Ask an Expert Articles

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...

Business » Ask an Expert | By Tracey Anne @ Friday, 28th April 2006 @ 5:15 PM

If you are going to be using Pop-Unders, Keyword Targeted Pop-Unders, Expired Domain Traffic, AUDIO is OK traffic, there are a few very important tips that will make using the POP method of promotion more effective. You need to be aware of the difference between HITS and GUARANTEED TRAFFIC. And, you need to be aware of the differences between RAW and UNIQUE traffic. HITS - are usually traffic from sites users who didn't "want" to go to your website, they just got tricked or ... more...

Business » Ask an Expert | By Jan Hayner @ Saturday, 22nd April 2006 @ 5:15 AM

Try it; make a list of everything you want to do tomorrow, after you read this article and see how relieved you are going to feel and how relaxed your mind is going to be. When we are constantly thinking ahead of everything that we have to do and hoping that we don't forget anything, our mind becomes clogged up and excess things cause stress. Eight Reasons To Make A List 1. Can help you take control of your time. You know how much time something will take ... more...

Business » Ask an Expert | By Jan Hayner @ Saturday, 22nd April 2006 @ 4:15 AM

The hint to good Paper Management is Organization. Keeping track of paper,information,documents and keeping your files up to date is an enormous project. You don't have to have expensive items to store them in; start off simple and you can add to your organizing techniques as you want to. Try some of these ideas to do things the easy way. 1. Alphabetize items whether you are using the letter or name system. 2. Date materials –when the item ... more...

Business » Ask an Expert | By Patrick McEvoy @ Friday, 21st April 2006 @ 10:21 PM

Fully 95% of my professional service firm (PSF) clients desperately want their web sites to produce high quality business leads but they simply don't know how to make it happen. Most have tried expensive web designers, graphic artists, "geeks" of every type and Google Adwords. In the end . . . the conclusion is almost universally the same, "You can't sell professional services over the internet." To this I say, "BULL!" Successful PSFs have ... more...

Business » Ask an Expert | By Bob Corcoran @ Friday, 21st April 2006 @ 9:57 PM

The poet Guillaume Apollinaire once wrote: "Come to the edge He said. They said: We are afraid. Come to the edge He said. They came. He pushed them, and they flew..." Yes, edges can induce great fear. As a business coach who specializes in helping REALTORS®;, I’ve seen many agents look over that cliff with palpable dread. It’s understandable. Change – even if it’s about improving your career – raises some anxiety-provoking questions: Can I handle it? Do I hav... more...