| Business Consultant Calls for a New Business Model
Business consultant Lewis Green's fifth book was just released by HRD Press, Inc. Called Lead With Your Heart, the book calls for businesses to adopt a model that will result in business success as well as create a better world in which to do business, to work and to live. .
Statesville businesses unaffected by Black Friday
If black is the hued metaphor for excellent in the retail business, merchants in downtown Statesville could probably say they had a sort of grey Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. "We never have that big Black Friday crowd," said Gloria Hagar, owner of Frame Gallery and Gifts on Broad Street. "We have the steady, nice crowd." At West Fine Musical Instruments, Harry West said the time of year has very little impact on his business. "This business is not as seasonal as you'd think," West said. "Usually when people get serious about the purchase of good instrument, the time doesn't matter much." West said his business does see a small increase during the yule-tide season. "If Santa hears you playing well," he said jokingly, "He has been known to bring you something special.
Small businesses can chop through the forest of credit card fees
Small businesses accept payment cards because it's easy for their customers. But with fees tacked on by as many as 12 intermediaries – from the equipment provider to the card issuers themselves – payment processing is often the third- or fourth-highest expense for a small business. "Small merchants are eaten alive by all the middlemen," says Bob Carr, chief executive of Heartland Payment Systems Inc., a large payment processor based in Princeton, N.J. It's a burden most accept, partly because nearly 60 percent of consumers ages 18 to 25 use cards as their primary payment method, according to Visa USA Inc. Still, many business owners feel overwhelmed by the complexity of the fees and the bills that list them. MasterCard and Visa have a forest of rate categories: MasterCard says it has about 170, Visa fewer than 100.
South Africa: Soccerex Extends its Benefits in Soweto
A sports complex will be built in Soweto as one of the legacy projects associated with hosting the business-to-business soccer convention, Soccerex. Making the announcement at the Sandton Convention Centre, the venue for the four-day event, on Wednesday, Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa said that the organisers of Soccerex had made a commitment to set up a sports centre in Mapetla. .
Editor's Journal Part 1: Brilliant Retailing
To say that British convenience store retailers are far more advanced than their U.S. counterparts in foodservice and operations would be inaccurate. However, when it comes to merchandising grab-and-go sandwiches and take-home meals, they are way ahead of most North American c-store chains. They also do what one Londoner termed "a brilliant job of communicating their efforts to sell locally grown product and tout their eco-friendly business practices." I had the opportunity to see this firsthand during the 2007 Future of International Convenience Retailing study tour and conference, produced by U.K.-based Insight Conferences in association with NACS. In addition to presentations from a spectrum of c-store executives from across the globe, the event included two tours to notable British c-store retailers from the West Midlands to London.
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