Accounting concepts

For business you can never ignore the importance of accounting. The two major asset types are tangible and intangible, using your accounts ledger to conduct accounting for business can help you record all of those assets, breaking it down further into fixed and current assets. Tangible are those which are perceptible by touch such as inventories under current and buildings and with equipment recorded under fixed. Intangible asset covers non-physical – like excellent service standards, reputation, copyrights, patents etc.

Partnership liabilities and capital

The importance of accounting helps you to be protective about your companys asset as matter of pride. In partnership liabilities and joint tenancy agreements there are great chances of losing out if accounts ledgers are not accurate. Bonds, stock values and shares act as financial accounting support, with accounting concepts using cash spreadsheets to avoid problematic situations as further support and evidence of the assetwhich should be supported with documentary evidence.

Fnancial accounting can correctly identify an asset or assets are in no way controlled by legal enforcement but are said to be the sum of liabilities and capital in an accounts ledger book as well as balance sheet. The Accounting Standards Board state an asset can be termed as a resource for future economic benefit of any company and you should disclose all liabilities and capital as such.

Current assets are those which you will convert into money in one fiscal year. They include tax and its equivalents, receivable, inventory, prepaid expenses which should all be recorded on bank or cash spreadsheets. Long-term investment includes securities, special funds etc.

Challenging yourself and ensuring you keep track of acounting for business now can help you with varying accounting concepts and will assist you in future should you expand your business and your assets. If you consider that company websites can be classed as an intangible asset so can be recorded on an account ledger in addition to other things that you see as an asset and this applies to those things you see helping to raise your business profile. Bank and cash spreadsheets record the amount expended on the assets of your company which can yield money and add value to your business, can always add charm and new dimensions to your company.

Asset management is a difficult job and keeping track of your income and outgoings on cash spreadsheets and ideally a good accounts ledger may be the sole accounting job done by your accountant, however should your company income eventually stretch, you may decide to hire someone to take care of the accounting for business such as partnership liabilites and capital internally! Purchasing an asset has a strong effect on liquidity since the asset tends to use immediate cash resources while financial benefits may be spread over future years. This can cause difficulties in regard to partnership liabilities as friends and business partners do fall out and may disagree in the future.

Sugarcane contained a sweet tasting liquid and could be use in the preparation of food. Sugar cane found in the tropical and semi-tropical regions of the world where it can grow up to five meters in height. The tropics provide the ideal conditions for sugar cane growth. The hot sunny days combined with heavy seasonal rainfall result in the humid conditions that allow sugar cane to thrive.1 Sugarcane is an important cash crop of Pakistan. It is mainly grow for sugar and sugary production. It is an important source of income and employment for the farming community of the country. It also forms essential item for industries like sugar, chipboard, paper, barrages, confectionery, and uses in chemicals, plastics, paints, synthetics, fiber, insecticides, and detergents. Sugarcane production in the country has increased over time. In 1988, the area under sugarcane was 841.6(000) hectares, which increased to 1155.5(000) hectares in 1998-9 and sugarcane production increased for 33028.8 (000) tons in 1988 to 47244.1 (000) tons in 2004-05. Despite expansion in production over years, increase in the productivity per unit of area has been very low in Pakistan. The average sugarcane production in the country required static between 45-50 tons/hectares, which is very much low compared to the cane production by other countries. The average yield of sugarcane in the world is around 60 metric tons/ha, while India getting around 66 tons/hac and Egypt getting around 105 tons/hac, respectively. In this way, Egypt with highest cane yield in the world is getting about 12-14 percent high-yield than Pakistan. India with almost similar soil and climatic conditions is obtaining about 53 per cent higher cane yield than Pakistan. As it is one of the cash crops of the country, therefore, efforts should make to improve its productivity. Because of these efforts, substantial improvement can take place in its yield. Improved seed production, quality control, and distribution depend largely upon the availability of skilled and competent local manpower, which presented in insufficient in most developing countries.

2. Sugar Industry in Pakistan:

On national level, with 71 sugar mills in operations average sugarcane crushing fared at 452,137 ton per unit, a dip of 26.46% i.e., about one third Sugar production on average per mills fared at 41.156 ton decline being 26.90% Average sugarcane processing and sugar mills in Punjab fared better when compared with the averages on national level, as Sindh fared the worst on this count.

In Sindh, 28 sugar mills processed at 7,915,416 ton of sugarcane giving average crushing per mills sharply down to 282,693 tons, a drop by 39% Sugar production per mills. Declined to 26,945 tons, a drop by 38.22% at such a low level of working, hardly any unit can fare by economic viability.

In the Punjab having 38 mills functioning sugarcane crushing per unit went down by 20.38% to 599.390 ton. Sugar production on average a mills declined to 53,858 tons, representing a fall of 21.28% though the working was better than Sindh but not to a scale ensuring of a good going.

In NWF five mills processed in aggregate of 281.89 ton of sugarcane a drop of 31.77% Sugar production per mills reduced to 24,207 ton decline being 31.33%. Sugarcane is the second largest non-food crop after cotton and ranks fifth in respect of acreage. Prolonged drought and heat stress decreased its production by 22 per cent in 2003-2004, and further 17 per cent in 2004-05. Of late, there has been confrontation between growers and millers over price. Growers demand higher price for their raw material and millers complain about increase in production cost and imports. Late crushing causes dissatisfaction as well as financial loss to both, farmers and millers. Other problems are stagnant cane yield, non-payment of dues to growers by mills, and low import parity prices. A study it revealed that more than 65 per cent farmers have decreased the total area under cane production due to water shortage, behavior of the mills management, late payments, increased input cost, and diseases and rodent attack.

The price structure is such that out of the sale price some 35 per cent of the cost goes to farmer and 24 per cent to the government in taxes etc., 21 per cent to mills with nine and six per cent to wholesalers and retailers respectively. The country exports sugar at low price and imports the same at high rates.

3. Scenario of Sugar Industry :

In Pakistan, the sugar industry is largely base on sugarcane production without a nominal percentage of sugar beet. However, in the world context, sugar beet contributes about 16 percent to the sugar production. Now, for sometime past the industry has been under crisis mostly due to divergent views of the government and the sugar mill owners on the actual volume of surplus lying un-cold with the mills. Production of refined white sugar obtained from sugarcane is the largest segment of sweetening industry in Pakistan. The other traditional sweeteners are comprised of gur, shakkar and desi cheni. These traditional sweeteners are manufacture through the process of crushing cane to extract juice and treating in different ways, including heating.

4.By-Products:

These comprise molasses, bagasse and processed molasses which is the juice of what is left over of crystallized sugar. It has a good market outside the country. Domestically it is used as livestock feed, industrial alcohol and tobacco blending. Bagasse is the residue of cane after it is crush for juice. It utilized as paper and chipboard raw material.

In Pakistan farmers share looks somewhat higher. As a matter of fact, as a policy measure, it has been kept high to ensure sugarcane production at a desired level so that it may not fall short of the country’s requirement. Sugarcane production largely depends on the support prices fixed by the government. Fixation and enforcement of these prices are considered necessary to make sugarcane cultivation competitive with other competing crops like cotton.

The other factors affecting the cane production include cost and availability of various inputs like fertilizer, pesticide, and irrigation water. The uncontrollable factors such as weather and change in technology also influence the cane production.

Actual of area, yield and production in Sindh fared at great deviation form the estimated Actual of area deviated much against reduction estimate being 4% in area, 20% in crop size and 15.9% in yield. This administered a deadly blow to the Sindh sugar segment. In Punjab deviation between estimate and actual was within qualification of standard, as drop in area, crop size and yield was by about 7.4% It fared well. Case of NWF zone was better than the two major zones, as crop area was up by seven percent, production up by 2.9% and yield up by 3.8%. National level represented marked relapse, as actual of area fell in arrears by about 1.8 percent, sugarcane production by 2.5% and yield remained the same.

5.Sugar Production:

Sugarcane crop for the season 2004-05 dropped drastically in all the three zones. As a result, aggregate sugarcane supply sharply reduced besides becoming intermittent, disrupting continuous process of sugar manufacturing and consequently escalating cost of production. Sugarcane price, by free marketing supply in vogue since 1987 contrasting the norms of zonal supply system adherence in almost all the countries possessing sugar industry, crop fluctuations rom season to season has become big irritant. Sugarcane price by interaction of demand and supply has usually been on rising trend, being influenced by lower than required sugarcane production, sugarcane-crushing capacity of the industry getting idle and supply system being adopted. Equation of the trio fared totally against the sugar industrial economy. If resulted in flare up of sugarcane prices. How long the norm of area specifics of sugarcane supply, despite its being key characteristics of the commodity, deserving such a system to be followed with vigor, would be ignored and allowed to sap up economic vitals of the industry and eventually the national economy.

Sugarcane price constitutes a major component as it carried 70% plus weight age in sugar production cost. So it is bound to get reflected in sugar price. This underlines role of importance sugarcane crop plays in sugar production cost and accordingly it needs to be given as much consideration in what to be the sugar market price for economic equilibrium, which enables sustainable working for the sugar industry.

Due to whopping 12.2% fall in sugarcane crop size, supplies for processing of this sole raw material to the sugar industry fell flat, dip being 26.5% to 32.102 (43.661) million ton, This sharp side affected adversely performance of sugar industry, as production dipped by 1.076 million tons, i.e. by about 27% to 2,922(3.997) million tons. Besides decline in area recovery was down to 9.10 (9.15) % for want of crop quality, its supply mechanism, bewitched by frequent interruptions,. A long haul system of sugarcane carrying to mills creating unwarranted time gap between harvest and process also affected recovery. Improvement in the system enabling instant process to harvest can give about one percent improvement in recovery, which needs to be secure rather wasted, in protecting national economic interests.

6. Sugar Industry in Hyderabad Division

There are 28-sugar mill operating in Sindh at this time. Among from them three were in public sector and reaming was in the private sector. Hyderabad division containing 19 sugar mills in the province of Sindh which had to produced 416,303 ton sugar during 2004-05 season and 413174 total cane crushed by these mill during same season which produce great impact on country economy and provides employment near about twenty one thousand people’s with socio economic development support to many peoples related to this industry. In Hyderabad division, the total area of sugar cane was 118.151 hectares in 2004-05 seasons and total cane production was 4793231 ton. The following table V-1 shows the evidence that, On the year 2004-05 Ansari Sugar mill Cane crushed 378,689 ton and sugar production is 37,782 ton and sugar recovery is 9.98 %, Army Welfare Sugar mill Cane crushed 237,339 sugar production is 23,307 and sugar recovery is 9.82, Bawany Sugar mill Cane crushed 308,689 sugar production is 28,711 and sugar recovery is 9.27, Dewan Sugar mill Cane crushed 250,562 sugar production is 23,105 and sugar recovery is 9.22, Mirza Sugar mill Cane crushed 145,189 sugar production is 13,427 and sugar recovery is 9.30, Pangrio Sugar mill Cane crushed 176,249 sugar production is 17,313 and sugar recovery is 9.82, Bachani Sugar mill is Under installation, Faran Sugar mill Cane crushed 480,072, sugar production 46,240 and sugar recovery is 9.65, Matyari Sugar mill 317,343 sugar production 30,720 and sugar recovery is 9.68, Mehran Sugar mill Cane crushed 341,738 sugar production is 32,020 and sugar recovery is 9.38, Seri Sugar mill Cane crushed 205,459 sugar production is 20,260 and sugar recovery is 9.85. Sindh abadgar Sugar mill Cane crushed 237,131 sugar production is 23,054 and sugar recovery is 9.72, T.M.k Sugar mill Cane crushed 142,868 sugar production 13,375 and sugar recovery is 9.42, Al-Asif Sugar mill Cane crushed125,588 sugar production 11,877 and sugar recovery is 9.41, Dewan Sugar mill Dewan Cane crushed 418,812 sugar production is 41,125an sugar recovery is 9.82, Larr Sugar mill Cane crushed 212,346 sugar production is 20,681 and sugar recovery is 9.74, Shahmurad Sugar mill Cane crushed 335,100 sugar production is 33,306 and sugar recovery is 9.90, Thatta and Dadu Sugar mill was Closed and goes to privatized. Total Cane crushed in Hyderabad division is 431,3147and total sugar production is 416,303

7.Sugar Season 2004-05 in Hyderabad Division

Sugar season for Hyderabad‘s industry turned more problematic than the preceding two year. As usual, sugarcane grower and their organizations fight for early start of sugar cane crushing intentionally ignoring short sized crop .It influenced the provincial authorities to announce sugarcane crushing from October 01, 2004 which fell out of economic context for the sugar industry compliance. The Hyderabad sugar mills were force to cease working from December 02 to 14, 2004 for want of sugarcane .The entire season was of disruptive spells, which eventually enhanced sugarcane price and cost of sugar production out of promotion

8.Sugar Price in Hyderabad Division;

Upsetting feature of sugarcane price persisted, compounding financial stresses, creating liquidity crunch and eroding base .On average wholesale sugar price in Hyderabad and most of in Sindh markets for the season up by Rs 5,463 per ton to Rs 22,977 per ton for the 2004-05 .season could not compensate escalation in cost of production persisted on cost front with vengeance. During 2004-05 season sugar price went up but not getting compatible with surge in cost of sugar production and its cost of sale .its fallout had to be absorbed solely by the sugar industry, As a result its liquidity dried up. Wholesale market price included sales tax at 15% plus trade commission and transport charges etc

9.Sugar Price Incompatibility

Sugar prices from December 2004 started moving up, as consequence of high cost/price of sugarcane. It was the first year after persisting falls of prices for the preceding three years. Its price trend of previous 2003-04 season was influenced by inventories pile up arising from a record production .sugar price pick up was not equivalent to surge in cost of production and cost of sugar sales, due mainly to very high sugarcane prices, arising from sharp reduction in crop size, particularly in Hyderabad division.

10. Conclusion

In Hyderabad division shortage of water and high prices of agricultural inputs has combined to make the crop non-profitable, and shortly our growers will be switching over to other short-duration crops such as rice, wheat, sunflower, and tomatoes. From many years almost all sugar mills in the Hyderabad division are running below their capacities due to a shortage in sugarcane production. Sugarcane farmers and sugar industry have a common cause to serve, it relates to economic price for raw material sugar cane and end product sugar. Sugar average recovery is 8 percent in Pakistan and 10 percent in Hyderabad division areas but the recovery is less as against 12-17 percent in other world sugar producing countries. Target of area under sugarcane crop fell to actual at 966 thousand hectare. Crop volume fell in each zone, with its drastic impact on Sindh. Similar to shrinkage in area, yield factor also fared adverse. Target set at 50.05 /Ton/hectare for 2004-05 seasons was markedly missed by 2.4% to an actual at 48.88 ton/hectare and Sugar Production target 0f 53 million ton fell by 11% to actual at 47 million ton. Crop fluctuations from season to season have become big irritant. Sugarcane price by relations of demand and supply has usually been on rising trend, being influence by lower than required sugarcane production and sugarcane-crushing. Molasses production during the review season slumped to 1.497 million ton. The income of the growers been affected, due to low yield in Pakistan. Start up date of the season made without assessment of sugarcane crop and its condition no good reason sat in price of sugarcane and sugar.

11.Recommendation

The government of Pakistan should provide right share of water to Sindh province for this important industry, which is second largest after cotton. The production of sugar can be increase with the help of new sugar verities which takes less water and give more per hectares yield. The government of Pakistan should provide cheapest fertilizer to the growers and other facilities so the grower can use right does of fertilizer to there crop then we may be able to get sufficient product. Government of Pakistan and sugar industries should introduces and import new technology for increasing sugar recovery. Government of Pakistan should use their efforts to increases the area under sugarcane crop. The government should produce new verities through research institutes or may import form India because our climate and environment is the same. Government of Pakistan should make a proper plan for achieving the sugar production and Ton/hectare cane production target. Government of Pakistan and policy makers should evaluate there polices which helps in stabling the crop size at a required level. Government and policy makers should make does police which helps in balancing the sugar demand and supply. Molasses and other by-products are totally depending on sugar production so increase in sugar production can increases bye-product of sugar. Government of Pakistan should use its efforts to increases the yield/hectares for that farmer can increase its income. Government of Pakistan should make proper assessment to insure the proper size and condition of sugarcane crop before crushing season announces. Government of Pakistan should sit proper price polices of sugarcane and sugar and implement it in a proper way

REFERENCES;

1.LATIF UMAR (2004-05) Pakistan Sugar Mills Association, Annual Report Sindh Zone, Karachi. PP.33-61.pp.100-126..

2.SHABBIR KAZMI (2006), Sugar There is a need for Comprehensive Policy, in Pakistan, Pakistan& Gulf Economist, Vol. XX, May pp. 17.

3.SHAIKH M. AYOOB (2003), Development of Sugar Industry in Sindh and its Contribution to the National Economy, Research Journal Sindhological Studies (Bi-Annual), Vol. 20, No. 1-2, pp. 31-42.

4.GOVERNMENT OF PAKISTAN (2004-05) Agricultural Statistics of Pakistan, Ministry of Food, Agriculture & Livestock (Economic Wing), Islamabad.

5.OPERATIONAL FIGURES AT A GLANCE (2007) Sugar Mills in Sindh, Office of the Cane Commissioner Hyderabad, Sindh.

6.Excise and Taxation department Hyderabad

The Internet is often used for research, entertainment, communication, and leisure. But the Internet is too broad that there are so many other ways to make use of it. How about looking into the possibility of making money while you’re online?

Yes, that’s possible, and as you read this article, you will learn a couple of ways to profit from your favorite hobby. Although, most of the times, it may not be enough of a profit at first, it’s a still a very good investment because to make money while online will open up opportunities for you to become very successful and even get a huge (and I mean, really huge) amount of money, to the point you wouldn’t need any other job to cover your expenses.

The most popular way to make money while online is through writing or blogging. Several sites like Squidoo or Suite101 allows people to write about various topics, from music, celebrities, and fashion, to science and technology. The only way to succeed in this is to make your articles or blogs interesting enough to attract people and encourage them to keep going back to your account. Not only will you need writing skills, but marketing also. Make your articles and blogs visible to the people you believe will find them appealing. This will require you to advertise it to forums or other sites, spread it via word of mouth, etc. Business Home Internet Opportunity Make Money While Online

Another way to make money while online is to share your opinions to others. How’s that, you ask? There are so many companies who’d be so much willing to pay you for your feedback about their products or services. Think of it as something like focus group discussions or interviews, but for online surveys, you just get to share your opinion on paper (or rather, on an LCD screen). It’s very easy, and the only way to succeed or make more money in this way is to join enough companies. You can search for these companies on search engines and forums, or by paying a small fee to a list of survey companies. Just make sure that the company’s not a scam though.

These are the easiest methods to make money while online. There are others you can still engage in, e.g. selling or affiliate marketing, pay per click, however, these two methods are the most popular and easy ones. Combine multiple methods to stock up those small bucks and make it big. Business Home Internet Opportunity Make Money While Online

Venkatraman and Ramanujam (1986) study consider as an important document for the theoretical discussion regarding the evaluation of the measurement of business performance. One of the key issues addressed by this study is the attempt to delineate the performance concept. More specifically, whether business performance should be differentiated from the overall discussion on organizational effectiveness. The view taken by Venkatraman and Ramanujam (1986) was that business performance, which reflects the perspective of strategic management, is a subset of the overall concept of organizational effectiveness. The narrowest conception of business performance centers on the use of simple outcome based financial indicators that are assumed to reflect the fulfillment of the economic goals of the firm. Venkatraman and Ramanujam (1986) refer to this concept as financial performance. Financial performance measurement is a multi-dimensional one. Sample of financial measures, group into dimensions can be presented as follow: Profitability – return on investment (ROI), earning before interest and tax (EBIT), gross profit margins. Growth – market share growth, Sales Growth. Efficiency – return on sales (ROS), return on equity (ROE). Analyses made by using single financial measure or several measures relating to only one dimension may lead to misleading conclusions. According to Venkatraman and Ramanujam (1986) a border conceptualization of business performance would include emphasis on measures of operational performance, which consists of those key parameters which may lead to an improvement in financial performance. Venkatraman and Ramanujam (1986) note that it would be logical to treat operational performance measures such as market-share, new product introduction, product quality, marketing effectiveness, manufacturing value-added, within the domain of business performance.

Kaplan and Norton (1992) have presented another seminal paper regarding the measurement of business performance. Its name, “The Balanced Scorecard – measures that drive performance” could suggest for the way they approach the issue. According to the writers, since there is increasing need, both for large and small businesses, to master a variety of capabilities in different fields, the traditional measures of financial performance gives inadequate, or in some cases inaccurate, perspective for the status of the business and its ability to keep improving. The balanced scorecard tries to overcome these difficulties through the completion of financial measures, which reflect for actions that already have been taken, with those of operational performance measures, which consists of parameters that may drive the forthcoming financial performance. Operational measures according to the balanced scorecard constructed from three dimensions – How do customers see us? (Customer perspective), What must we excel at? (Internal perspective), Can we continue to improve and create value? (Innovation and learning perspective).

Branding yourself is the artistic production of separating yourself from your contention. It is what attracts new customers with district little surgery no work at all.

Branding yourself is a concept that represents everything about your business or company. It sets your business and products apart from the competition. Branding yourself is a big task, but also necessary. Overall branding yourself is more important than branding one product.The notion of branding yourself is not new. Branding yourself is a cool thing, I would love to brand myself. I love to make my name, my entire self a brand which creates an awareness itself.So That is exactly what I have done.

Branding yourself is the key to professionalism not promoting some hotshot. Our team has a template system that you can plug into. Branding yourself is essential. You know when you read my work, you’ll come across a “y’all” and a “damn” and an “eff.”.It’s just the E in ME, communicating that way. Branding yourself is one of the most important marketing tricks on the books. We can make you stand out with branding that will make you proud.

This is one of the most important marketing tricks on the books; it is about being an expert or learning how to be an expert and then telling everyone about your knowledge. It is one of the most important tasks you have as a small business marketer. Branding yourself is just as bad. Branding yourself is more than just employing millions of dollars worth of repetitive marketing. That is not why the marketing programs for chains work.

Branding yourself is extremely important. I own over 500 domains and sometimes I spend weeks trying to find the right name for my sites.

Businesses know that marketing is about providing customers with what they need. Their brand message is all about communicating that they fill the customer’s needs. Business cards are cheap to get and easy to create. Your contact information (especially your url) should be placed on front and your band logo on the backside.

Branding yourself is the key to being different. A replicated site will get you replicated results. Branding yourself is the key to being different. A replicated site will get you replicated results. Branding yourself is important, because if you don’t do it, others will do it for you, and no one wants to be a punk.

Anyone who has read anything about marketing yourself has read at least a dozen or more articles on the importance of branding yourself. Anyone who earns a substantual amount of money online will tell you it did NOT nor will it happen over night. If they tell you that you will, they have fabricated the truth.

Is an industrial shredder right for my company?

Industrial shredders allow you to do for yourself what you normally hire a shredding service to do, which is to reduce the cost of shredding by consolidating the shredding of numerous employees, using a high capacity shredder. This allows the bulk of shredding to be done by one, lower cost employee (lower as compared to your expensive office workers, administrators and even managers) and therefore reduce the overall cost of shredding. You can begin to cost justify an industrial shredder at about 500 pounds of shredding per week. The more shredding your company does, the more cost effective an industrial shredder becomes.

How much can an industrial shredder shred per hour?

Industrial shredders can shred from 750 to about 2,250 pounds of paper per hour, depending on the cut type. Seven hundred fifty pounds of paper would be about 15 large file boxes of paper, file folders, mail and other items commonly shredded. Each file box will typically weigh about 50 pound when full, so 2,250 pounds would be about 45 large file boxes.

How can I estimate how much shredding my company does?

One method is by number of employees. The average office worker in the US shreds about 50 sheets of paper per day. This includes self generated documents, incoming mail and items purged from filing cabinets. This translates into about 2.5 pounds of shredding per employee, per week. So a typical company with 250 office workers on site will probably shred about 625 pounds per week. Another method is to count the number of shred boxes and bins in use and multiply as appropriate by the capacity of each type of box or bin. The most common shred box sizes are the 36″ and 27″ boxes which hold 65 and 45 pounds of paper respectively. The most popular bin sizes are the 92 and 64 gallon bins which hold 350 and 250 pounds respectively.

Is it less expensive to use an industrial shredder, or to hire a shredding service?

Your price from a shredding service will depend on a few factors:

Your shredding volume, the higher the volume, the lower the unit cost. The security level of the shredding that you desire. The higher the security level, the longer it takes to shred. The logistics of your facility (this determines how long it will take the driver to walk around and empty all the bins.) How often do you want your shred bins emptied? More visits mean a higher price. Does your shred service provide the shred boxes and shred bins free of charge? Do you want on-site or plant based shredding?

Shredding services will typically price by the bin (sometimes called by the tip) or they will charge by the minute/hour. Some services also charge for pick-up (also called visit chargesÂ?). There may also be unanticipated costs such as fuel surcharges when fuel prices go up. Prices are also affected by the after market price the shredding service can get for the paper they sell to recycling companies. You’ll probably find that the going price of shredding services will equate to about twenty to twenty-five cents per pound although few if any shredding service will actually quote a “per pound” price. High volumes may equate to as low as ten cents per pound and lower volumes can equate to as much as forty cents per pound.Your cost to shred in-house with an industrial shredder will also depend on three factors:

The hourly labor rate of the person you designate to do the shredding. The purchase price or monthly lease, maintenance cost, capacity, and projected life span of your shredder Overhead costs such as collection (emptying the bins), shredder bags, shredder oil and maintenance.

Fortunately, all of these costs are easily anticipated and can be controlled with an effective security plan. The operative point is that by installing your own industrial shredder, buying your own bins and developing your own plan, you are essentially employing the same logic and economy of scale that the shredding service uses and you keep the savings.

What do I need, to put my own in-house shredding plan together?

There are a few things you will need to arrange:

Does your facility have the space for an in-house industrial shredder? You will need: Space for the shredder (shredder footprint plus about 3-4 feet all around) Space to stage about one weeks worth of material to shred, you can fit 2,000 lbs on one pallet Space for the bagged (or baled) shredded material, bagged material will need 2x the space of the unshredded material and baled material will be about a 1:1 ratio. Does your facility have, or can you install adequate power at the location where shredding will take place. You will need 220V, 3-phase, 30 or 50 amp, 60 cycle power. You will need to purchase shred boxes and/or bins and wheeled carts to transport the material from the boxes and bins to the shredder. Shred boxes and bins are inexpensive and long lasting. There are several quality manufacturers.

What are some of the elements that my plan should contain?

The first thing you need to do is take a look at your company’s organizational structure and divide the various departments into high, medium and low security zones: High Security Zones are areas of the company where very sensitive documents are commonly produced. Most companies will consider areas such as payroll, human resources, the executive suite and research & development as high security zones. Medium Security Zones are areas where documents are produced that while they may not represent a compliance risk, they could be competitively sensitive or provide confidential financial information. Common medium security zones are sales & marketing departments, advertising and accounting. Low Security Zones would be any other department. Your second step will to determine the best shredding solution by zone. You need to consider the number of employees in that zone and the logistics of the zone. For each zone determine if it is best served by having it’s own shredder in the zone, a shred box to serve small numbers of people or a shred bin to serve larger numbers of people. Be generous in the number of shred boxes and bins, they are inexpensive, almost never have to be replaced and they make your plan more convenient, thus more likely to be effective. Your plan should provide details about how often bins need to be emptied and shredded in each zone. High security areas may need to have their bins emptied and shredded on a daily basis. Medium and low security zones may need to be serviced only once or twice per week. Whatever the case, every box, bin and shredder in your facility should be included in your plan. For the sake of efficiency, it’s a good idea to have the same person who empties boxes and bins replace bags in office shredders and oil the shredders on a regular basis. This will keep your shredders running better for a longer period of time.

How many shred boxes, bins and shredders will I need?

Logistics will play a significant role in this decision because in addition to considering the number of employees that will be serviced by a box, bin or shredder, you need to consider access. You also need to consider the probability of a given department to produce documents that should be shredded. These things considered, here are a few very general guidelines:

One Office Shredder: Shreds 8 to 12 sheets at 15′ to 30′ per minute. Serves up to 10 employees One Departmental Shredder Shreds 12 to 50 sheets at 20′ to 50′ per minute. Serves up to 40 employees One Industrial Shredder Shreds 750 to 2,250 pounds per hour. Serves up to 1,000 employees but possibly more depending on logistics of facility and frequency of shredding. One 27″ Shred Box Holds up to 45lbs and serves up to six employees. One 36″ Shred Box Holds up to 65lbs and serves up to 13 employees. One 65 Gallon Shred Bin Holds up to 250lbs and serves up to 50 employees. One 92 Gallon Shred Bin Holds up to 350lbs and serves up to 70 employees.

New Product Surveys: Design, Test, Design

Savvy business owners know that marketing should begin long before their products hit the stores. Marketing should begin with the product itself, and with an in-depth understanding customer’s needs and preferences.

Powerful new questionnaire software gives businesses a revealing glimpse into the minds of potential customers. Market research surveys can help a business rethink product design, or maybe just fine tune it a bit. In simple terms, these surveys can help a business give people what they want.

New product surveys try to get at the perceived needs of customers. They ask questions like:

“How much cargo space do you need in your truck?”
“How many watts does your backup power supply need to generate?”
“How often do your drive on icy roads?”

Questions like these can help a business decide if its product line meets the needs of potential customers, or if there are gaps in the line that need to be filled. Questionnaire software allows a business to sort responses by age, gender, location, income and many other variables. This enables a business to target products to the needs of specific market segments.

New product surveys also try to determine the benefits that are most important to customers. Take vitamins as an example. Are customers mainly interested in vitamins that will help them feel better or boost their memory or improve their heart health? Questionnaire software uses sophisticated ranking questions to help isolate the benefits that people care about most.

New product surveys also help a business learn what features are important to customers. If customers show little interest in a particular feature, a business may decide to offer it as an option rather than a standard part of its products. On the other hand, if a feature shows up on a survey as being very popular, a business might decide to include it in all of its products, and emphasize it in its marketing campaign.

Conjoint Analysis: Examine the trade-offs that customers make when purchasing a product

Conjoint analysis serves many purposes in market research, but it is especially useful in making decisions about price. Here’s how it works. Suppose a traveler is thinking about booking a hotel room. Two hotels next to each other offer rooms at the same price, but one hotel has an indoor pool and the other does not. If the traveler enjoys swimming, he will probably pick the hotel with the pool, since there is no difference in price.

Our traveler does a little more research and finds that the hotel that does not have a pool offers room service, which sounds wonderfully self-indulgent. Now our traveler has to make a decision. What does he value more, a pool or room service? Suppose our traveler then learns that the hotel with the pool is offering a ten percent discount. Now things are really getting complicated.

Conjoint analysis enables a marketer to examine the trade-offs that customers make in buying a product. It allows a marketer to see which features of a product are most valuable to customers and how much extra they are willing to pay for a particular feature or combination of features. The purpose of conjoint analysis is to determine what combination of variables is most influential in a customer’s decision to buy.

Conjoint analysis also helps a marketer set an optimal price for a product. It allows the marketer to see the point at which price outweighs benefits in the consumer’s mind. Although this type of analysis sounds complicated, internet survey software makes it simple. The most sophisticated systems enable marketers to create online surveys using an intuitive wizard interface. They present the results of the analysis in a variety of formats that help marketing professionals make informed decisions.

Placement and the Purchase Process

Market research surveys can also provide valuable information about how people prefer to shop. Do they typically buy certain types of products online, or do they prefer to visit a store? If they like to shop in person, do they prefer no-frills discount stores or stores that offer advice and greater customer service? Do they buy from catalogs? If they do, do they mail in their orders or use the catalog to shop online?

The purpose of all these questions is to discover how people feel about the purchasing experience. Sometimes two companies might offer virtually identical products, but one company is much more successful because it provides customers the kind of purchasing experience they find comfortable. For example, some car dealers advertise that they do not haggle over price. They know that some people are uncomfortable with the sort of price negotiations that are common in the car business.

Purchase process surveys need to focus on specific types of products. For example, some people routinely buy DVDs in discount stores, but they would go to an electronics store to buy a DVD player. A well-designed online survey can isolate customers’ purchasing preferences for different types of products.

Purchase process surveys can also help businesses improve customer service. For example, a survey might reveal that customers find a business’s website difficult to navigate. Businesses can use this type of data to make the purchasing experience more pleasant and convenient for customers.

Promotion: Advertising Effectiveness Surveys

Advertising effectiveness surveys help a business make the most of its advertising budget.

Advertising decisions have become extremely complicated. Many people — especially young people — spend more time online than watching television. But are online ads as effective as TV ads? And if a business decides to use TV ads, which of the hundreds of cable channels should it focus on? And what about the print media and outdoor advertising? What place do they have in a well-planned marketing campaign?

The answers to all these questions are different for different products and for different segments of the market. Marketers need reliable data to make informed decisions about their advertising budgets. Fortunately, online surveys provide an economical way to gather and analyze this information.

An advertising effectiveness survey can determine how consumers react to an ad, what they remember, how they felt afterwards, how the ad can be improved, and if the ad’s intention was served. A sequence of surveys can measure brand awareness before, during, and after a campaign. As with other types of online surveys, the results can be analyzed by age, gender, income, and other variables to ensure that ads are reaching the correct demographic group.

Some businesses rely on sales performance to gauge the effectiveness of their advertising. They assume that if they are doing better than their competitors, their ads must be working. This approach ignores the fact that sales are determined by a multitude of factors, including price, quality, and competition. A business may be doing well, but more effective ads could make its performance even better.

Boosting the Bottom Line

Online market research surveys are an inexpensive, economical way to improve every phase of marketing: product design, placement, positioning and promotion. Surveys can tell a business what it is doing wrong or right and how it can do better. An investment in a well-planned online survey can pay for itself many times over in increased sales and a healthier bottom line.

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Promotional products make a wonderful addition to any public service campaign.

In many cases, raising awareness is the first step toward providing medical care or a cure. There’s a wide variety of different types and classes of promotional products to choose from. Some suggestions might include squeezable stress toys as part of an awareness campaign about the harmful effects of stress or t-shirts printed with a health awareness slogan. Your office might give printed pedometers as part of a fitness campaign, or hand out inexpensive promotional watches as part of a “Time to watch your health” campaign.

Promotional products can help build your practice.

Introduce your office to new residents in your area with a welcome in their post box, or partner with an estate agent to be part of a “Welcome to Your New Home” basket of goodies. Include a useful gift from your office, imprinted with your practice name and telephone number for emergencies. The type of gift you include should be specific to your practice area. A general practitioner could use a small first aid kit, for instance. A chiropractor might include a hand-held back massager imprinted with his name and number. A clever gift from a pediatrician’s office might be a bandage dispenser filled with colorful adhesive bandages for those little cuts and scrapes and a refrigerator magnet to keep your telephone number handy.

Support public service causes with appropriate promotional products.

Make yourself and your staff available for public health fairs and promotions. When you partner with public service agencies you increase both your visibility and your credibility. If your business is nutrition, set up a display to emphasize the importance of healthy eating and hand out travel mugs imprinted with a health conscious message. If your office specializes in sports medicine, you might choose stress toys shaped as different types of balls. Suit the promo products that you choose as takeaways to your practice specialty.

Paper promotional products are important informational tools.

Companies that specialize in promotional products for trade fairs and conferences often also handle the design and production of informational tools like brochures, leaflets and flyers about your practice and specialty. If you already have a relationship with a promotional product company, be sure to include them when you’re pricing the cost of creating promotional literature about your practice.

Say thank you and please come again to your patients and clients with promotional products.

Pediatricians have handed out stickers, lollipops and plastic rings to their patients for years as a “Job Well Done” reward. Why confine that to children? There’s a wide variety of little thank you gifts that you could offer your patients, from sticky notes with a reminder to “Eat Healthy” to stress toys to help them stay healthy.

Some smaller businesses believe that business tools are only for larger companies. This could not be further from the truth. Proper use of a number of simple business tools can seriously affect business performance by increasing both operational efficiency and profitability. I would recommend 4 different tools, which collectively cost about $500. They are intuitive and easy to use. So what are they?

Mind Maps

Business Health Check

Business Planning Tools

Microsoft Visio

Mind maps are computer based programs that you can purchase and download over the internet. They are a terrific management tool in that they allow you to summarize an enormous amount of detail on a single page. Consider all of the tasks you need to undertake in a week or a month and you will find that there is no way to keep on top of everything if you list them in a traditional linear fashion in a notebook or on several sheets of paper. Mind maps allow you to keep track of all of the important issues including key assignments for staff, performance measurement, key account management, strategic development, milestone management, to mention just a few. They also allow you to record details of meetings in a coherent and ordered way which facilitates excellent follow up. You may also use them to brainstorm ideas with your team.

A business health check tool allows you to step back from your business and to analyze it in detail using several hundred well targeted questions. A good one will focus on every aspect of your business including leadership, management style and capability, operational competence, financial management, management and use of information, IT infrastructure, quality and effectiveness of staff, business planning and many more key measures. It is similar to getting a management consultant to come into your business and look underneath the hood, except you can do the diagnosis yourself and it is much more cost effective. The advantage is that it gives you a deep insight into the here and now so that you can then plan your business’s future more coherently.

Business planning is often overlooked in small businesses. This can be a costly mistake. It makes little sense to allow your business to drift on a day-to-day basis and for you to be simply reacting to situations rather than anticipating and actively managing them. Every business needs a road map to keep it on track. A business plan allows you to build a strong team culture with a shared vision of the future. If the whole team has clarity of purpose and is pulling well together, then the business is going to perform substantially better. There are many business planning tools available on the internet and some are even free. The ones you pay for tend to offer you more.

Microsoft Visio is a simple drawing tool that anyone can learn with as little as half an hour on the computer. There are a multitude of uses it can be put to in your business from building marketing brochures and flyers to designing standard forms and stationery. My personal favourite use of Visio is for drawing business process workflows. It is amazing to see with clarity how we go about doing things in our businesses when it is shown in a visual way on a piece of paper. All of a sudden you notice the redundancy in the way that even the most simple activities are carried out. This facilitates changing your business processes and streamlining them to be more efficient. It also allows you to coherently document your processes so that is no ambiguity about the way in which your staff executes them. This can save you a lot of wasted time and money.

One of the most major ways that you can distribute corporate gifts is to give them during appropriate events and gatherings. Such gifts are quite more different than typical promotional gifts, where they are usually of a high quality and are used in a much different way. Many business people opt to give business gifts to attract many people and get them more interested with the business. However, with corporate gifts, you are aiming to attract a much different audience, meaning you are looking to get investors, or those who have a high position that can make a real difference for your business. And from them, you will be able to find situations where they can really work for you. Again, this is quite different with promotional items where you are aiming for the customer base.

Now that you know who will be your target recipient, this means that your corporate gifts have to be of a higher value and quality. If you want to give out corporate gifts for events, the best thing you need to consider first is to determine what the even is and what kind of people you expect to be coming to the event. From there, you can make sure that the corporate gifts that you will give reflect the event, how serious it has to be, and what you think should be the main theme of it.

However, you should expect to spend a bit more money if you opt to give corporate gifts for a certain event. This is because you are targeting a much smaller but more elite group unlike what you are doing with the other types of promotional gifts. Because this is the case, you want to make sure that you will be able to create situations in which the corporate gifts can be given freely and in interesting way. However, you should also try to keep your corporate gifts as simple as possible. You want to be sure that you are giving your corporate gifts in a way that suits you, so that you can be sure the corporations and the people that are receiving them are speaking highly of you. After all, this is about something that you are striving for. The idea of corporate gifts can be one that you carry with you for a long time.

Corporate gifts may include personalized desk clocks, money clips, business card holders, paper weights, bookends, and many other stuff that have elegant and sophisticated look.