Ask an Expert Articles

Business » Ask an Expert | By Daegan Smith @ Friday, 19th May 2006 @ 6:50 AM

How can you make sure that your wealth can sustain you throughout the years when income becomes less and less of an option? Read on for details. Stocks Stocks are said to be the best way to generate long term wealth. How can this be so? Aren’t stocks for the savvy businessmen? Isn’t there a chance that stock could lose its value overnight? Isn’t that a bit too risky? Yes, stocks can be risky. If you do not have a good understanding of securities and the stock market.more...

Business » Ask an Expert | By Andrew James @ Tuesday, 16th May 2006 @ 11:14 PM

Mentorship programs are becoming increasingly popular on the Internet. Usually, they require a significant investment of money and time - but are they worth it? Imagine this scenario. You get out of bed early (as usual), sit down at the computer and open your email program. As you watch a flood of emails pour in, you feel overwhelmingly tired. This is understandable: you're putting in hours and hours at the computer. You've tried one income-earning method after another;... more...

Business » Ask an Expert | By John Stanley @ Wednesday, 10th May 2006 @ 6:39 PM

Stores without products how would they survive, but this is 2006 and anything goes. A few years ago I was approached by a global bank to do some consultancy; the brief was I was to design a bank that did not hold any money, a money less bank. Head office was convinced that by 2010 their banks would not be places where consumes would actually collect money. It is 2006 and I have just been to a paint shop where they do not have paint in store, plus as you would expect it is causing ... more...

Business » Ask an Expert | By John Stanley @ Wednesday, 10th May 2006 @ 6:25 PM

There is a change going on in the outside plant area of garden retailing. To the outsider or uninitiated it may appear that the leading garden centers are just changing the paint scheme to brighten the place up, but there is far more to the change than a lick of paint. What is happening in the market place? Over the last few years many independent retailers have seen there market share decline and have to ask where they should position there business in the market place if they are... more...

Business » Ask an Expert | By John Stanley @ Wednesday, 10th May 2006 @ 6:25 PM

According to the dictionary, passion is defined as: A powerful emotion, such as love, joy, hatred, or anger. Are you and your team passionate about the retail game and the garden industry? I know you will argue the answer is yes and that is why you are in the industry, but traveling the globe working with garden centres over recent months has forced me to question where the passion has gone in many teams in our industry. Over the last few months I have been involved in carrying o... more...

Business » Ask an Expert | By John Stanley @ Wednesday, 10th May 2006 @ 6:22 PM

Successful retailers realize you have to have passion for the product and the consumer. In today’s retail environment you would think everyone would be chasing that elusive dollar. But, that is not the case and this should be an opportunity for anyone who wants to grow their business. The best example I can give you of today’s market place is based on the experience we have just had in our business. It was time to upgrade the business computers and the team decided it was time that... more...

Business » Ask an Expert | By John Stanley @ Wednesday, 10th May 2006 @ 6:14 PM

Baby boomers, that group of people, according to Bob Dylan and his peers who were going to change the world. The anthem “Things are a Changing” is very true of this market sector. From Woodstock to today this has been a group keen on making a difference to traditional values. The generation that put garden centre’s on the map in the 80’s and 90’s is now buying properties abroad and having tropical holidays rather than pruning the roses. A decade ago this was the DIY generation and they h... more...

Business » Ask an Expert | By John Stanley @ Wednesday, 10th May 2006 @ 6:13 PM

Greying tigers, the generation of over 65’s who are becoming a more powerful generation in the market place. This is the generation that has seen all the changes take place and are reminiscent of the good old days. They remember when the wallflowers were sold wrapped in newspaper and they remember the price. This is a generation looking for nostalgia and is very price aware. This is still a generation that are loyal to many garden centres and dare one say it, but because of their l... more...

Business » Ask an Expert | By John Stanley @ Wednesday, 10th May 2006 @ 6:12 PM

I doubt if there has been a generation that has more written about it than this generation. The 15 to 25 year olds are changing the way that we think about the consumer and the market. As I produce this article, the chart topping musician in the British pop charts has not produced a record and the Arctic Monkeys, an unknown group eight weeks ago from Sheffield have just announced that there USA tour is over booked, yet they do not have a advertising budget! All this due to a Generation Y ... more...

Business » Ask an Expert | By John Stanley @ Wednesday, 10th May 2006 @ 6:02 PM

All the research says that shopping is an important hobby for women and that men are less involved in the retailing experience, but is this the case and should it be the case? Some retailers understand the male shopper better than others and realize what an opportunity awaits them. I saw some research a few years ago which was carried out by the supermarket industry .They gave a men and women the same shopping list and sent them both shopping. When they reviewed the results, the average m... more...

Business » Ask an Expert | By Clint Pollard @ Thursday, 4th May 2006 @ 1:56 PM

The Internet is much larger than it was ten years ago. It is not as simple to make money on the Internet as is was. I hope you will learn the lesson I am about to reveal to you. It took me a long time to understand it. Let me begin with a little story about how I started and maybe you can see some of yourself in my story. I began working on the Internet over 9 years ago. I saw all the ads about how I could be making thousands of dollars in a very short time. I fell right in, hook, line, a... more...

Business » Ask an Expert | By John Stanley @ Thursday, 4th May 2006 @ 3:12 AM

Your counter should be a profit centre, but how often is it a point where the only thing that takes place is the final transaction? Every customer that visits your garden centre finally ends up at the counter. It’s an excellent opportunity to get that extra sale, but you need a strategy to ensure this takes place. Firstly, stand back and look at your counter. Does it reflect your brand? Does it look professional or is the customer faced with seeing ripped signs and hand written n... more...

Business » Ask an Expert | By John Stanley @ Thursday, 4th May 2006 @ 3:11 AM

Libraries around the world have either changed rapidly over recent years or in many consumers minds have stagnated. What is the role of the library in today’s consumers mind and how does the library meet the needs and wants of today’s consumer? It definitely is a time to think outside the boxes and to come up with fresh ideas to grow the library consumer base. I recently gave a talk in London to a library group and the chairperson summed up the aims of any library, he started his introd... more...

Business » Ask an Expert | By John Stanley @ Thursday, 4th May 2006 @ 3:06 AM

Branding, everyone is doing it and the average consumer is exposed to over 3000 brands a day and that is before they walk into a garden centre. Why brand in the first case and who should be branding. These are key issues facing every retailer and supplier in the world today. Should a garden centre x promote supplier brands, should the retailers brand be more prominent than the suppliers brand or should retailers be moving into private or own brands, these are all issues that face the ind... more...

Business » Ask an Expert | By John Stanley @ Thursday, 4th May 2006 @ 3:01 AM

Retailing is about inspiring people to buy. Theatre displays are about inspiration and magic. Whatever sector of the retail industry you belong to you need to create some excitement to make sure customers want to come back to your store rather than your competitors. Barry Urquhart, the international Retail and Marketing Consultant believes the key is not being better than your competition, the key is being different to your competition. Theatre displays give you the opportunity to dare... more...

Business » Ask an Expert | By John Stanley @ Thursday, 4th May 2006 @ 2:59 AM

Lifestyle retailing is booming, the consumer is cocooning and spending more time at home. One retail sector that should be rejoicing is the independent garden centre, but for many of them this is not the case. To stay in-tune with today’s consumer means being aware of fashion trends and to reinvent your business every four years to provide new concepts and ideas for the consumer. Alas, many traditional, independent garden centres have failed to invest in modern retail technology a... more...

Business » Ask an Expert | By John Stanley @ Thursday, 4th May 2006 @ 2:58 AM

The 25 to 35 year olds are changing how retail business is carried out. Already more money is spent on viral marketing using the web, than on cinema, TV and billboard advertising put together. Fosters in Australia recently launched a new commercial on the web prior to TV and this commercial was downloaded 1.5 million times in the first week alone. Generation X is looking for a new way to be sold to. In their teens, this group were looked on as the ‘slacker’ generation, but they have no... more...

Business » Ask an Expert | By Tony Colon @ Tuesday, 2nd May 2006 @ 7:04 AM

In today’s fierce business climate, healthcare companies are coming under increasing pressure to cut costs to stay competitive. Today, more and more hospitals are closing due to rising costs and several hospitals have had to resort to offering bonds or other debt to try to break even. In addition, malpractice insurance has become increasingly expensive forcing executives to cut down their operations to the bare bones. But what if a CNO, CEO, CFO, CIO or HR could cut costs without actual... more...

Business » Ask an Expert | By Khemal Dole @ Tuesday, 2nd May 2006 @ 1:05 AM

If you are knowledgeable about e-business in general and the way the online market place works, then you may want to consider a career as an internet marketing consultant. Even if you are relatively new to the online world, but have a marketing background to call on, you can actually still become an internet marketing consultant. All it needs is just a little bit of work. But that's true for any career. But to be a consultant you need to make sure your knowledge is varied and is solid. <... more...

Business » Ask an Expert | By Tracey Anne @ Monday, 1st May 2006 @ 2:12 AM

Kids play hard, and sometimes that means they play really loud in the midst of exploring their worlds and role playing with siblings and friends. I know with my kids, if I'm not hearing some degree of noise; [i.e. play], from them, it probably means one of them is not feeling well, or they are coming down with a cold. My world is blessed with two very artistic and rambounous boys; 6 years and 3 years old. With their play and with their singing; [they love to sing Cou... more...