When Is Your Business In Trouble? When There’s No Competition In Your Rear View Mirror

Posted on by Jeff Posted in bad business ideas, business communication — No Comments ↓

good idea jeff from goodbuyguys.comI recently read an interview in on of my favorite trade journals with someone who had started a very successful manufacturing business.  Most of the interview had good insights about starting and maintaining a business, but I was shocked at the founders answer to this question.

When asked about his competition, his response was that “we take pride in not concerning ourselves with it.  The moment we look back, we are no longer leading.”

If you are not willing to look back to see who might be nipping at your heels, then don’t be surprised when you look forward and see someone who you always thought of  as your trailing competition is now eating your lunch.

It’s fine to see yourself as a leader, but that isn’t worth much if no one is following.

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The Subject Is The Subject

Posted on by Jeff Posted in business communication, good business ideas — No Comments ↓

good idea jeff from goodbuyguys.comOr more specifically, the subject line.  As in the subject line of an email.

If you are too busy (or lazy) to put something in the subject line of an email that is going to make me want to read it, then I am probably too busy (or lazy) to read what you have sent to me.

I live and die by email, sending dozens a day and receiving hundreds.  It is our number one way of communicating with customers and suppliers.

Some emails I read right away, some I save for when I am not quite so busy, and some I delete immediately.  Leaving the subject line blank is a sure fire way to end up in the delete pile.

The subject line is your only opportunity to get my attention and it isn’t really to much to ask for you to give me a quick preview of what you have on your mind.

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Are Your Ready To Pay For My Free Shipping?

Posted on by Jeff Posted in bad business ideas, business communication, customer service — No Comments ↓

Free shipping is all the rage in e-commerce these days, and it appears that major online retailers have actually convinced internet shoppers that shipping really is free.

You don’t have to apply much thought to this before it becomes apparent that the cost of shipping has to be rolled into the cost of the product. The merchant would not be able to survive, much less be profitable, if this was not the case. “Free” is, no doubt, the most powerful word in marketing, but there is a catch. A big catch!

Customers ask us every day if we will give them free shipping.  Regrettably, the answer is always “no“.  Here’s why.

Everything we sell is heavy.  A case of gaffers tape almost 40 lbs.  When you place an order online, our shopping cart asks for your zip code, calculates the weight of the shipment, and gets your shipping cost directly from a UPS shipping database.  This cost is added as a separate line item when you complete the purchase transaction.

We ship our products nationwide from North Carolina warehouse.  If you are ordering from Greenville,  SC your shipping cost would be $22.14.  The same order shipped to Phoenix, AZ would have a $48.19  freight cost.  If we offered free shipping, then the customer in Greenville would have to pay more for the product to cover the cost of “free” when we shipped the same case of tape to Arizona.

Following the same logic, the customer in Reno, NV who orders a pair of shoes from Zappos (they are located in Las Vegas) and pays the same price as someone who orders those shoes and has them shipped to Norfolk, VA is paying more for the shoes than is necessary.  That’s because they have to cover  Zappos’ costs when they ship something across the country.

I don’t know when or if the “Free Shipping” craze in e-commerce will fade from fashion, but I do know that it is not free.

Share your observations on free shipping.  We’ll pass them on to our readers.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape & Pro Tapes gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Coast Wire extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.

 

Is Amazon Going Into The Sales Tax Business?

Posted on by Jeff Posted in bad business ideas, business communication — No Comments ↓

good idea jeff for goodbuyguys.comWe love Amazon Prime.  Someone in our office gets something from Amazon every day, and Prime free shipping is a really strong incentive to just get it from Amazon and forget about shopping around for the best price.

I noticed, beginning at the start of this month, that my Amazon purchases were now being charged sales tax, even though they have no physical presence in North Carolina.  We have been pushing back hard against attempts in Congress to force merchants to charge sales tax on purchases from out of state customers and I, for one, was glad that the sales tax bill passed by the Senate has apparently died in the House.

When Amazon charges me tax on a purchase, they take on the responsibility of reporting that tax to North Carolina and forwarding my tax payment on to the state.  It seems like a huge administrative headache and an effort for which Amazon gains nothing.

It suddenly dawned on me that perhaps the reason that Amazon has started charging me (and everybody else) sales tax is because handling the administrative side of collecting and distributing tax payments is a huge business opportunity.

The idea that a small business operating on the internet (that’s us!) would have to track and pay taxes to every taxing authority that charges sales tax would be a nightmare.  Not only does every state charge sales tax, there are lots of local municipalities that tag on their own taxes.  When the tax is collected, it must be at the appropriate rate for that specific location.

A behemoth like Amazon has the capacity to handle this process, for a price, and make sure that everyone gets what was charged to customers under their authority.  It could be a huge moneymaking opportunity for Amazon and they wouldn’t have to offer free shipping.

Maybe they’ll deliver the tax payments by drone.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape & Pro Tape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, LED flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa extension cords,OnStage Stand mic stands,

Why The Internet Hates Miles Davis

Posted on by Jeff Posted in business communication, Pro Sound, web development — No Comments ↓

good idea jeff from goodbuyguys.comMiles Davis, the famous jazz trumpeter, once said “don’t play what’s there, play what’s not there”. That may be great advice for a musician learning to improvise, but it would not have gotten much traction with internet search engines.

When I write an article or blog post about gaffers tape or microphone cables I certainly hope that my writing is something that someone would actually like to read. Regardless, my true intended audience is something known as a robot or a spider. Internet search engines constantly send around these spiders to sample internet content and make notes of what links to what. This is the major source for data to determine what information you are offered when you enter a word or term in a search engine.

Since Miles was famous for playing a piece by completely ignoring what the composer had actually written, what he played would be completely invisible to an internet robot. At this point, robots are indexing text, not sounds, but you can be sure that someone, somewhere is working on a version of spider that can read music and index it for search engines. Its going to be an even tougher challenge to index Miles.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, LED flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa extension cords, OnStage Stand mic stands, and lots of other great products for musicians.

As Concert Industry Continues To “Gray”, Where Will New Techs Come From?

Posted on by Jeff Posted in arts education, business communication, good business ideas — No Comments ↓

good idea jeff from goodbuyguys.comI read a lot of audio, video and special events trade magazines (most of them are free) and I have been struck lately by the apparent age of the technicians that are profiled. The average age of most of these technicians seems to be getting much older, an oberservation that is confirmed by my own real world experience. It seems odd that an industry (concert sound) that was only really invented in the 1970’s is graying so fast. It seemed so exciting back in the early days and the desire of young college students and musicians to be part of something with such great potential seemed insatiable. How quickly things have changed.

For many years, our offices were located in a Main Street (literally) storefront, only a few blocks from a major university campus. Just like April showers, I could count on a steady progression of job seekers (both new gradutates and summer job hunters) looking for some opportunity to be in the entertainment business.

During our last several years at that location (we have since moved to larger quarters) this flow slowed to a trickle. With all the opportunities afforded to bright people to make more money in fewer hours with less physical demands really seemed to take the luster off of an opportunity that seemed so exciting to me and many others only 20 or so years earllier.

If the willingness of a young person to get on the tour bus or behind the wheel of a truck is still the path to real innovation in the concert production industry, then we may be in trouble. Most of the innovations that have been realized today (intelligent lighting, line arrays, etc.) came from the real world experience of hands-on techs.

Without the need to solve problems on the fly (the way so may innovative ideas came into being) then new ideas may really become scares.

Got ideas on this subject? Let me know.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Pro Tapes gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, LED flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa Cables, , OnStage Stand mic stands, and lots of other useful production supplies.

This Education Starts “Over Your Head”, Not “In Your Head”

Posted on by Jeff Posted in arts education, good business ideas, Pro lighting, Pro Sound, Staging — No Comments ↓

good idea jeff from goodbuyguys.comAn article about a new stage rigging inspection program in a trade journal I regularly read featured a grant program that funds rigging inspections for schools.  It is a great idea and something that every drama teacher and school facility manager should apply for.

I was reminded of a project I took on several years ago, while my children were in high school.  The lighting system in the school auditorium was on its last legs and funding for an upgrade was still in the “dream on” stage.

I knew just enough about lighting to think that I could help out, and since my kids were involved in drama, it seemed like a good idea, even though I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

I was able to quickly assess the condition of the lighting system and figure out what needed to be done, but in the process of doing that, I got a real eye opener.

The rigging for the lighting and sound systems, along with the stage curtain rigging was a train wreck.  I couldn’t believe what was being used to hang things over high school students heads.  Bent “S” hooks, dog chain, rope, wire ties…..  It was like taking a trip to the hardware aisle at WalMart.

Not only was almost all of the hardware inadequate for the job, no one had ever removed anything.  Where speakers or lighting fixtures had been replaced, the older hardware had been left in place and more inadequate hardware had simply been added on top.

I was able to remove a lot of the old stuff and upgrade the most serious offenders, but even that didn’t bring things up to spec.  Unfortunately, there was neither money or time to do the job right.

I am happy to report that a year or so later, the school auditorium got a major upgrade including new sound and lighting systems.  The best part of the upgrade, while invisible to students, faculty and staff was that the work was done by certified technicians using the proper hardware and installation techniques.

If your school is lucky enough to qualify for one of the USITT Rigging Inspection Program grants,  you may be shocked at what they find.

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Boeing On Line 1-Tesla Holding On Line 2

Posted on by Jeff Posted in good business ideas — No Comments ↓

good idea jeff from goodbuyguys.comA University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill research team, led by chemist Joseph DeSimone, may have found a solution for the battery problem vexing a couple of the most progressive transportation developments of the last several years.

Both Tesla, the builder of cutting edge electric cars, and Boeing, the maker of the 787 Dreamliner airliner, have faced ongoing challenges with the flammability of the lithium batteries that they use.

In a paper published in the February edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences DeSimone identifies a non-combustible electrolyte that was being studied as a way to prevent grown of marine life on the bottom of ships as a possible replacement for the electrolyte used in lithium batteries that can spontaneously combust at high temperatures.

You can read more about this research by clicking here.

If an alkaline battery is more suitable for your needs, we have the best-Duracell Procells.

 

Duracell In The Cloud? That’s Fine, Unless It Starts Raining D Cells

Posted on by Jeff Posted in Uncategorized — No Comments ↓

battery barney from goodbuyguys.comThe latest company to join the race to store your online data is an unlikely one. Duracell cloud storage for business is taking on Dropbox, Google Drive and other online storage services that will store your data on their servers, for a fee.

Duracell’s service is focused on businesses, and while it is comparatively expensive, it offers some features not offered by competitors.

Unlike other services which charge based on the amount of data that is hosted, the Duracell service is for unlimited storage capacity. In addition, Duracell actually provides you with a physical server, onsite, to host your cloud storage locally, as a redundant backup and local source.

Perhaps the most unique, and potentially appealing aspect of this new service, is the “round the clock” customer service and a combination of local and cloud storage which provides a very high level of redundancy.

Duracell claims that their cloud storage is up to 100 times faster than the competition.

You can learn more about Duracell cloud storage by clicking here.

Need a little less power? Goodbuyguys is your source for Duracell Procell alkaline batteries.

 

You Want A Path To The Top? Here’s A Great Place To Start

Posted on by Jeff Posted in business communication, good business ideas — No Comments ↓

mic stand mic for buybattery.comI get to work with a lot of young people, and it makes my days much more enjoyable.  Between my office and working as a volunteer at the local high school and as an usher at  my church, I am exposed to lots of great kids.

However, one thing that I have noticed that is a real problem is the difficulty they all seem to have with eye contact.  If  there is any sort of a screen present (computer, tablet, smart phone, laptop, whatever) they almost always prefer to watch the screen rather than to look at me.

While I’m the first to admit that I’m not much to look at, I don’t think that these young people realize the potential cost of failing to look at the person who is speaking to them.  If I have a promotion or pay raise, a better assignment, or a little bit of useful knowledge to pass along,  they are much less likely to get their hands on it if they can’t look me in the eye.

Regardless of how much time they spend in some sort of virtual world, the young person who takes the time to  understand the power of looking at someone when they are speaking to them has a very useful skill and, potentially, a strong competitive advantage.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and HB extensioncords and OnStage Stand mic stands.

 

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