May 29, 2016 / como / 0 Comments
Business card enhancement features like spot UV, embossing, and foil stamping can truly help differentiate your business in the minds of your customers and clients. But which one is the best? Read on to find out.
Embossed Business Cards
Embossing is where certain elements of your business card are raised by virtue of them getting pushed through from the opposite side of the card. The effect is similar to a credit card, where the account number is raised on the front and recessed on the back.
Embossing works well for text or even a water seal type of logo effect, however it does have limitations.
For one, you do not want artwork in the embossed area; you want the embossed areas to be clear of artwork on both sides or else the artwork and embossing will become jumbled and will look awful.
Additionally, most printers are not able to precisely line up embossing with ink. The exact embossed areas could shift 1/16 1/8 during the production process. So for example, if your card has a black background, the embossed areas must be black as well. You would not be able to have, say, white text embossed because it is not feasible for the embossing to line up with the underlying white text perfectly every time.
If you want your business card enhancement feature to allow for color that is different from the cards background color, consider either spot UV or foil stamping.
Spot UV Business Cards
Spot UV is where specific areas of your card are treated with a glossy coating. This effect does not impact the underlying color, it only makes the treated areas slightly raised and shiny relative to the non-glossy business card stock.
Typically, spot UV does not have the same alignment problems as embossing. With todays technology, spot UV can be precisely lined up against any ink-based design element. So here, if you had a black background with white text, you could have the text treated with spot UV so that it is shiny, raised, and white.
Spot UV works only on non-glossy cardstock, as doing spot UV on glossy business cards will not create a visible effect (everything is already glossy). Silk business cards are the best option for spot UV, because they are non-glossy and extremely durable.
Foil Stamped Business Cards
Foil stamping is where specific parts of your card are coated with a layer of metallic foil. It is typically offered in gold, silver, green, red or blue.
The foil stamped areas are not limited to only the cards background color like embossing. However, although color can be utilized, you are limited to the foil colors offered by the printer.
Also, foil stamped business cards are usually subject to the same shifting that could occur with embossed business cards, so it is important not to have any artwork in the stamped areas.
Which One Should You Use?
Generally speaking, none of these enhancements are available on glossy business cards. All 3 are most effective on silk business cards, so if you plan on utilizing a silk cardstock, your options are wide open.
Of the 3 options discussed, embossing is typically the least preferred because of the aforementioned color and artwork limitations. Additionally, embossed business cards are usually the most expensive of the three.
Foil stamping is also relatively expensive, but at least this feature offers more color options. The downside is that the foil can sometimes flake, peel or appear blotchy. Additionally, foil stamped business cards tend to become worn at an accelerated rate as they get pulled in and out of a wallet.
Most often, spot UV business cards provide the best bang for your buck. This option is by far the least expensive of the three, offers the full gamut of color availability, and is not subject to the same flaws as foil and embossing.
May 21, 2016 / como / 0 Comments
In these tough economic times, it is more important to look at different ways in which you can grow business wisely. This can be done in a variety of different ways. In growing your business effectively, it will be important to look at several different aspects of your existing business. Are you financially sound to take on this new project? Have you sought out the perfect location? Do you have a plan of action in place? All of these questions are integral in assuring that your business will be a success. Lets go into a little bit more detail on the ten best ways to grow your business.
The first step is to know your market. If you are looking at growing your business and possibly adding other locations, it will be important to know who you are catering to. Make sure that the products or services that you are offering will be adequate for the needs of the consumer.
Second is to know what your financial availability is. Often, the business owner may have the right intentions, but it may not be feasible for the moment to grow or expand the current business. There is the possibility that waiting and planning will actually be in your best interests.
Third, you will need to make sure that your employee needs are covered. Can the existing staff accommodate an increase in work? Will you need to hire more staff? Have you trained the existing staff to take leadership roles if need be? These are all answers in which only you can provide.
Fourth is to know whether your location will suffice for the growth. Will you need to add a location? Would it be better to buy or lease a larger location or should you add on to the existing location?
The fifth best way to grow or expand your business is to make sure that your support staff is in place. You will need people who are organised and professional in order to build the base on which you can make your business a success.
Sixthly, you need to keep up to date with all your financial obligations and ensure that they are all being dealt with and upheld in a professional and timely manner.
The seventh item would be to look at your procedures and if need be create a new organizational structure. This can be done through joint ventures, mergers, and acquisitions which can help grow and diversify your business. Eighth
The eighth way to improve your business is to analyze all aspects of your business, products, suppliers, clients, areas, etc. Try to phase out any areas that are not making a profit and incorporate more of the successful areas into your business.
Ninth is to look at the value of your company as a whole and try to increase its market share and diversify your client base and increase in areas that have been previously unexplored.
And last but certainly not the least is your time! Do you have the time that it is going to take to make this happen? Often, during the expansion of business, the owner will find themselves devoting just as much or more time to the growth process.
May 18, 2016 / como / 0 Comments
The recruitment industry has always been reactive by nature. This is not intended to be a criticism in any way, it is just considered to be convention within the industry. An employer advertises a vacancy, a candidate advertises their CV. Prospective candidates are forwarded onto the employer and prospective vacancies are similarly forwarded onto the candidate. This will invariably result in thousands of candidates applying for each individual vacancy and success is ultimately determined by the efficiency of each individual employer’s recruitment procedure. Candidates are always powerless throughout this process. The introduction of online job boards through the internet has only served to exasperate this problem. They tend to identify success in terms of quantity rather than quality. They will proudly advertise that they have thousands or even millions of candidates registered with them. They will also have hundreds or thousands of vacancies listed too. The implication being of course that if they serve this many customers then they must be good. Having said this, online job boards do provide an important service now within the recruitment industry. They provide portals where both candidates and employers can be introduced to each-other and the service which they provide is far more cost-effective than traditional offline advertising and in most cases they provide a more efficient service too. Unfortunately it does not really do very much to help candidates gain better employment and it is still rather like looking for a needle in a haystack. This is because the service which they provide merely ensures that more and more applicants apply to each individual vacancy. It is also widely accepted within the recruitment industry that any vacancy which we may see advertised is always a peripheral vacancy. What is meant by this is that they tend to be general vacancies which arise from prescriptive change such as expansion, or a merger or acquisition. The very fact that the organization does not have anyone in mind for this vacancy who could be promoted from within tells you that the vacancy is probably a peripheral one. Core vacancies are never advertised. The organization will already have internal candidates in mind for these positions and they are too important to risk employing a candidate who is considered to be an unknown quantity. Consequently core vacancies are always the ones we should be targeting. They are the vacancies which constitute power, influence and life-changing personal benefits. A senior manager or partner at a major financial institution, retail organization or manufacturing company will earn an annual salary amounting to several hundred thousand dollars for their services. A senior Director or Executive Officer at the same company will earn an annual salary amounting to several million dollars for their services. How many jobs do you actually see advertised with annual salaries that exceed 250,000.00 USD? There are traditional recruitment companies who practise what is commonly known as head-hunting, but these still tend to be for peripheral positions. The reality is that anyone who achieves a core vacancy within a major global organization will have developed and implemented a successful career management strategy over a sustainable period of time. It is quite literally the difference between success and failure. Recruitment companies and online job boards alike are already thinking of innovative ways in which they can provide better services. Improving online technology is to some extent gradually enabling them to do this. There are growing improvements in terms of the search engines that are used to pre-qualify candidates for employers and conversely to pre-qualify employers for candidates. However the more recruitment companies or online job boards which choose to move in this direction the more they will have to charge candidates and employers for the services they provide, whereas registration, particularly for candidates has been largely free of charge and candidates have grown accustomed to this of course. It is already clear that those recruitment companies who are starting to charge candidates for the service that they provide, tend to provide much better services. The old adage that “you always get for what you pay” tends to apply here. Ultimately these changes while providing some improvement in the professionalism of recruitment companies and online job boards over time will not change anything at all concerning the type of vacancies advertised. Advertised vacancies will always be peripheral. Candidates who have the most successful careers are always those who are proficient at managing their own career management strategy. It is true that we cannot all aspire to be the CEO of Microsoft, General Motors, HSBC Bank, or Mittal. But we can still ensure that we at least have the opportunity to achieve as much as we can with our careers and we will not achieve this if we are reactive by nature and if we do not take personal responsibility at some point for our own career development. After all an individual’s career development surely constitutes a core activity, not a peripheral one!
May 17, 2016 / como / 0 Comments
A business small or big, irrespective of its nature always starts with some basic investment. The process of procuring investment is not new, rather has a huge history attached to it. Every era witnessed a different style of investment procurement. Earlier, people who had bulk money were entertained first and small investors were hardly a party to big shot companies. But with changing scenarios, the picture is no longer what it used to be earlier. Nowadays, small venture capitalists or angel investors give equal importance just like other industry big shots. Though, the amount invested by angel investors may be less, yet they serve as excellent vehicles to start a business.
Whether, you are expanding your small business or are looking into creating a start-up, you may need investors to help fund your endeavor. Though a small business loan is a good starting point. But, seeking investors allows you more access to funds which you generally do not have to repay on a set schedule. These investors become a party to your agenda and reap out profits what the business makes. However, it is not like investors will give you funding without expecting anything in return, and you may need to relinquish some control of your business in order to work with certain investors. The terms and conditions are liable to change with every business agenda.
As we say, nothing comes free of cost and has a price attached to it. Similarly, these angel investors may demand an ownership or shareholding in your company, if you are an entrepreneur. But, if we talk about the advantages of finding angel investors, they are multifold than going forward with huge investment companies or banks. Also, it is quite appropriate for angel investors to park their amounts in upcoming business models. This is a win-win situation for both the parties. It helps the investors to enjoy profits and make money, while proves outstanding for an entrepreneur to conceptualize his dream and introduce the product, technology or the business idea in the market.
There are many online websites which serve as excellent tools to bridge the gap between investors and entrepreneurs. If you have any business idea, then register yourself as an entrepreneur, while if you are interested in investing your money, then register as an investor. The website will definitely help lacunating the gap between the two parties. You can easily find investors for your business and vice versa. Go make money!
May 17, 2016 / como / 0 Comments
Business One is good solution when you are midmarket organization with attributes of multinational corporation, such as branches in foreign countries and headquarters and research facility in the United States. SAP B1 is popular in international business scenarios as it is localized in such popular regional powers as China, Brazil and Russian Federation. There are known cases studies when companies with non-SAP Corporate ERP applications launched Business One for their branches in Brazil and later one switched to it in the headquarters as well. There are some challenges however and one of them is consolidated financial reporting. As you may know such popular tools as Microsoft Management Reporter and FRx do not have GL connectors to SAP BO. Some customers are doing GL trial balance export to Excel and then prepare it to fit consolidation template. This is definitely possible way but you may mention that it is time consuming and open to human errors. In this publication we recommend old-good-days method of GL consolidation:
1.How does it work conceptually? You have to create new company with account structure matching your template. Then you schedule regular GL entries migration into this company General Ledger. This company obviously doesnt represent legal entity but it has all your branches GL activity and ready for consolidated Balance Sheet and P&L. You can use internal reporting
2.How does it work technically? You can deploy several tools. First of all it is possible to pull GL records via Data Transfer Workbench when it has integrations for each company SQL database via ODBC. Second method is programming with Software Development Kit. This second method might seem like something challenging. However it is only one type of transactions and code samples in VB and C# are straight forward. There are ISV products working with SAP B1 SQL database via direct data feed. They are usually expensive and require learning curve. But if you are ready to deploy luxury solution then you should probably make your homework
3.International Business Specific multicurrency. Business One is multicurrency enabled so in our opinion it is just one additional factor to incorporate into the solution. We have done it for the company which operates in Brazil and USA with respectively Real and Dollar
4.Standard for Chart of Accounts. This might be additional challenge as often company deploys the same system in several countries but contracts different consulting partners to do from ground up implementation without coordination with central office. In consolidated financial reporting Chart of Accounts should be reviewed and unified in all business entities. In any case this is good exercise in order to understand you foreign country branch operations and finances or in other words strengthen central control
5.Other aspects of multinational environment and Business One. It is generally good idea to host all the installations on the server located in the Headquarters. There are definitely some specifics associated with foreign company regulations and tax code. But these compliances should not be the central emphasis. Instead you should think about your new Corporate ERP system as the tool allowing you to exercise tight central control over all of your overseas subsidiaries. General advice is to assign chosen consulting organization here in the United States for picking subcontractors for each country to implement just compliance related functionality. Compliance is just a small part of what the system is for
6.Please call us 1-866-304-3265, 1-269-605-4904 (for international customers, where our representative pick up the phone in St. Joseph, MI call center). [emailprotected] We have local presence in Chicagoland, Southern California, South West Michigan and Houston and Dallas areas of Texas. We serve customers USA, Canada, Mexico and Brazil nationwide and internationally via web sessions and phone conferences (Skype is welcomed). Our consultants speak English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian and Chinese. We feature our expertise is in International Business. We provide second opinion in SB1 data migration, customization and reporting