Archive for October, 2009
My friend and I have an opportunity to generate leads (sales referrals) for an existing brick and mortar business. The company has a successful affiliate and direct sales program that pays $100 per referred sale.
They currently have no Internet representation. My partner and I plan to generate sales from Internet marketing only – no traditional sales.
What is the best way to legally set up the business to protect our interests as a company and my interests personally?
When you say "protect our interests as a company," do you mean the company you are referring people to or the one you plan to form with your friend?
It really depends if you are employees of the brick and mortar business. If you aren’t, you could set up a limited liability company (LLC) and have the brick and mortar business pay your company (the LLC) for the referrals. You and your partner would then file the appropriate tax forms for your partnership.
My friend and I have an opportunity to generate leads (sales referrals) for an existing brick and mortar business. The company has a successful affiliate and direct sales program that pays $100 per referred sale.
They currently have no Internet representation. My partner and I plan to generate sales from Internet marketing only – no traditional sales.
What is the best way to legally set up the business to protect our interests as a company and my interests personally?
When you say "protect our interests as a company," do you mean the company you are referring people to or the one you plan to form with your friend?
It really depends if you are employees of the brick and mortar business. If you aren’t, you could set up a limited liability company (LLC) and have the brick and mortar business pay your company (the LLC) for the referrals. You and your partner would then file the appropriate tax forms for your partnership.
I have been looking for a good software program to keep track of my sales, track commissions paid to me and my employees, etc. Does anyone out there know of a good program that can do this AND interact with my Access database?
You need accounting software like Quickbooks. I’m not sure if it will interact with Access. Talk to a Quicken rep.
I have been looking for a good software program to keep track of my sales, track commissions paid to me and my employees, etc. Does anyone out there know of a good program that can do this AND interact with my Access database?
You need accounting software like Quickbooks. I’m not sure if it will interact with Access. Talk to a Quicken rep.
Narrow the problem, determine what is holding back sales. Awareness studies will tell you if the advertising is getting noticed. If your advertising objective is to increase sales, then perhaps the execution is too brand oriented. Offer discounts and convert the advertising to price-and-item to increase sales in the short run.
Look at your distribution. Do you have adequate market penetration to support the advertising? (If you are not in the stores, no advertising can create sales.).
Look at your price relative to competition. Is it too high?
Is your sale problem due to too few people trying the product, or are you not getting repeat purchases? Advertising can help with trial, it can’t help make people buy again if they don’t like it.
The sales problem might not be related to advertising at all. Re-consider all of the four Ps: Product, Price, Place, Promotion. If you determine that it is the advertising, then determine whether its the message or the media. Do the ads give the consumer enough reason to act, or is the problem with the media selection: wrong target, wrong timing, Reach vs Frequency, wrong geography etc.
A big advertising budget cannot increase sales when there are problems elsewhere. Do research to find out what the problem is, then fix it.
Narrow the problem, determine what is holding back sales. Awareness studies will tell you if the advertising is getting noticed. If your advertising objective is to increase sales, then perhaps the execution is too brand oriented. Offer discounts and convert the advertising to price-and-item to increase sales in the short run.
Look at your distribution. Do you have adequate market penetration to support the advertising? (If you are not in the stores, no advertising can create sales.).
Look at your price relative to competition. Is it too high?
Is your sale problem due to too few people trying the product, or are you not getting repeat purchases? Advertising can help with trial, it can’t help make people buy again if they don’t like it.
The sales problem might not be related to advertising at all. Re-consider all of the four Ps: Product, Price, Place, Promotion. If you determine that it is the advertising, then determine whether its the message or the media. Do the ads give the consumer enough reason to act, or is the problem with the media selection: wrong target, wrong timing, Reach vs Frequency, wrong geography etc.
A big advertising budget cannot increase sales when there are problems elsewhere. Do research to find out what the problem is, then fix it.
I wondering what some good justifications or reasons of how I could sell or encourage a client/car dealership to switch from buying ad space from strictly local TV to moving them to just cable? What would be the strongest benefits that I could use in trying to sell the switch to cable? Thank you to anyone for feedback!
Ehh. I am a professional but given the ratings that cable just received (showing that less people are watching TV) isn’t great news for those in our line of work.
I’d work the "your opening your business up to a bigger audience" line. Also, you should be able to get collateral from the cable company itself with this type of info that you can simply piggy back off of.
I wondering what some good justifications or reasons of how I could sell or encourage a client/car dealership to switch from buying ad space from strictly local TV to moving them to just cable? What would be the strongest benefits that I could use in trying to sell the switch to cable? Thank you to anyone for feedback!
Ehh. I am a professional but given the ratings that cable just received (showing that less people are watching TV) isn’t great news for those in our line of work.
I’d work the "your opening your business up to a bigger audience" line. Also, you should be able to get collateral from the cable company itself with this type of info that you can simply piggy back off of.
With the rapid developments in the internet usage several option of using the internet has also opened. The internet these days is often used for varied purposes like the online shopping. The online shopping is one of the most convenient method of shopping these days. This is one of the least time consuming mode of shopping. There are several advantages of online shopping also. As for example among the several advantages of online shopping is that there always remains the option to compare the p
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