With the increase in the cost and regulatory rules imposed by many states, big shots of manufacturing companies are looking for ways to reduce the cost. And for these big shots, Mexico turned out to be a preferred area for setting up their operations.

Particularly, Shelter manufacturing in Mexico started getting better and better. Shelter manufacturing is more a kind of maquiladora program where factories import raw materials with free of duty and there is no tariff fee for assembling and re-exporting the assembled product to the same country where it was manufactured.

In other words, shelter manufacturing means tying up with a Mexican based company which provides labor workforce tasks for the manufacturing in Mexico.

Though there are more methods of implementing their business, most of the Mexican manufacturers preferred this method because this method proved to be low cost for labor facilities. The labor workforce in Mexico is very stable and reliable. Unlike other developed countries that have a high ratio of highly skilled engineers, Mexico has a good ratio of core labor workers. The job opportunity for people in Mexico was also scarce. So, this made it easy for foreign firm to invest more on labor work force in Mexico. This method is also called as ‘twin-plant’.

Intensive or core manufacturing lies in place while other labor intensive part of manufacturing is moved to Mexico. For example, take the case of motor manufacturing in Mexico. Here, all the core part manufacturing takes place in U.S or nearby countries. But, the part which involves more labor, like testing each spare part, packaging, painting, etc are moved to Mexico Manufacturing Plant. Manufacturers in Mexico saved as much as 50% of the labor cost which they were spending earlier.

After the core manufactured product is shipped to Mexico, the ownership of the product doesn’t change. Mexico manufacturers just add a part to the manufacturing. The firm which involves in shelter manufacturing continues to remain the owner of the product. This applies to every tool, equipments and work force involved in the manufacturing.

Mexico manufacturers have another difficulty in this shelter manufacturing which is to transport the goods back and forth. Mexico manufacturers are wholly responsible for pickup and delivery along with the import and export charges. U.S and Mexico has better understanding in transportation policies and the duties and regulations are bit relaxed between these countries.

However, manufacturers in Mexico who have tie ups with other countries than U.S would consider this transportation of goods as a major factor in deciding the product price. Despite these difficulties, shelter manufacturing in Mexico is still cheap compare to other countries.

If we would recall, Google had indeed make its intention clear that it is looking for businesses to buy, perhaps even big ones ! Indeed, Admob.com is frequently look upon as the fore-funner in mobile ads market (If it is still fresh in your mind, back in September when CEO Eric Schmidt said the company had begun seriously looking at acquisitions again ).

While earlier this month, rumors are running that Apple may possibly look at acquiring Admob, it didn’t turn out to be fact. As there was no clear strategic reason for Apple to move into intense ads market ( at least what we see for now ). So far, Apple strategy has been in higher profit sectors, especially with it’s ‘selling like Super Hotcake‘  iPhone, and of course, the iPhone Apps store.

Although some might point out that not all sectors that Apple moved into are able to enjoy high profit margin, but not forgetting that these lower margin are more as add-on to those much successful ( and of course, higher margin ) products like iPhone, iPod, and Mac sales.

Nevertheless, if we were to take a deeper look on Admob’s corporate earning, it has actually been able to ride on booming mobile market, and since the iPhone Phenomena, Admob has been recording impressive growth in mobile ads serving thru iPhone apps. From ~130 million of mobile ads served during  September 2008, it booms and received whooping 2.6 billion ad requests from iPhone and iPod touch devices in September this year ! As the business cycle move on, this could actually helps on iPhones sales ( the more developers turning into developing those nice iPhones Apps, it just keeps advertise for itself isn’t it ?! )

Some might argue that with Google acquiring Admob, Apple has actually missed out a gem. With Google already nominating the Web Ads market, now having both DoubleClick Mobile and Admob, it is possibly a very strategic business move as it is riding into Apple’s iPhone success. While taking it face-to-face with Google’s Phone, which with it’s own Andriod OS, Google is now being able to further consolidate it’s power and look set to dominate the Mobile Ads market too !  Although Google Phone is still much a ’small kid’ compare to current Apple’s iPhone, but we’ll never know just how big and how far it can goes isn’t it ?!

With much to says, what about mobile ads publishers and other smaller mobile ads networks ? Well, the belief is that mobile publishers will be cheering all the way to the bank, again ! as Google Adsense has been gold pot to them all these years. Surely, with Google coming into bigger play in mobile ads markets, publishers are set to make even more.

But does this also turn out to be a good news to other smaller mobile ads network ? As analyzed by Google itself ( http://www.google.com/press/admob/comp.html , source by eMarketer), there are several players in Apps/Web sector, Admob being the Leader, with Jumptap, Mojiva, Quattro Wireless trailing behind. One of the noticeable network is Mojiva.com ( a rather younger company compare to Admob ), but has been reportedly performing good , and been able to secure few rounds of venture funding.

With Google coming into bigger play, it does looks like tougher challenge ahead, for the smaller mobile ads network. Or just probably, they could twist their strategy to tack on with Google/Admob, and offer some alternative solutions to publishers, and advertisers.

Well… as we speak, the world is riding out current economy downturn, and who will know what’s next isn’t it ?! One thing just for sure – Companies need to continuously strive for the better, not only for survival !

To sell your business successfully, there are skills that you need to master, and effective advertising too !

You need to create an advertising that only targeting the people who really serious to buy the business from you. You don’t need any time wasters that call you because they interested for your business, but have no money to buy it. The “teasing strategy” where you give as little information as possible to the buyers will not be effective in selling your business. You need to give as much information as possible to potential buyers so they could see directly what happens in your business.

Here are some tips that you could use to get potential buyers:

1. Price – You need to decide your price carefully. If you put it too low, you probably don’t make enough profits from it. But, if you pricing it too high, the business will take ages to be sold and make people wonder that there is something wrong with your business that makes it not selling.

2. Maintenance – If you are selling an offline business where it has a shop or so, buyers will want to look at it before they decide to buy it. This is the moment where you must show that your establishment is maintained properly. You need to clean up your shop before you sell it and fixing some exposed wires if you want the buyers to purchase it with the price that you give.

3. Information – One of the best ways to ensure the success of selling your business is by keeping all information related to it at hand. Your buyer will want to see the all documents regarding the business and more importantly how much profits that they could get from it. You could reveal the important information to him as long as you make him to sign up the Non-Disclosure Agreement before you show it.

4. Purchase Agreement – You need to keep this document ready just in case your buyer is satisfied with the business and they want to purchase it right away. Show your seriousness by not making him wait to buy it. You and your buyer could modify the document after you signed it.

5. Advertising – You need to take the advertising aspect seriously because it will find the right person to purchase your business. You need to do the advertising until you get the check at hand and not stop doing it before that. This is the mistake that often made by the seller. They put advertising in the newspaper for a week, and when no one makes a call, they stop it. You need to get the word out. Show the people that you want to sell your business. You could do it by putting ads in newspaper, internet, makes pamphlets, and so on.

6. Buyer Requirements – You need to have your own buyer requirements before you start advertising because until you advertise it, you will be swamped with offers. Most of the offers usually not made seriously. Check your buyer’s background first before you allow them to see the information about your business. It’s to make sure that they could afford to buy your business and not just waste your time.

7. Transfer – If you have a leased promise for the restaurant, you need to contact the lessor and ask them whether it could be transferred to the new buyer. This probably require you to sign some papers, but as long as it’s good with the lessor, you’re could start advertising right away.

8. Agreements – You need to put every words or promises into writing when you sell the business. By putting all of them in writing, you’ll avoid any problems that may come from the misunderstanding between you and your buyer. Don’t forget to consult any agreements with experts in that area, and ask helps to do it if you can’t do it yourself.

9. Initial Deposit – It’s a wise move if you ask your buyer to give the initial deposit first. This will show you that the buyer is really serious in purchasing your business. The money could be held by an escrow and won’t be released until everything is done.

If you armed yourself with the knowledge of selling a business, you’ll find out that it could help you to sell your business faster. It’s very advisable to consult your business with experts to figure out the pricing, agreements, or notes that you should prepared.

There are so many opportunities and benefits that you could find when you’re opening a retails store. For your customers, they could get some of the basic needs in one place, and some others enjoying the fast transaction in the retail store. The retail store owner could put different type of products in it, and let the customers find their own way to get it. Also, the products that will be stored in this retails store will be the basic needs of customers and thus will make them come back again to purchase some more.

Most of the retail store buy the products in bulk or wholesale price and the resell it to their customers in a slightly higher retail price. The price that will be charged into the products will be covering the retailers’ expenses and a spread that will be considered as gross profit. Because of the wide choice of products and price, the retailers could play with their price and see the customers’ reaction with it.

Every retails store start the business in a simple concept, they buy the products in bulk price, and sell it in the retails price. In US itself, you could find out several types of retails store such as discount chains, large department stores, independent stores, membership clubs, convenience stores, regional and national chains, and so on. Each of these types of retail store serving different customers need.

For some retail store owners, the store location is the most important thing that they need to find. The strategic location will get more customers. The customers that already shopped in there will tell their friends and family about the new retail store, and you could get more customers from it. As usual, word of mouth is the perfect advertising. You could also start advertising your new retail store by print the pamphlets or advertise it online in the internet. You need to utilize the advertising option to get maximum exposure. Another way you can do is by mimicking a successful retail store display. These successful stores already do trial and error to get their customers, and you could learn from them.

While some of the retail store serving general public for personal use of their products, the retails store could also serving some business. These businesses might need a huge supply of stationery, computer service, or home improvement stores.

There are many types of retail store that you could choose; some of them are retail store that focusing on selling consumable products for their customers, and some others selling the products that people want. The second type of retail store usually focusing more to build their brands and creating unique products from their competitors. Any retail store that has the ability to maximize the use of ecommerce into their business will make their business more powerful.

To start your own retail store business, you could do some research first. Figure out what type of retail store that people want, and build your retail store based on it. You also need to consider the retail store location, your wholesaler, products, and customer services carefully.

The biggest mistake that ever been made by internet marketer is lack of business plan. As soon as they have an idea, they execute it directly without doing any research for it or creating a business plan that will help them to make their dream comes true. There is a fierce competition on the internet. Every single business in there trying to get as many customers as they can. So what is your plan? How could you beat those competitors and make the customers come to your website instead?

Business plan will be playing an important part in building your internet business strategy for penetrating the market. This business plan will guide you through the business, and make sure you’ll stay on the right track. After you develop your business plan, you could move on to creating a marketing plan. This plan will help you in gaining more customers.

Here are some of the things that you should consider while you’re building your marketing plan:

1. Target Market – Who’s your target market? Who will buy your products or services? How do you make your offers more interesting than others? This is where you identified your target market. Pick your target market carefully, because the pricing of your products will be adjusted to that market.

2. Competitors – Have you ever saw your competitors product before? Have you ever tried them? You need to find some of your top competitors and learn about their products, their marketing strategy, customer services and so on. This is to make sure that you offer the better services and products for your customers.

3. Advertising – There are so many advertising methods that you could do online. Each of them targeting different market from different age. You need to set your advertising so it can reach your target market. Figure out where to spotted on your target market, and put your advertising in there.

4. Pricing – It’s better for you to avoid any price war with your competitors. When you do the price war, the price of your own products will be dropped and left you with no profits to take. Try to compete in the additional products or services and customer services instead. If you’re still insist to do the price war, make sure your products or services are better than your competitors.

5. Shipping Method – Consider how you will ship the products, determine the shipping and handling costs, and put the numbers in your website. You could increase the sales by selling to other countries if you like, just don’t forget to count the numbers once again. If you could, provide insurance so people will feel more secure by ordering from you.

6. Payment Method – What payment method that you’ll accept from your customers? Are they credit cards, checks, PayPal, Google Checkout, or wire transfers? You have to be able to receive as many payment methods as you can. There are several payment processors out there that will guarantee the safety of transactions. Pick the one that you like, and link it to your website.

Those are several things that you need to consider when you creating your marketing plan. When you planned something ahead, you’ll figure out that it’s much better to follow it than thinking about it every time you need any marketing ideas.

If you like children and happens to open a business related to children, you probably want to add some additional services like children fitness and preschool exercise program. Preschool exercise is almost as important as other programs for children. However, many daycare, schools, or preschools are not aware of this. Some people think that preschool exercise is not important because the preschoolers don’t need any exercise regularly. What they tend to forget is children are human too, and they need to build a good habit of exercising to get healthy.

For some schools, P.E. or physical education comes in many forms, such as basketball, softball, baseball, or dodge ball. Most of the physical educations in the school are sports related. You could also organize a program for preschool where they could exercise by doing some fun activities with their friends.

For the preschool fitness program in your children business, you could add some activities that designed for kids such as aerobic, dances, or gymnastic. To enhance the experience you could also make some sort of DVD for parents to help the exercising their kids at home, some manuals, newsletters, and so on.

If you don’t have any skills or time in teaching the preschool exercise, you could do some agreements with other preschool business to teach your classes while you provide them with the materials and supplies needed. You could also give the instructor the curriculum that you designed especially for the preschool exercise.

For children, there are so many benefits they could get by enroll to this preschool exercise. They could learn the right way to do the warming up, cooling down, or muscle stretching without injured themselves. Preschool exercise also useful in developing a healthy habit by teaches them to exercise regularly and eating healthy foods.

You could expand the preschool exercise program by promoting the home exercise. You visited the children’s house and teach them the exercise. The preschoolers could fight their obesity with this program, and hopefully get more energy and increasing their learning ability.

If you feel that creating a program for preschool exercise is not one of your best abilities, you could purchase an already made program like franchise. By buying a franchise for preschool exercise, you already have a business with a good reputation and ready to start right away. Mostly, you don’t need to do the promotion yourself because when the franchise holder promoting their products on the media, they will also mention to the customers to visited their nearest branch, which would be you.

Use the preschool exercise program to broaden your business service and teaching the kids at the same time. You could bring many positive influences among your neighborhood by bringing the program to your house!

Franchising is a method where two parties agree to do the business with contractual provisions. The condition would be one party has the idea of business, and the second party will run the business and pays the first party for the name and reputation.

The benefit of franchising is you could start right away by building a business that is already known by the community. You don’t have to build your own name from scratch because you could pay for other people name and reputation for your business.

Having a franchise could also profitable when you buy the materials needed to start running the business. You could get special discount that’s available for the franchise holder only. It’s because the franchise buyer will be buy the material in bulk which resulting in a huge discount too. Also, if you could find cheaper materials, you’ll have no problem competing with other business.

In franchising, the percentage of profits usually higher. It’s because the money that you’ll need to invest is higher than the revenue.

Building a franchise business, especially the ones that already proven for its system could make you expanding the business further. This is usually happen when the franchise that you bought also offering the education for the holder that can prepare them to understanding and run the business system.

Here are several tips that you could consider when you want to get in into franchise business:

1. Ask lots of questions. It’s better for you to save than sorry. You need to know about the franchise inside out before you decide to buy it. Try to attend some seminars or workshops about franchising and make a network in there. Having a network will make sure you get the right answer from the right person.

2. Get some advices. While you’re in the workshops, get as many advice as you can from people who already have experiences in franchising industry. Again, networking is very important in here.

3. Beware of scams. There are so many scams out there that covered up as a franchise business. You need to do some research carefully and figure out whether the company is already proven in building a franchise business or if it’s just a scam.

Entering franchise business will allow you to find many good opportunities. However, it doesn’t mean that it’ll come without any costs. You have to be a discipline and dedicated person to make your franchise business successful.

The key to get the best franchising opportunity is by looking at the market that you want to enter. For example, if you want to enter the foods related market; you need to figure out unique foods that you could serve to your customers. If you have no idea, browse some from the internet, and look for several food franchises before you pick the right one.

Buying invoices, these usually called Factoring, will buying invoices from other company in a discount price, and take the responsibility to collecting the due payments. Using this process, both companies will reap good benefits. The company who has invoices could get necessary funding, and the invoice buyer could make nice profits from it.

So, how this works actually? Get ready for a little lovemoney.com financial talk now, to make things clearer. Well, the invoices that are due are required to pay fees starting from 1.67% of the total amount for every ten days since the last payment term. So, when you have an invoice that is due in 30 days, the invoice buyer could buy it from you and ask 5% discount from it. This 5% will be their profits when they get back their investment. The amount of fees will be depends on the creditworthiness of your debtor, and not you. So, the company who has a good reputation in paying their debts on time will give you a better deal than a company without a strong credit.

Usually, the company that will buy invoice from you will limit the amount of total invoices that you have not more than $100,000. They don’t have any minimum. So, if you have, for example, $200,000 invoices at hand, it doesn’t mean that you can’t sell them. They could still take your invoices by paying you several thousand dollars upfront, and pay the entire amount after they collected it.

Buying invoices or Invoice Factoring will make at least three parties involved. The first is you, the invoice seller. Second is the company who owes you money, and third is the invoice buyer. The third parties could be separated funder or broker, individual, or company. The broker will have the tasks to arrange the agreements and facilitating your receipt. The funder is the person who actually has the money to buy invoices. So, the broker who doesn’t have any money involved will arrange the agreement and the invoice buyer who has the money will pay you for the invoices.

The funder who buy your invoices usually get a higher share because they use their own money while the broker will get a smaller share at least 10% of it because they arrange the agreement.

If you ever dealing with a buyer invoice, you need to build a very good relationship with them. Because when you found yourself facing a financial problem in your business and need a fast cash to fix it, you could contact them and offering your invoices. These people prefer to dealing with companies that they already worked and successful from than other new companies that contacting them. They also would offer you a favorable terms for it.

The companies or individual who buy invoices usually have lots of money at hand. You could find a lot more invoice buyers overseas, especially from cash rich companies in Middle East as the economy is fast expanding over there with rich natural resources.

This integration requires the common database and some hardware and software components. There are usually several things that been included in ERP systems, such as financial, manufacturing, human resource function, and also sales and department. These things often separated in different modules that could be tied up in one big system.

The benefits of ERP for each module are:
- Creating a single unified database that could be accessible by people who already had a granted accessed
- Having one simple user interface to dealing with all modules, thus minimizing the confusion and learning curve
- Standardization for all modules and database that leads to minimum maintenance costs and maximum understanding for each user.

Some of the modules that being included in this ERP system have their own properties, and it will and taking care of different aspects in the enterprises. Below are lists of the properties that being taken care of for each module :-

1. Manufacturing

Dealing with all things related to manufacturing process, starting form the production schedule, engineering, material lists, workflow, process management, cost control, and quality control.

2. Supply Chain Management

This module mostly dealing with supply chain planning, supplier monitoring, supplier data storage, purchasing function, and so on.

3. Customer Relationship Management

This module taking care of all aspects that related to customer like customer supports, sales and distribution, after-sale follow up, and so on. This is one of the most important part in your business. If you have a poor support system, people don’t want to buy anything from you anymore.

4. Financial

Just like the name implies, it will taken care of all business issues related to financial. Some of them are cash flow management, cash flow control, accounts payment and receive, etc.

5. Human Resource

This module mostly dealing with payroll and the people that working in the enterprises. It is important to realize that Human Resource and Payroll System are to be working seamlessly with other financial modules.

Those are the most common modules that you could find in the ERP system. There could be a lot more modules like project management or data warehouse, but it’s not really essentials. This system could also be used to providing interface for the business owners and the customers. If you decide to use the ERP system for the first time, you need to realize that the costs of it will be a bit expensive, especially if you’ve never have any system to begin with.

However, this problem could be easily solved by mimicking the ERP system that already adopted by other successful enterprises. By doing this, you’re not only having a guaranteed success with your ERP system, but also increasing your profits at the same time. Before you installed any of this ERP system, make sure you already have a support system who can answer all of the questions regarding the using of ERP system. If you don’t want to answer the questions yourself, better to get some people who already have the experience in that field to take care of that for you.

As part of the financial transformation effort, the US House of Representatives is looking at how to best ‘govern’ this particular financial investment tool. However, because of the nature of how this financial sector operate, entrusting the supervision task to both the Securities Trading Commission (SEC) and Commodity Future Transaction Commission (CFTM) , through establishing an committee to handle disputes, could be tricky in implementation.

In the proposed plan, one of the possible workout in supervising the Credit Default Swap ( CDS ) is thru forbidding the so-called “non-entity CDS”, yet another plan is to have those market players to disclose their involvement and exposure, and cash flow position, which is more towards self-governing. In the draft, eventually US Trading in those credit derivatives sector would then be processed by a clearing house instead.

Either each, the reformation efforts look like it’s a bumpy route ahead. Nevertheless, with the positive sign on early recovery, with big enterprise posting positive result, it looks like the market is heading for the better.

During the sell off of Microsoft shares on last Friday, 24th July 2009, investors were looking pessimistically toward it. In fact, with the latest profit result released by the software giant, it looks like Microsoft , the most powerful profit software engine just couldn’t gets on it motor amid current economy situation.
It has been investors’ great concern pertaining to the software giant technology business which is facing very stiff competition and fast losing its shine, in particular when facing with the other 2 gigantic competitors, Apple and Google . With the release of latest corporate result, investors selling off its share has caused Microsoft stocks to fall stiffly of nearly 9% , which eventually lead to 20 billions US Dollars being evaporated off the market.

If we were to look at it further, the contributing reasons that causes Microsoft’s revenue falling to a low point in the second quarter this year, could be due to following these factors :-

Current economy crisis

Nobody could deny that current crisis has major negative impact on business everywhere. With the  relatively low level of  revenue coming from business sector, it shows that the majority of enterprises are delaying their IT expenses, which cost Microsoft stiffly.

Product Life Cycle

It has been obvious that the issue of Microsoft’s product life cycle has seriously lagging behind, while its competitors are launching more and newer innovative products rapidly. Just look at Apple’s IPhone, Google’s Chrome ( and it’s coming Chrome OS ). Competitors has been rapid in introducing new or improved product’s line, while the software giant has been seriously lagging for years.

Market Shift

Inevitably, markets are moving, including the technology sector, toward other low cost countries. Those high cost of PC-based software that has traditionally been MicroSoft main profit engine, is starting to loss out comparing to other low cost emerging markets.

With the growing crowded and continuous inflow of of low-cost mainstream computers company , the sales projection of Microsoft’s Windows 7 is not looking bright indeed.

Certainly, with such shining profit report, Goldman Sachs undoubtedly stand as current Leader on Wall Street. But dn’t you ever forget that the public has indeed paid a high price earlier on, in government’s effort to maintain Goldman Sachs operations, as well as its counterparts, during the rescue operation.

Comparing to other financial institutions, Goldman Sachs indeed had a much smaller loss. With it’s sharp sense and correct timing ( and guts ! ), Goldman Sachs is still prepared to continue with it’s deployment of what other considered as riskier investment moves, which even venture capitals and other banks had fear to look into.

According to Goldman Sachs, it said that most of its profits are not from the it’s clients account transactions, or betting with their money. Rather, it earns most from its activities as a broker in other fields like currency, bond, equity, and commodity market. These market sectors are mostly unprofitable in good time, but with weak economy situation, these sectors has surprisingly become the main profit generators !

Also, as the competition in the industry has somehow decreased to certain extend, financial institutes that still has the muscle would then be able to deal with those Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage securities issued, for a god profit margin of 10-15 times. Surely, as a trading institution, Goldman Sachs would of course quick ( and gladly so ), to seize this opportunity from other financial institutions whom are now much weaker and unable to move quickly and effectively, like the now faltering Citigroup and UBS . At the same time, Goldman Sachs long time main rival Morgan Stanley is also unable to move on for expansion, which Goldman Sachs would gladly see so, and continue to grab those opportunities which previously had to fight for

With such shining profit report card, Goldman Sachs has boldly came up with 11.4 billion U.S. dollars for compensation and benefits packages ! This sum is shockingly more than the amount before the turbulent first half of 2007 !

Had it forgotten ? If there were no Government-provided capital which took from the public, debt guarantees and rapid changes in the approval for the commercial banks, it was almost unsustainable. Now, it appear to such shameless move by Goldman Sachs to even dare to propose huge payout packages for its staffs.

Is the current economy situation really bottoming out ? Are we seeing real economy bounce yet ? For Goldman Sachs to make such huge payout package… … This is really, truly outrageous !

Hey, DON’T Burn Our hard earned MONEY with your luxurious sport cars !