Diamonds, Engagement Rings, Wedding Rings Internet Vs. Retail

Retail Jewelry Stores

A common belief is that all jewelers are out to get you and that you’re going to pay too much for a diamond or engagement ring. This is true for all industries and businesses, not just the jewelry industry. There are good businesses and there are not so good businesses. There’s always a chance to pay more than you have to when buying a car, electronics, jewelry, or whatever. The key is to do your homework and find a jewelry store that you know is creditable; sometimes a referral from a friend is the best place to start. Now it’s true that most jewelry store prices will start off listing higher than many of the on-line businesses, but you have to consider all things. Who will size your ring when it needs to be done? How much will it cost when you have it done? How long will you be without your ring? There is a huge amount of convenience when buying local because many jewelers do all their work in-house. This means no waiting and sometimes you can actually have your ring sized or altered on the spot. Imagine proposing to your girlfriend and then telling her she has to wait 2-3 weeks before wearing it because it has to be shipped back to the on-line jeweler for sizing!

Other benefits are the warranties that come along with the purchase from a local jeweler. I had a customer come to our retail showroom not too long ago with a ring he bought from Bluenile. He brought his fianc in to be fit for the ring and we sized the ring for $75.00. 2 weeks later she came back and said that she chose to have the ring sized too small and needed to be sized again. Another $75.00! Now they’re up to $150 in additional fees and they’ve only owned ring 2 weeks. Imagine the expenses you’ll accumulate over the lifetime of the ring! Another issue is the replacement of missing diamonds; today’s engagement ring styles are very complicated and can be set with intricate diamond combinations. These tiny diamond accents are prone to falling out. When you need to have a small diamond accent replaced you could pay $75.00 to $150.00 in repair costs. Do you see the repair costs adding up? Most local jewelers value your business; in effort to keep you happy they’ll take care of any costs associated with the upkeep of your ring. If you think I’m being one sided don’t worry, I have a lot of positive things to share with you about buying on-line also.

One of the other benefits of shopping locally is the ability to see and examine the diamonds before buying. A big misconception is that all diamonds are graded exactly the same way and that an SI2 on-line is the same as an SI2 in a store. Truth is that every diamond is uniquely different and some diamonds are better than others even if the grades are identical. There are good VS2’s and there are bad VS2’s how do you know which one you have? I’m assuming of course that you know what a VS2 is, if you don’t you can visit http://therealscooponbuyingdiamonds.blogspot.com and I’ll be happy to explain it further to you. You really need to see the diamond first hand and look at it under a microscope to be able to compare one to the next. You can have two diamonds graded exactly the same but one may be poorer a version of the same clarity grade because it was graded by two different people with different opinions. This of course greatly affects the value of the diamond and you’re not aware of it unless you see them first hand. Shopping locally empowers you by allowing you to compare one diamond to next in real life situations.

Now if you say That’s all well and good but I still want the best deal I can get and the bottom line price is still you’re biggest concern then simply be honest with the people you’re shopping with. Truth be known, most jewelers are flexible in their pricing. You just have to communicate your needs with them properly so they know where you stand. They don’t read minds and if you want the best deal you can get for a diamond then say that to them. You can’t get what you don’t ask for and nobody is going to volunteer this unless you ask for it. If you tell the local jeweler that you have been shopping on-line and you want them to match the price, they’ll probably do it. The best strategy is to bring the Internet listing from the website that you are shopping with and give it to the jeweler. Ask them to show you a diamond of the same size, clarity and color, this way you are comparing apples to apples. In some cases they’ll match the price and you’ll get the best of all worlds including warranties, service, price and convenience.

There are no magical formulas or pixie dust that allows one on-line jeweler or retail jeweler the ability to buy a diamond for less than their competitors. Retailers and on-line jewelers pay the same amount for a diamonds and the going rate is the going rate. So your local jeweler has the ability to sell the diamond at the same price as the Internet jeweler, you just have to give him reason to. The best advice I can give you is Don’t make them jump through hoops; if they’re going to give you a great deal don’t make them work hard for it. Otherwise they may lose interest in the sale and say “No Thanks!”. Be honest and fair with them and you may be surprised at how helpful they can be.

Internet Jewelers

Ok I know you have been waiting for this, so here it is Yes you can buy a diamond for less on the Internet! You’ll also save the sales tax. But you need to know that not all Internet jewelers are created equal and you really need to become familiar with whom you are dealing with. Lets start with some important issues. First, you should know that most Internet jewelers don’t own their own diamond inventories. What they do is create computerized lists from diamond wholesalers and suppliers from around the country and place these lists on their websites. Now the problem with this is that these Internet jewelers have never seen the diamonds that they sell so they don’t know what they are giving you. If you see a diamond listed on their site and ask them to describe it to you they have to call the supplier who owns the diamond and have them describe it to them first so they can describe it to you. That’s fine as long as you are aware of the process.

Now, there are Internet jewelers who do own their inventories and actually hand select the diamonds that go on their website. The benefit is that these Internet jewelers have the ability to weed out problem stones because they get to see the diamonds before they buy them for resale. Allow me to give you an example of a problem diamond, take an SI1 diamond for instance. By definition, an SI1 diamond should not have imperfections that can be seen to the naked eye. However, I’ve seen GIA certified SI1 diamonds with imperfections that were plain as day when viewing the diamond to the naked eye. How does the Internet jeweler that’s selling computerized lists of diamonds know what kind of SI1 he/she is selling? They don’t! That’s why its important to choose an Internet jeweler who owns their inventory and hand picks each diamond personally. The benefit is that you can call them and ask them to describe the diamond to you to be sure that it’s not a problem diamond. When wholesalers have problem diamonds that retail jewelers and Internet jewelers (that own their inventories) won’t buy, they list them on Internet websites because there’s nobody to verify the problem.

In the end you suffer because you unknowingly buy the problem diamond. What’s the solution? Work with an Internet jeweler that can hold the diamond in their hand and inspect it for you. Or work with a smaller yet trustworthy Internet jeweler who has a pulse on all the suppliers that they work with so they can verify the validity of the diamond grade. The larger Internet jewelers like Bluenile undoubtedly have a harder time weeding out the problem diamonds because they sell so many diamonds from these published virtual lists. You’re diamond purchase is just another number to them while the smaller Internet jewelers can spend more time with you on the phone answering your questions and sorting through their diamonds. Another benefit to shopping online is the lack of pushy salespeople to deal with. As with many retail environments you’ll occasionally run in to the hard-core salesperson at local jewelry stores. If you’re the type of person who likes to move at his/her own pace and doesn’t like to be pressured then the Internet jeweler is a great option. If you find an informative site you’ll have the time to gather information about diamonds at your own pace without the pressure of having to make a quick decision. You’ll also cover a lot of ground very quickly because you can compare thousands of diamond prices with the click of a mouse. Shopping locally can be a long laborious process while spending hours at each location before going on to the next store.

If you choose to buy your diamond online require several things from your Internet jeweler. First is a no-frills return policy, the standard for an established and creditable Internet jeweler is 30 days. Next is gemological certification, this is important because you want to be assured that the diamond is graded as fairly as possible. I would only choose the Internet jewelers that display the BBB-Online Seal. The Better Business Bureau is a great consumer advocacy group and won’t allow any website to display the seal unless their identity has been verified. They’ll also remove the seal if the Internet site is abusing the use of the seal or is using unfair business practices. In the end you’ll have to decide what’s more important, price or guarantees. Some people would never buy a diamond from an Internet jeweler and some hate shopping locally. There are no secrets or shortcuts but you have to take the time to understand that there are pros and cons to both options. Nobody can say what’s best for you and your fianc but you.

Good Luck Shopping and feel free to contact me for any information about diamonds or diamond engagement rings!

Andy Moquin
President Andrews Jewelers Inc.
CEO Rokstok.com
http://www.andrewsjewelers.com

A Critical Carbon Copy Pro Review

What Is Carbon Copy Pro?

Carbon Copy Pro is not just a business. CCPro is an internet marketing system designed to help it’s members earn income from the reselling of it’s partner, Wealth Master’s International (WMI), products. Some people have referred to Carbon Copy Pro as a ‘feeder program’ for WMI, but I don’t necessarily agree, as CCPro is much more than that. CCPro was created by Jay Kubassek, Aaron Parkinson and Mike Dillard. Research these names if you would like a more thorough review each. Many people speculate that CCPro was a copy of the ‘Reverse Funnel System’ (a marketing funnel designed for Global Resorts Network), but I can say it is not a copy of that system. RFS and CCPro have their own different features. CCPro was launched October of 2007 and appears to be doing just fine as of the time this review is being written, as they are still in business. As a member of CCPro you are able to earn commissions through the multiple income streams in CCPro and the reselling of the WMI products. We’ll get into this a little bit more later on.

CCPro says their marketing system is a turn key system and you don’t have to do any selling or talk to anyone. All you have to do is send people to your marketing page and the system does the telling, selling, sorting and closing. Well my friends, this is simply not 100% true. Ask any of the top producers in CCPro and they will tell you that they do talk to their leads and it’s just not a matter of visitors to their websites. In order to earn a full time income with CCPro (which is possible) you have to customize your pages, connect with your leads and train your new members to do the same. Any online business is attractive because the internet does a lot of the mundane work for you, but you have to remember you are talking to other people and it is important to connect with them.

How Can You Get Paid In Carbon Copy Pro?

The most attractive part of CCPro is definitely the marketing system. Your main responsibility is to drive traffic to the system. The selling of WMI products is where the majority of your income is generated from. WMI sells three different packages. They are the M1, M2, M3, respectively priced at $1995, $8995 and $19,995. These products focus around primarily personal finance. The M2 and M3 packages give you unlimited access to events and any other upcoming information from WMI. The M1 is a physical package that is the foundation of the WMI program. Respective commissions you can earn for each package sold are, $1,000, $5,000 and $8,000. Those numbers look pretty enticing, but it is not as easy as you may think when you first join.

There are multiple income streams through CCPro. Six total. The income streams include:

1. Application Commission = $15-35
– Business In A Box (B.I.B.) sale Commission = $100-200
– Member Residual commission Commission = $30-50
4. InsideOut Video sale ($149 retail)
5. New member sale
6. Affiliate earnings Commission = Varies
7. M1 sale Commission = $1,000
8. M2 package Commission =$3-5,000
– M3 package Commission = $5-7,500

When people come to your sales funnel, they are required to fill out a paid application of $49.95 in order to join. This is the funded proposal concept and helps CCPro’s members generate instant cash flow that should go back into their advertising. This also acts as a filtration device to weed out serious versus non-serious inquiries. Next people can either join CCPro by purchasing the B.I.B. only or the B.I.B. and one of the WMI products to qualify to resell the WMI products. Discounts are offered for people who buy immediately. Once you’re a member you are eligible for the above commissions.

Is It Worth The Investment?

This is up to you. Starting any business requires you to put up some initial capital. Just think about how much it costs to start a franchise. Overall I would say it’s not a bad investment for the most part. If you came in at the lowest level it would cost you $49 + $395 which equals $444 for the application fee and the B.I.B. purchase (this may be less if you use a discount code). To maximize the WMI compensaton plan you have to purchase one of the three packages. CCPro will offer you discounts if you purchase the WMI products at the time you enroll with the CCPro system. The least you will have to pay is below $500 and the most you will have to pay is above $15,000. This will all depend on the amount of money you can invest and want to earn. The top earners maximize the compensation plan by being at the M3 level.

The Best Marketing Approach You Can Use

When people struggle in CCPro it is usually because they did not know how to market. One of the best things about CCPro is their marketing training. That might be the best reason to join right there. Marketing is the key to building any successful online business and CCPro does a good job, providing their members with the latest strategies and holding events featuring some of the top dogs in the industry.

CCPro offers tons of different types of marketing training, but the top producers typically use pay-per-click (PPC). The system does work for the most part, but you need constant traffic going to it. PPC is a great strategy to make this happen. Be warned though, PPC costs money and you need to know how to use it effectively. My best recommendation would be to seek out a top earner in the CCPro and have them mentor you.

Full Time Income Potential

Absolutely. There are many top earners who earn over 10K per month. This is not by chance or luck. Most of these people have personalized their CCPro sales funnel and have a steady flow of leads coming through their websites. This is where the real money can be made. But read between the lines, not every person is going to purchase the highest WMI package. A lot of the their income comes from the income streams in CCPro and the basic M1 package.

My Personal Recommendation

Online businesses, home businesses, network marketing companies all come a dime a dozen these days. Each can give you a chance to earn a full time income and eventually quit your job and allow you to live a more desired lifestyle. But remember, there is a very high failure rate. It’s not as easy as it seems. If it was, more people would be working from home. The truth is you can only succeed in CCPro or any similar business by investing in yourself and learning how to market yourself well. You see, people don’t join CCPro, they join the people affiliated with the marketing system. The ease of the system makes CCPro more attractive. This entire industry is all about building relationships. People are looking for leaders more now than ever and it will be up to you to offer these people what they want if you intend on experiencing success. Only join CCPro if you feel it is a good fit. I left because I could not fully support the product. Honestly I sold a few M1 packages and produced a good amount of leads, but it was not as easy for the next person to come in and duplicate what I was doing or what my sponsor was doing. It didn’t sit right with me. same value you see. The only way you can succeed with CCPro will be to emulate a top producer and do exactly what they say. Make sure someone will commit their time to helping you succeed and if they don’t then you know what to do.

Innovation Management Process The Innovation is The Prime Goal

There are other useful definitions in this field, for example,
creativity can be defined as consisting of a number of ideas, number of
diverse ideas and a number of novel ideas.

There are Innovation Management Process that enhance
problem identification and idea generation and, similarly, distinct
processes that enhance idea selection, development and
commercialization. Whilst there is no sure fire route to commercial
success, these processes improve the probability that good ideas will be
generated and selected and that investment in developing and
commercializing those ideas will not be wasted.

Innovation or Profit?

Often
the mission statement of an Innovation Management Systems includes a
nebulous goal to innovate, but the real goal is to make a profit:

a) Most innovations do not lead to profit.

b)
Yes, you must always be flexible enough to innovate, but that requires a
whole new set of strategies, competencies, resources, processes and
networks. Only successful innovations will make this profitable.

c)
Most successful innovations are incremental, not radical: moderately
new to market, based on tried and tested technology, saved money, met
customer needs and supported existing behaviors (Franklin, 2003). Most
Innovation Management Process is simply the result of identifying and
solving problems and most leaps are the result of cumulative periods of
consecutive problem solving.

d) Most successful innovations take time to bear fruit – at least a few years, too long for impact in the annual accounts.

Conventional
(i.e., not innovative) thinking would have us believe you cannot plan
for a brilliant idea or for scientific breakthrough. ..Such
breakthroughs only occur randomly and without warning. While this may be
true for some scientific advances, it is not true for innovation: you
plan for innovation by growing the right culture–and creating and
supporting the conditions for that culture to thrive–to make innovation
happen.

When you look at successful companies–consider Apple,
or 3M, or Facebook–it is tempting to think that one brilliant idea
catapulted them to success. The reality is often much different.
Innovation – like many other business strategies – is more frequently
the result of a robust process developed within an organizational
culture of Innovation Management Software?

Innovation Management
Systems are much greater than generating ideas or taking risks.
Reframed as a business strategy, it becomes much easier to approach
innovation as something that requires planning, cultivation,
implementation, and management in order to succeed.

By planning,
cultivating, implementing, and managing a process to support
innovation, managers make creativity and discovery repeatable–even
predictable. While the most winning and actionable ideas may always
retain a bit of that “where did that come from!?” personality,
innovation-driven teams know that these “serendipity-like” surprises are
nothing short of strategically planned innovation management software
at work; supported by management and engaged in by all.

Creating a Culture of Innovation to Sail Through Challenges

Challenges
have made the environment so very competitive and this has come in from
globalization, technological innovation, customers, employees,
consultants , competitors , shareholders and vendors. Further, these
organizational challenges can be either a technical one related to a
product or service feature, a marketing challenge on how best to
increase market share and revenue, an operational challenge of creating
better strategies or management tactics or improving employee
engagement. But to sail through these challenges requires a spirit of
innovation.

Innovation
can be defined as an organization’s ability to evolve repeatedly and
adapt rapidly to enable them to stay ahead of the competition. In other
words, the organization’s ability to innovate rests on its ability to
identify and solve challenges. The innovation process begins with the
focus on the right challenges. This is followed by finding ideas from
employees, customers, consultants and vendors with the help of
crowdsourcing software to solve the challenges and finally implementing
the best solution. However, with no dearth of challenges, idea
management services from leading service providers take the organization
through the innovation process.

However, a culture of innovation
besides new ideas, needs to be repeatable, predictable and sustainable.
The Tata group of industries known as the Indian powerhouse, with its
117 year old history of many firsts, made innovation its priority to
survive and thrive through the global economy when India’s long
protected economy was opened up. By putting innovation into the DNA of
the industry’s structure, the chairman of the group made every employee
an innovator. The results – 15 enterprises under the banner, which
included Tata Consultancy Services that came up as a leading IT services
and outsourcing company, with an annual turnover of around $6 billion
and the other innovation product was the Tata Nano car -an affordable
four wheeler for all sections of people.

Continuing
further on creating a culture of innovation within the organization,
Tata Group Innovation Forum (TGIF) was formed with a 12-member panel of
senior executives and CEOs. However, the executives at TCS worked on
crowdsourcing methods to generate incremental innovative ideas from the
employees. Idea management implementation then took its turn through
global innovation labs and leading-edge research centers focused on
specific technology areas.

Another great innovation is that of
the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy. With an aim to
provide new product and services to the public, they created a culture
of innovation within the society. With idea management software as the
framework for discipline and innovation, ASGE managed all new ideas from
staff, board members and key personnel. The outcome was a drastic
reduction in risks and pricing with marketing and organizational
readiness. Today with 12,000 members and 40 employees, ASGE stands out
as the world class endoscopic training and practice center fostering
best of the endoscopic research. The right culture of innovation can
thus give an organization the nimbleness and ability to sense the need
for change and respond to it giving them the required competitive edge.

Enjoy franchising business opportunities and be your own boss

All those with the zeal to be their own boss always get different ways to lead, one is through franchising with a good brand, second is business for sale and the other is establishing a whole new business. However, all of them require big amount of investment in the initial stage. But only franchise comes up with fast recovery along with good market reputation. You will get several business opportunities related to franchising. However, there are always chances of getting failure in establishing a new business. Therefore, if you have been looking forward to own a business of your own, always give preference of franchise. There are various benefits that come along with franchising.

Below mentioned are the top 3 benefits of franchising rather than establishing a new business:

Complete support:

Franchising with a good brand allows you to lead a company along with full support from the parent company side. The in-build support team of the company is always there to support you in all your tasks and decisions. After getting franchise there is no need to hire a different support team as they are already there to help you in accomplishing all your endeavors. In case you come across any problem with the product then they are always there to handle the entire situation quite efficiently. The support team is always there to guide you in your entire business front. As you have entered the franchise business recently therefore, you will require help to understand every perspective. This is where the support team comes into the picture and assists you in leading ahead the company. After attaining UK franchiseyou may enjoy doing business with a relief of support from the team.

Established market reputation and brand value:

Franchising with an established business lets you enjoy its well-known market reputation along with strong market value. You actually attain a readymade recognized brand with rich clientele and consumer base. Customers recognize the brand therefore end up preferring it which further results in enhanced profits. As the brand is in the market for the past many years and have earned their respect and assurance enables you to gather more respect. You will always be recognized with the parent company’s logo, clients, uniform and products which will further let to earn more money and respect as well.

Pre-planned business strategies:

After franchising with a reputed brand there is no need to develop any strategy or business plan as you get per-planned company strategy. You don’t have to hire any marketing experts and advisers to establish any business marketing plan. All you have to do is simply follow the strategies and guidelines which are already there for you. The parent company already boasts its clients and consumers to whom you have to manage and serve quality products.

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