involved in the music forums and message boards that target your music segment and ALWAYS include your signature URL (aka web link)!!

Promo Tip #97 Start a Music or Band Blog, well written and kept current. Submit it to music Blog directories.

Promo Tip #98 Create a novelty song that topics a holiday, a hot news item, your city or town, sports team, political event or other idea and gain exposure on promoting this song.

Promo Tip #99 Listen to your fans and learn what brought them to your show. This is very effective to giving you feedback on which promotional tool worked.

Promo Tip #100 Success does not happen to those that wait. A record label , music deal, stardom, just creating a website “and they will come” does not just land in your lap with you doing nothing. You have to make success come to you. Be persistent, be confident, roll up your sleeves, it is going to take some serious work.

But wait, there’s more! We could not stop at 100! Here are a few more great tips:

Promo Tip #101 Use the Internet to research and keep current on new ways and new sites to market your music.

Promo Tip #102 Strength in numbers. Build joint ventures, collaborations and/or online partners on a project and both of you market that project.

Promo Tip #103 Have a professional email address.

Promo Tip #104 Don’t burn your bridges. Even with the increasing number of music “want to-be’s” the music industry is a relatively small and close knit community. A wrong done to you by someone early in your career, may be that “someone” in a position of music power one day that you just might need to do business with.

Promo Tip #105 Join the party, even if not in the mood. Don’t respond to the inevitable “what do you do” question with your day job, but tell your potentially new fan you are a musician and hand them your business card.

Promo Tip #106 Keep a journal of your marketing efforts with what worked and what did not work. This can be used in many ways down the road besides tracking your efforts. A book or e-book maybe?

Promo Tip #107 If out partying, have a designated friend or band mate for image control. If you get into something that could potentially land you in trouble, that controller gets you out of the situation before it can hurt your image. Video can be on the Internet before you even get home, so protect your image at all costs if you happen to get out of control.

Promo Tip #108 Business is business. There is a time and place for slang/explicit language, behavior, and the like. Project yourself in a professional manner. Know when you are onstage and when you are not.

Promo Tip #109 Get your own competition going about your band or a new release. Give something away, have fans register at local record stores, find a way to get buzz going by asking a great question.

Promo Tip #110 Self promote everyday, in every way, one way or the other.

Some of these pointers may not be for you. That’s fine. Do what you need to do, just make sure we ALL hear about you. Very true that many artists do not have the funds to do some of these tips, well, with the Internet and some ingenuity it possible to get around this to an extent.

The difference between you and another band that made it may not be that their music was better. It might be that they found a way to get noticed better. The music industry needs music talent and is constantly on the look out for something that stands out. If you have the guts and perseverance, it can be you.

Free Press Releases – 3 Reasons to Use Them to Market Your Freelance Writing Business

Free press releases (aka releases, PR pieces) are a great way to market a freelance writing business. As a freelance writer since 1993, following is how and why I use them.

How I Use Free PR to Grow My Freelance Writing Business

Obviously, a press release is designed to capture the attention of the media. But, that’s not the overriding reasons freelance writers should use them. I’ve been a freelance writer since 1993, and think that there are three better reasons to use this form of marketing to land writing jobs.

(i) They’re Search Engine Optimized Content that Drive Traffic: Press releases are just content. And, any type of content written with SEO in mind and published on the web can drive traffic.

You see, when search engines crawl a site, they don’t care if it’s a free PR distribution site, a blog, a news site, etc. They index content – period. So when you write them, write with SEO in mind – which will help to increase traffic to your freelance writing website.

FYI, these are known as “SEO press releases.”

(ii) Use Press Releases as Writing Samples to Attract High-Paying Clients: The PR pieces you write can double as writing samples. With these little buddies in your writing portfolio, you can get higher paying clients, especially if you know how to write – and distribute – them.

For example, my rate for this type of writing is $195. If you know what you’re doing, you can write one in a couple of hours or less. Imagine doing just two of these a day?

Not a shabby living as a freelance writer, right?

(iii) Bring Prestige to Your Writing Business: Being quoted in a press release gives your business prestige. To get the most mileage out of those you write, post them in a “Media” page on your site.

When prospects come, they’ll be impressed by the fact that you even have a “Media” page.

Subconsciously, this ups your value in their eyes because it pegs you as a “Professional writing firm/writer” (if everything else on the site backs this impression up).

Prospective clients also expect to pay “prestigious professionals” more because the value you bring them is ostensibly more (and it should be).

The #1 Press Release Tip to Keep in Mind When Marketing Your Freelance Writing Business

The number one thing to keep in mind when marketing your business via releases is that it’s not about you. The media doesn’t care about you or your writing business.

They care about serving their viewers, their readers, their customers. They want to solve problems for them, and if your business just happens to do that – then they’ll be interested. If it doesn’t – no matter how well written your press release is, they won’t be interested.

Keep this in mind as you write, and you’ll stand a chance of making it newsworthy (always the goal!) and getting the hot light of the media on your freelance writing business. Good luck!

The Real Truth About Fixed Index Annuities In A Bear Market

But what has the market done and what was the average return from the beginning of the stock market. Well, let us investigate the truth, believe it will be a real eye-opener.

We have had a bear market about every seven years, except for the current run of the bulls. It’s just math folks, your broker or financial advisor can manipulate the numbers, but they will never tell you the real truth because the truth will upset their rice bowl and expose their high commission and hidden fees.

Let us look at the S&P over another time frame:

In January 2000, the S&P 500 was at 1,469, January 2013, the S&P was at 1,469, that is a zero return for 13 years. Yet your broker or financial advisor tells you nothing out does the market; it always comes back. While history does confirm the rise and fall of the market, the question is the timing. Will the market be down at a time you may need your funds?

Here is another truth. Starting in January 2000, the S&P 500 was at 1,496 as of January 2019 the S&P was at 3,110. The fact is that over 19 years and the market returned 3.9%. Yet, your broker and financial genius, on all the business networks, only give you half-truths because that is what sells.

Suppose you are approaching retirement or are already retired, should your hard-earned money be exposed to that kind of market risk.

Most people do not have the luxury of waiting for a market reversal, and they cannot afford those losses and nor do you have the time for the market to come back. It could take 5-7 years to get you back to even, and that is only if the market will allow you to get back to even. Get out of the Wall Street casino, the Wall Street boys are sharks, and they will eat you alive.

Let us look at this myth of average returns and the truth of actual returns. Let’s say the market, in one year, had a 50% decline and the next year it had a 50% incline. What would you hear from your financial advisor? You would hear, “Folks we have some great news, the market is up 50%!”, yet the truth is in that one year, the returned was 0%. We should be more practical than to put a bet down with the Wall Street casino because the truth is playing in the market is legalized gambling.

Back to the bet, we put $100,000 down, and the market goes down 50%, we now have $50,000. Next year the market return goes up 50%; most folks say great we are back even. The truth is you a sitting at the casino table, and you made only $25,000 on top of your $50,000 you have $75,000 the fact is you are still down $25,000. Again, you cannot absorb these losses in retirement, and it is time to get out of the Wall Street casino.

You say, “Okay, but where can I put my money and have it safe from market risk, never losing my principal and still get a decent return?” Let us minimize the damage of the bear market and consider a Fixed Index Annuity.

You ask, “What is a Fixed Indexed Annuity?” A Fixed Indexed Annuity is how to keep your money safe, get consistent guaranteed growth and income that you will never outlive.

A Fixed Indexed Annuity is a contract between you and an insurance company. The Fixed Indexed Annuity offers you the opportunity for tax-deferred growth based in part on changes in a market index. However, you are not taking risks within the market. The insurance company offers you a return based on an index, sheltering the risk. Additionally, they offer you the option to convert your annuity into a steady, guaranteed lifetime income stream, all while protecting your hard-earned principal from the uncertainty of market volatility.

Many Fixed Index Annuities have zero fees unless you choose a specific rider that may make sense for your goals. With a Fixed Indexed Annuity, you can never lose your principal. You will see growth with the market increases, based on the Fixed Indexed Annuity you choose from the Insurance Company, and if the market goes down, you never lose a dime. You can only go up or sideways, never down.

Great Stock Market Guidelines for a Successful Portfolio

Investing can sometimes seem like a tough thing to do. A lot of people want to see their money grow, but they aren’t sure where to start. The stock market is a good place to invest your money, so if you want to learn more about how you can make a reasonable income through the stock market, then this article is for you.

If it seems too good to be true it probably is. If a return is being guaranteed, there’s a good chance that fraud is involved. There is no way to take part in investing without some risk and any broker that tells you otherwise is lying. This is not a person that you want to place your money with.

Remember that stock prices are reflections of earnings. In the short term immediate future, market behavior will fluctuate depending on news and rumour and the emotional responses to those, ranging from enthusiasm to panic. In the longer term picture, however, company earnings over time wind up determining whether a stock price rises or falls.

It may seem counter-intuitive, but the best time to buy your investments is when they have fallen in value. “Buy Low/Sell High” is not a worn out adage. It is a way to success and prosperity. Do your due diligence to find sound investment candidates, but don’t let fear keep you from buying when the market is down.

Your stocks should be thought of as ownership in a company, not just meaningless pieces of paper which you trade. When assessing the value of stocks, evaluate the business by analyzing their financial statements. This will ensure that you consider each trade carefully before making any moves.

Make sure that you are properly educated before investing in the stock market. You need to have a basic knowledge of accounting, annual reports and the stock market history. There is no need to be an actual accountant, though the more understanding you have, the better off you will be.

You can use the stock prices to track earnings. Short-term market behavior is generally based on fear, enthusiasm, news, and rumours. Long-term market behavior is mainly comprised of company earnings. These earnings can be used to determine whether or not a stock’s price will rise, drop or go completely sideways.

Keep an eye on the price of a stock you want to buy, and buy when the price is at its low point. The stock market fluctuates constantly, so you might have to wait a bit for the perfect price, but it will pay off in the end with a high return on investment.

Always keep in mind that money is a tool, not a goal. The money you earn, save and invest serves you towards a goal. The goal might be a boat, a home, or even retirement. You have a target number you are pursuing because that target number means you can afford a lifestyle for you and your family that you do not currently have.

Before even buying your first stock, make sure you know your current total financial portfolio. What are your debts and income? Do you have six months reserve fund saved up? This should be done before buying a single share. Once it is accomplished, how much of your income can you put towards investing? Once you know this, then determine your stock portfolio and automate it.

Before you decide how much you want to invest in the stock market, take some time to figure out what you want your investments to do for you. Are you looking forward to building a retirement fund? Alternatively, make some extra income? When you get this figured out, you will be able to decide how much you are willing to risk on the market.

If you’re thinking of investing money in stocks and you do not know how to do it, then you might want to go to a stock investing gathering in your area. These are normally available for a cheap fee, and you are educated by professionals that could assist you in gaining a lot of money in your investment.

Do not forget to keep a strict watch on the volume of trading your stocks are involved in. The trading volume reflects the amount of trading that the specific stock is currently involved in. The activity of a stock can show volatility or stability, which could determine whether or not you want to buy it.

Don’t buy stock of companies that aren’t solid. You need to do a lot of homework on the stock that you are thinking about buying. When you rule out all iffy stock choices, there will be nothing but sound stocks in your portfolio. This will protect you from losses over the long run.

Have a game plan and generally, stick with it. Many individuals buy a stock with the plan of sitting tight on it for a period of five or ten years. As soon as something goes sour in the market, those same individuals turn around and immediately sell. While selling is sometimes the smart way to go, if you sell every time your stock takes a bit of a nose dive, you will see more of a loss than you will see a gain. If you instead remain strong and stick to your game plan, you will often see a greater amount of success in the long run.

You should now have a better idea about what the stock market is about and what you should be doing to prepare yourself so that you can invest. Keep in mind, that sharing information with friends can help. Make sure that you engage in conversation with your friends, as well as to teach them what you know so that you have a better grasp of the stock market as a whole. When you understand how something works, you know how to be good at it. Do this and success should follow.

Can a Market Research Company Increase Business Opportunities

Research can be used companies of any scale to build a strong foundation, understand their product, know their market segments. A Market research company guarantees them these benefits.

Helping companies with how they conduct business:

A startup is smaller in scale and enters their market with the intention of positioning themselves as a unique name with a unique product or service. So, naturally they want to cater to a niche market. A good amount of research can be used to help build a product and get it out to that market. They can even determine why consumers may not want to purchase that product.

With relevant data, they can identify their target segments in a market. You see, start-ups know that a type of problem or need exists and that they can solve it. They are even aware that the service or products that they have will benefit people, but they aren’t sure who those people are. Research shows them exactly who it is that they need to cater to.

Big companies need to adhere to a product development phase that is much slower. Competitors can easily surpass them in the time that it takes to perfect a product. This reduces the differentiation that the company could have used to get ahead.

Research can help bridge this gap. They can use exclusive market research reports to evaluate where they stand in a market. With this viewpoint, they can understand how fast their product iterations need to be, if any. They can even focus on what’s more important to them and what needs changing, like pricing, derivative product offerings or if the product requires redesign.

Big companies and start-ups benefit from research in this way:

The main reason are the risks of loss. Startups always need to revise their product offering several times. It’s because they launch a product immediately, usually without the prerequisite research to define a particular set of customers. They don’t want to invest in understanding who their customer is, as it’s assumed that they already have buyers.

The general thought is that capital will be better utilized in building or developing the product and not business plans.

Bigger corporations do have plenty of capital, but don’t have the time to gather individual customer feedback, expert opinions – they use market research for that. They’ve also got a much bigger, commercial level market too and research agencies are the feasible approach.

To set long-term goals, prevent cash overspending and actually sell a product in the market, companies need to have plans – detailed plans, which can only be developed once they have the right data.

Unlike start-ups, they are focused on improving a product and price points and not on proving how many consumers they have for their respective products. Only detailed data, collected and assessed using precise parameters, enables them to do that.

Having the right market research partner can prevent costly mistakes or the failure of startups. It’s the tool that’s required for getting that game-changing business strategy that could make all the difference.

Market Research Strategies For Small Businesses

Have you ever done any market research? If not, you may be missing some valuable marketing ideas and information that you could capture by doing some research. Market research is a vital part of the process that most small businesses or start-ups neglect to do. However, it could be the single most important thing a new business does prior to formulating their business plan, location or marketing strategy.

Marketing research is the process of gathering data and opinions from consumers, employees, or a specific subgroup within the public, to improve decision making and reducing the risk associated with those decisions. Individuals/businesses can use information gained from marketing research to assess awareness, attitudes, perceptions, or opinions on products, services, advertising, brands, and/or companies. The two types of research are qualitative (words) and quantitative (numbers).

Qualitative research is an in-depth analysis of relatively few respondents, which provides a holistic insight and understanding of the issue at hand. For example, if a company is interested in testing company logos, qualitative methods would provide rich data.

– Focus Groups are an “informal” gathering of 6-10 people from your “target group” to have an in-depth conversation of opinions on your product, brand, advertising, and other areas of your product and/or service.

– Face-to-face interviews typically involve a one-on-one conversation with your consumers or decision-makers. These methods can be more expensive than a traditional survey, but will provide a more comprehensive evaluation.

Quantitative research seeks to summarize data and typically applies some form of statistical analysis. Using this method, for example, a company could measure their customer’s level of satisfaction and then, in turn, make internal changes to increase that satisfaction.

– Researchers should use surveys or questionnaires when trying to measure an audience’s opinions more accurately.

*Telephone surveys are often the most expensive, but are the most effective at getting respondents to complete the survey.

*Mail surveys can be relatively inexpensive, but the response rate on a mail survey is typically 3-10% and takes more time to conduct. These cannot be used when results are needed quickly.

*Online surveys are relatively new, but growing fast in popularity. With online surveys, you can ask survey questions, but also get feedback on things such as logos (using picture files) or commercials (using streaming video).

*Intercept interviews are a tool a company uses when they do not have a list of their customer base, such as a restaurant or a sports team, but would still like to measure their customer’s satisfaction.

For the small business owner it might be helpful to hire a marketing company or market research firm to help with these types of in-depth research however it’s not to say that you couldn’t ask your current clients or contacts as well on your own. Just remember you do not have to do all of this yourself, it’s always good to consult with experts in areas that you are not familiar or experienced with so it’s the best use of your time and it gets done right.

Now what do you do with all that great qualitative and quantitative information when you receive it? It is imperative that you work it into your marketing materials, Web site, correspondence, sales presentations, advertising and many other areas of your marketing plan. When you find out what your target market wants or likes, it is important NOT to ignore those results.

Winning Business Plans – Market Manage and Grow

Writing a business plan is not the means to an end. Your objective should be writing one that wins investor interest, penetrates the market, makes money and grows your business. That said, it is essential to know what key elements, including marketing methods and business processes that are paramount to succeeding in any given market.

One of the best ways to start is by researching, examining and cross-examining every bit of information you can possibly find regarding your competitors methods of doing business. But keep this in mind. While there are many competitors out there, not all of them are truly succeeding in the market. Some are just staying afloat on a shallow stream of cash-flow. Others are slowing down, burdened from debt and about to sink. While a few may actually be on shore, well grounded, in the green and growing.

While there is something to be learned from each company your focus should primarily be on those who are actually successful. Study businesses that have a proven tract record for generating target income streams and revenue. Now the big question – How do you access another company’s business plan?

The Reliability Of Public Data

Once companies have gone public they must publish data analysis to investors and make them available through other public venues. Admittedly much of this information is fettered with generalities and inaccuracies. Relying on public data may not give you a true inside view of the company’s business process model or a real grasp of what makes it tick. But it is a start. There are four additional methods to getting to know the internals of a successful company’s business process:

1. Work for them

2. Work with them

3. Know someone who does one of the above

4. Get your hands on their initial business plan as well as any revisions.

Accessing The Plan

While the latter would seem to be the easier approach of the four, there is still the question of how to get access to the plan. Companies document, revise and share their business plans with staff, the media and in press releases. Parts of the plan appear in sales copy and human resource materials. That said, the data ends of readily available to the person who knows how to access it. There are business plan archives that take the time to gather business plan data from companies that have released data over time. The aim is to produce a complete business plan that is a mirror image of the company’s success, revealing proven methods that helped the company penetrate the market, win business and grow.

Learning Competitors Strategic Growth Techniques

The value of studying a pre-written and executed business plan that wins business is simple. You’re stepping into the shoes of business pros and successful competitors who know the marketing strategies that grow a business. You’re learning their strategy, technique and business process from the ground floor up.

Once you have the plan in hand read the mission statement and objectives. Familiarize yourself with the positioning of the company. Learn how the competitor strategizes in order to penetrate the market. Consider the established business process including the various departments, staff demographics, methods of documenting and communicating procedure, the cascade of information between departments and maintaining quality employee relations. Take time to examine the background, education, experience and other credentials of those on the team. Find out what makes that team tick and why the teams efforts work.

Seeing The Market Through The Eagle’s Eye

With your competitors business plans you get an eagle’s eye view of the market and a clear plan to both penetrate and capture various segments and niches. With an insider’s view of the business process you can examine the scale and dimensions of a working business model from which to engineer your own blue print. Designing your own business model becomes less abstract, less complex and much more comprehensive. In addition, understanding the inner-workings of the business process makes it that much more manageable.

So, before you write a business plan to help you market, manage and grow your business, take the time to access your most successful competitors winning business plan and learn the key elements that have lead to its success. In time you yourself will have a plan that wins investor interest, penetrates the market, makes money and grows your business.