The Business Value Of Relationships

Business is about relationship building. That is what is called networking in the formal sense. Success in business starts with good relationships with those around you. This is really connecting with the people around you in a friendly and trustworthy manner. If you are going to work a business and make a living out of it this matters.

You know where you want to go, but how to get there is another matter. Most opportunity comes about because of contacts. Self made millionaires usually did not do it alone. They had some very good opportunities come their way by having some great contacts. They know that everyone that helps is their business team.

The real fun of business is that you meet a lot of great people along the way. Everyone you meet has a wealth of experience that is invaluable. Now more than ever relationships and networking happens in real time. Phenomenal growth has a lot to do with the relationships with customers, vendors, and strategic alliances. Creative ideas are tossed around when you interact with clients, vendors and other people. A lot of times in a matter-of- fact way a reflexive comment changes your company. Live and learn sure applies to business.

Involvement is the key word in any business. Obligation is not the same as a social connection that stresses the importance of relationships. Aspiring to profit from a business is not always the same as succeeding in business. That means the value you bring to your relationships has a paramount impact on your business. People who are passionate about what they do are usually the most generous with sharing their expertise

The ability to partner with your customer, distributors, vendors, and other businesses is what will help make your business a success. The knowledge you add to your service and communicate to your customers is what makes a long lasting relationship. Success in any field is about working with the people that are there. No one does it alone, only by connecting with others can you expect to reach your goal. People you meet can work as mentors by offering help, guidance and opportunities to grow your business. This is your business team that will help you reach your goal.

Let people enrich your life and transform your business. Consumer connectivity both literally and figuratively creates a strong brand for a company. You build one person at a time until you have enough connections to forge an identity. Create, collaborate and share in a wide variety of ways your business, yourself, and your knowledge. It is always good to remember you are part of a business and social community that are drawn together for survival.

There is a new breed of businesses that really count on both the interactive and traditional. Remember the web is a community of businesses connected through links, affiliations, and testimonials. The web is a growing success because of its interconnections. This new media has one important message that delivering to, and reaching a wide audience is the way to nurture a business. Relationships are the key to unlocking a treasure trove of support and access to resources.

Creating Value In Business

The notion of quantifying the costs for customers in order to illustrate how much money they are currently wasting or will be wasting if they do not do business with you is a key element in the process of getting a customer to buy from you. This sounds obvious but can be overlooked by many people attempting to trade with a customer.

This process allows someone not only to demonstrate how much money can be saved but also alleviates their concerns about spending money on one’s particular product or service.

Various areas may be addressed during this part of the process however it is not always easy to uncover where a customer’s money is being spent.

Getting customers to realise the value of one’s solution has to begin with asking the right questions; in order to do this one needs to identify the customer’s typical costs and then decide whether or not they could be reduced or eliminated through the use of one’s product or service.

A good example of this would be health care where outsourcing has become a hot topic, as well as with businesspeople and politicians.

There is a natural compulsion to use lower-wage workers abroad who have the same skills as those at home, although this brings with it the unexpected.

The pros of this are that savings will be made in direct costs and staff may be able to be eliminated from the payroll.

The cons are, depending on the industry, that the internet may go down, there will be a lack of rapport between the patient and doctor, there is a lack of accountability, and there would be no confidentiality.

Another good example of this is the construction industry.

Selling bricks is not all that exciting, but it is possible to quantify costs. For example, take someone who sells bricks to homeowners building new houses and construction companies creating new neighbourhoods.

It is very difficult to convince either of these parties to use bricks because they are more expensive than other building materials.

However, presenting the argument in a different way changes the picture:

Bricks hold heat better than other materials so in the long run costs will be saved on heating bills

As opposed to rendering, which needs to be replaced after years of wear and tear, bricks last a lifetime

Studies have shown that, everything being equal, a brick house will sell for fifteen per cent more than a house with rendering

For construction companies, bricks are easier to work with and easier to store than other materials.

In summary using this cost justification system, it is possible to translate the features of a product into considerable benefits and thus largely override the raw, up-front cost of the product; value can be imparted to a customer other than front line savings. However, it must be remembered that coming from the outside it is always easier to see and understand the concept and after all, it is their money that is being spent.

Creating Unique Business Alliances: Six Insights To Help Transform Your Company’s Value

Recent news concerning IT industry strategic alliances increasingly trumpet the word “unique” as in ‘unique alliance’ or ‘unique partnership’. Usually these unique arrangements bring together a marketer (either a system integrator or a service provider) with a solid footprint in a niche market and a technology developer or manufacturer with an innovative or proprietary capability.

This type of alliance transfers to the marketer a unique technological edge. The marketer's objective in many such cases is to keep competitors at bay, grow market share or create enough performance value to justify a higher price. For the developer partner, aligning with the marketer provides a significantly extended market reach that simply translates into the sale of an increased number of units as well as a branding leap into greater market visibility.

This deal constitutes an excellent exchange of value for both partners. But as business alliances are not forever, the true assessment of the deal's value must be evaluated over time. In its early days Microsoft supplied DOS in a partnership with IBM's original desktop PC. In time Microsoft’s OS took over the PC market supplying all manufacturers. IBM was forced to back up out of the PC driveway, but it learned the power of partnering brilliantly transforming its business model into the world’s most prolific and successful IT services partnership network builder.


Acquiring a Unique Value Proposition

Of the many reasons for initiating a strategic alliance, the most highly-sought after type is one that creates a “unique value proposition” (UVP) — the three golden words so enticing to venture investors throughout the world.

How do you get UVP if you don't produce it?

A strategic alliance can transform nearly any traditional sales and distribution enterprise into a uniquely positioned provider -- all you need are customers! Have your considered this? Transform your company instantly into an unstoppable juggernaut simply by formulating a strategic alliance with one or more suppliers who may add a unique piece to your package, program or end-to-end offerings. Suddenly, your company acquires a UVP. More orders, greater equity value...before you know it, investors come sniffing around.

What are they looking for?

They want to know what you'll do for your next act.

Sure. That first alliance you just made was a successful move. It got attention. And it’s working. But, don't get too busy with that. Save some time for developing additional alliance ideas. You need to look at your company’s future in terms of a total, long-term strategic alliances plan.


Six key questions to formulating a long-term alliance road map

Use these six Partner M questions to develop your own alliance road map:

- What are my core competencies?
- What are my customer assets?
- How bad are the performance gaps as experienced by my customer/user?
- What are the innovative upgrades desired by my customer/user?
- How well are my competitors performing in areas where we are weak?
- Where do we perform better than our competitors?

Now answer this:
Can you locate and negotiate a deal with potential suppliers who can deliver to you
a unique product or service that:
(a) your company cannot duplicate more profitably with its core competence;
(b) will be highly valued by your customers;
(c) will fix a problem or enable you to offer customers an optional upgrade;
(d) will strengthen an area where you had been weak; or,
(e) will help insure that you can continue to outperform our competitors?

If your answer is yes to any one or more of these options, then you have the basis for a strategy that would result in higher order volume, as well as a path to added value and increased brand equity.

How do you validate that assumption?


Project the pros and cons of executing your alliance plan

Calculate a scenario assuming the amount of revenue you could generate and profits you would achieve after you’ve found one such partner and have successfully negotiated an alliance.

Be sure you have identified and adjusted your projection for any possible downside and cost of implementing the partnership. Next, forecast where you’ll be in three years without this alliance or a comparable strategy.

In addition you should assess the impact of your alliance on the competition with a sober determination of how they may react. Here is where the value of establishing a 'unique alliance' becomes so important. Paradoxically, your alliance's UVP shelf life must be viewed as both temporary and continuous. Any one alliance you enter is temporary. Your strategy must be continuous.

How temporary is your alliance? If any of your competitors can match your partnership with another and duplicate the contribution of your unique ally in fairly short order, your UVP will not last long. You may need to move faster to extend the your UVP shelf life and begin to plan your next UVP partnership. Within this scenario you would need to move faster on the alliance front or find yourself having to play deep catch up if your competitor takes the initiative before you do.


Design an ongoing alliance strategy

To develop a continuous UVP plan extend your alliance road map by duplicating your forecast calculations to include all potential alliances you foresee into the future. How far can you go using this strategy? If possible, don’t stop until you're able to imagine this process reaching a global scale or an exit strategy. Finally, your alliance plan must weigh alliance costs and risks against the benefits/costs/risks of alternative strategies.

Whether your enterprise takes the role of a marketer or a supplier, you should consider formulating a phased-in partnership plan containing a list of target partner prospects, financial validations, a timeline and undertake a marketing initiative aimed at shaping a receptive and synergistic relationship with partner executives and operational teams. Executing the plan is your next challenge. Don't hesitate to seek help in developing your plan and making it happen.

Add Value To Your Business Offering And Enhance Profits

A classic mistake a lot of new businesses make is to solely compete on price. By adding extra features to your offering it is often possible to charge higher prices.

Let’s say for example you are a small soft drinks manufacturer. What could you add that would allow you to charge higher prices? One idea might be to add some vitamins to your mixture or if it’s fruit juice – no added sugar. Another idea might be to use premium or novelty packaging.

Have you seen the lolly in a tube which children can open and shut? It is based on the lipstick concept which allows the children to have exactly the right amount protruding for maximum taste. A normal lolly might retail at a few cents whilst this one retails at around a dollar! Same product plus novel packaging equals much higher profit.

Another idea that aroused my interest was when a well known toothpaste manufacturer managed to increase the sales of their product by just increasing the size of the hole! They realised that their customers used to spread a line of toothpaste and when they increased the size of the aperture people carried on spreading the same length not realising that they were using more toothpaste!

Recently have you noticed that cans of beer & juice have wider apertures to allow us to gulp our drink quicker? You can now drink just as easily from a can as you would from a glass. Not all manufacturers have followed this example yet!

Have a look on the Internet and you will find that the best websites offer a lot of information for free. Some of them have a whole host of articles telling you how to do their job! Off course what they are really counting on is the fact that even if they show you how to do it you might not have the time or the inclination to do it! By explaining the processes involved it serves to show their expertise on the issue and means that you are more likely to become a customer.

By adding extra ingredients, improving packaging, offering free information and looking at how easy your product is to use can make all the difference between charging a cut throat price and making a little extra profit.

Add Value to your Business with Computer Courseware

Training employees and educating consumers to be able to use particular computer software is a tough job. It takes time and skill to write training manuals and design illustrations to go along with them. That's why many business owners are choosing computer courseware instead of creating training manuals of their own. Computer courseware is pre-designed and customizable so you can arrange the lessons and customize them to fit your training needs. It saves time and money, and can be done easily in-house once you have a copy of the training materials.

What is Computer Courseware?

Computer courseware is software and/or training materials used for educational purposes. Educational institutions may use courseware to teach students how to operate a particular computer software program. Companies may use it to educate employees on using a new software program that has been installed for business operations. Also, companies that sell computers, software, or other related products and services might offer computer courseware to their customers as a free "how-to" guide.

The training courseware can be used for almost any type of computer software. There are Macintosh manuals, Microsoft courseware, Adobe Photoshop courseware, Excel courseware, and many others.

Tips for Maximizing your Computer Courseware Benefits

To get the most benefit out of your computer courseware, use it in creative ways. For example, package it nicely and offer it as a free bonus with a purchase to your clients. If you sell Microsoft Word software, then advertise up-front that each customer will receive a free beginner's course on how to use Microsoft Word. Then, include your Microsoft courseware with each purchase. If shipping products, package it neatly with the product. If selling in-store, make sure your employees know to give the bonus courseware with each purchase.

If you sell Macintosh computers, provide free Macintosh manuals with the computer. Those customers who are brand new to Macintosh computers will appreciate this tremendously!

Package your Computer Courseware for Long-Term Use

When you print the courseware manual, put the pages in a nice binder with your company logo, store location, phone number, and website address. Also include a "welcome" letter explaining briefly what the customer will learn in the course. Customers are more likely to keep the manual if it is packaged this way. If you hand them a lot of papers that have been stapled or bound together, these are likely to end up in the trash!

Another idea is to include a sales presentation at the beginning or conclusion of the courseware manual to try and up-sale customers on a new product or service. You're already providing something free that's of value, so why not make an offer while the customer is reading your materials?

If you operate an online business with an e-zine or newsletter, offer free computer courseware with every subscription. It may seem like a lot to give someone who's signing up for a free newsletter, but the rewards can be great. The long-term value of a newsletter subscriber base can be monumental!

As you can see, computer courseware can add great value to your products and services, and it's usually very easy and affordable to get started. All you have to do is order rights to the courseware, print your training manuals, and package them for distribution. Then, let the computer courseware materials do the rest!

The Value of Private Investigation Training

People are not born great. Sure, some may be born with raw talent, but that is not the equivalent of greatness. Greatness is achieved through training. The hardness of steel is useless until it is forged. Many people shun training because they feel that they can do well enough without it.

Take private investigation training for example: many people think that private investigation is a pretty easy job. This is because of the various images that popular media has imprinted into our minds. The difficulty of private investigation training is rarely portrayed in these media. Often, a private investigator is shown as if he/she was born with all of the necessary skills.

What is the true value of private investigation training? Well, it is through private investigation training that people acquire these things:

1) Experience – People say that experience is the greatest teacher of all. Experience is the best thing that you can get from private investigation training. Many people say that they can acquire the skills and the knowledge necessary to be a good private investigator on their own. However, you need experience in order to hone that skill and knowledge into an effective tool.

Books can teach you the theory, but private investigation training helps you put that theory to the test. In private investigation training, students are shaped into the great private investigators they are meant to be. Another importance of experience arises from the fact that most potential clients today look for experienced private investigators to handle their cases. Many private investigation cases are very delicate and need experienced investigators to take care of them.

2) Contacts – It is often the case that PIs establish their first contacts during private investigation training. This is because of the fact that this is an essential part of the training. Private investigators cannot produce facts and information out of thin air. They need to find reliable sources that can provide information discreetly.

Through private investigation training, a PI will learn how to find potential sources and how to persuade those sources to part with important information. Private investigation training will teach students how to properly show respect to the sources in order to continue a professional relationship.

3) Skills – Most of the skills required in professional investigation can be learned through training. During professional investigation training, students can learn how to harness their innate talents and transform them into skills. They will learn how to properly apply their various traits into the job.

Private investigation training will also help students learn how to take full advantage of their environment. They will learn how to use their surroundings to suit their purpose. They will learn to improvise and how to adapt to their various situations and overcome the odds.

4) Law – The law is one of the more sensitive issues surrounding private investigation. This is because of the fact that although private investigators basically do the job of policemen, they do not really have the authority that policemen have. Private investigation training helps students by educating them as to the various technicalities surrounding laws. This means that they will be able to solve cases while being within their lawful rights.

Private investigation training, like any other type of training is needed by people who wish to become great. Training hones skills and lets people gauge their potential and fulfill that potential. A trained private investigator will always be better than an amateur.