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Using air conditioning effectively in shops and retail outlets

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With temperatures already soaring in the UK, many shops and retailers will be wondering whether we are in store for another summer of 06. This renowned year saw recorded temperatures as high as 97.7oF in Wisley, Surrey and the two month period during June and July has gone down on record as the hottest summer since records began over 200 years ago.

If New York is anything of an example to the rest of the world, then retailers can benefit from periods of excessive heat, as consumers seek creative ways to escape the temperatures and resort to some retail therapy on their local high street and out of town retail parks.

And therein lies the issue. Consumers now expect to enjoy their shopping experiences in cool environments and in particular, the air curtain was designed to keep cool air in the stores and dowse the shopper in a refreshing wave as they enter a store.

However, it is estimated that the UKs high street stores waste 300million a year in energy costs to keep shoppers cool in summer and warm in winter, so how can retail bosses align this excessive waste with the demands of their consumers? Perhaps we can learn from our counterparts over the pond, given that they deal with a heat wave on an annual basis?

1. Have your existing, in-built air conditioning serviced well ahead of summer to make sure it is running efficiently. And if you are concerned about any mini-heat waves during downtime, then consider hiring portable air conditioning to cover the intervening period.

2. Have an emergency back-up plan in place if your air conditioning breaks down. Portable air conditioning companies can supply units that replicate the existing system and they will be able to act most efficiently if you put a contingency plan in place before an emergency strikes.

3. Plan ahead for busy periods within the retail outlet: if you are planning a sale, a new range or something similar you may choose to hire in portable air conditioning as extra capacity for key areas of the store, such as the changing rooms and till areas etc.

4. It is also common sense to have a contingency plan in place if temperatures spiral so high that your shop or retail outlet requires additional air conditioning.

5. When your air conditioning is in use – make sure you use it effectively by keeping doors and windows closed. It is a retail myth that propping the doors open may entice more consumers in to a shop. In fact New York has passed legislation actually banning many stores from leaving their doors open during the summer months. This not only helps reduce your carbon footprint and greenhouse emissions but will also reduce your energy bill. It has been estimated that stores that leave doors open waste around 20-25% of the air conditioning they produce.

6. Set the thermostat to a reasonable temperature. The Carbon Trust recommends that buildings do not need to dip below a temperature of 24 degrees Celsius but in the summer of 2010, some outlets were found to set their indoor temperature as much as 8 degrees less than outside, which is unnecessary.

7. Talk to employees about the most suitable temperature in your shop or retail outlet. If they are forced in to wearing their winter woollies to work during the summer months, then the air conditioning settings need a rethink.

When a heat wave hits, it can be tempting to hire the largest available air conditioning unit. However, it is always worth seeking guidance on the type and size of system for individual circumstances to both maximise the effective removal of hot air and avoid unnecessary operating costs. In particular, within a retail setting, it is necessary to consider the health and safety aspects of hiring portable air conditioning to ensure there is a suitable location away from the main areas of highest footfall.

Whilst some shoppers may momentarily appear to enjoy being engulfed in cool air, increasing numbers of consumers are becoming more environmentally conscious and appreciate the need for shops to exercise restraint when temperatures start to rise.

Why Your March Sales Suck

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Journal entry: December 10, 2009
“My calendar is full and my sales are on track. Looks like Ill end the year ahead of target. This means my boss will finally stop bugging me to get my sales on track. After several years of developing my client base, Im making headway. That means I can finally relax and start taking it a bit easier. I cant coast but the momentum should carry me well into next year and by then Ill have even more customers to which will make it easier to reach my quotas.”

Journal entry: March 21st, 2010
“Sales are below target and it doesnt look like Ill reach my quota this month. I was on track earlier this year but now it seems like Ive lost my momentum. I thought the recession was over and that business was supposed to improve. Companies are still reluctant to move forward and the people I have sold to arent reordering. Guess Ill have to step it up a notch to get back on track. It seems like this is a never-ending roller coaster ride.”

Sound familiar?

Its a very common problem that far too many sales people encounter. They forget that the action they takeor fail to taketoday, will affect their results several months down the road. They get caught up in the “moment” and fall into the trap of reducing their prospecting efforts when they are busy or when sales are on an upswing. They mistakenly believe that their sales will continue to improve even though they cut back on prospecting. Unfortunately, this creates the “peaks and valleys” syndrome whereby the sales person has a great month followed by one or two month of mediocre performance. As sales decline, the rep increases his/her efforts and a few months later their sales begin to improve again. As their sales start to climb, they scale back on hunting for new business. And they continue the pattern.

Unfortunately, every company and every person has to work at generating new business. Age, experience, seniority or expertise does not exempt you from this. I recall a conversation with a colleague who said, “Ive been at this for 20 years; I feel a sense of entitlement and I dont feel that I should have to work this hard to get new business.” We have all seen and heard about companies who went out of business after several decades of success. The business landscape constantly changes. New competitors enter the marketplace and erode our customer base. Products, services and solutions that were once state-of-the-art are now obsolete. And customers who were once loyal to you and your company abandon ship and no longer buy your product, service or solution.

This all means that you need to take consistent action to generate new business leads, regardless of how long you have been selling and how well established your business is. When my wife first started her business almost 15 years ago, her accountant suggested that she invest a specific amount of time each week marketing her business. It was wise advice then, and with the increase in competition that most businesses now experience, his words are even more valuable today.

This is even more important if you work with only a few customers and each company represents a large portion of your revenue. Many sales people and companies have found themselves scrambling to find new sources of revenue because a major client stopped using their services. Its a tough wake-up call that can be prevented by avoiding the complacency trap and assertively prospecting for new business on a regular basis.

So, what do you need to do to ensure that your sales dont suck in March?

It is essential that you block time in your schedule for prospecting. Otherwise one of two things will happen. First, the busyness of your day will take over and you wont invest time on prospecting activities. Or, you will spend too much time in just one area and will neglect other opportunities to prospect. Its easy to get caught up servicing your existing customers, dealing with emails, and other tasks. Whether you make cold calls, send direct mail campaigns, attend networking functions, ask for referrals, give presentations, or participate in social media; you need to determine exactly what type of prospecting activity you will do each day/week. Control and manage your time by blocking each activity in your calendar as an appointment. If you are diligent at keeping these prospecting appointments, your March sales wont suck.

MMIX Kelley Robertson, All rights reserved.

A Fortune To Be Made With Smart Domain Name Marketing

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Making money by selling expired domains is gaining popularity because of its potential to make a good profit. Many expired domain traders take this business very seriously and they use a number of methods and strategies to sell their domains at very lucrative prices. Also known as virtual estate properties, expired domains and domains expiring are some of the hottest business opportunities in the world.

Experienced domain traders use one or a combination of different methods to make money from their stock of expired domain names. These may include such methods as domain parking, domain name selling, or domain flipping. A well-planned combination of these methods will provide you with a very high income potential. Here are some details about each one of these methods:

Domain Parking: This is commonly known as the beginner’s method for earning money from domain names. It is easy to set up a domain parking account and simple to operate it, as the domain-parking firm will take care of the details. What you want to do is to sign up for an account on one of the well-known domain-parking firms and use the web page provided by them to host your name. Most of your web site visitors are un-targeted and they will click on one of the ads provided on your web page. The method used here is the famous pay-per-click system and the income earned by you depends on the number of visitors who click on the online ads to visit other web sites. The only downside of this income generating method is its inability to provide a large stream of income. However, for a new entrepreneur, this is a safe and assured method to make some amount of money.

Expired domain name selling: This is perhaps the most famous method for making money with expired domain names. People make millions by selling their special domain names while the average capacity to earn money by selling an average expired domain is about $25. There are records of unique domain names sold for millions of dollars. Expired domain name reselling is highly competitive and you would normally buy the domains from an auction house. Some experienced domain name traders buy domain names and sell them on a regular basis to create a constant stream of income.

Domain flipping: Expired domain names traders also convert one or two of their domains into highly useful and beneficial web sites that will be potential money-spinners. Domain flipping is a smart method of converting an expired domain into a content rich web portal. Smart domain traders succeed in driving lot of traffic to their flipped web sites. Web sites with plenty of traffic can help them to reach top of major search engines like Google and Yahoo. People are eager to buy web portals that contain useful content and are already optimized with incoming links and traffic. You can also use sophisticated techniques like Pay-per-click (PPC) Affiliate marketing search engine optimization (SEO) and RSS feeds to make your web portal more valuable in terms of income and built-in revenue streams.

Kashmere Gate Is An Important Site For Delhi Metro Advertising

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Kashmere Gate is an important DMRC Advertising Site for a host of reasons. Some of the most prominent reasons include 1, 40,000 footfalls every day resulting from the 240 trains that move through it. This article discusses the reasons for the high traffic and the segments of target audience that can be found at the Kashmere Gate Metro Station. It also looks at the ongoing development work at the station and the impact that it will have on the scope of DMRC Advertising.

Connecting Point

One of the topmost reasons for the high traffic is that the site is the connecting point of east, central, and west Delhi. It is the interchange station for two of the busiest lines of DMRC: the yellow line and the red line. The station is a changing point for the professionals coming from the red line to the offices in the NCR region of Gurgaon. Advertising at the station is a wonderful way of targeting working professionals with the power to buy. Since the metro is a medium used by every income section, it is a good way to showcase your brand before professionals holding important positions in their organizations also.

Commercial Area

Kashmere Gate is a busy commercial area with wholesalers and SME owners. The metro station is a strategic goldmine for brands looking for productive associations and growth. The commercial establishments make the area buzz with activity, making it an appropriate place for advertising.

Tourist Place

Kashmere Gate is one of the oldest places in Delhi. The name itself refers to a gate which used to start a road that led to Kashmir (Kashmere being the British variant in spelling). The area is quite popular for the Heritage Walks. It is a common site to see foreign and local tourists getting down at the Kashmere Gate Metro Station to explore the place that was witness to historic events like the 1857 War of Independence.

Educational Institutes

The IP University is another top drawer for the crowds in the Kashmere Gate Metro Station. It is a perfect site for targeting the college going youth of Delhi. Apart from the colleges under the IP University, the area is a hub for medical and engineering colleges, making it a prime place for the youngsters.

Violet Line to be added

The development plans at the Kashmere Gate Metro Station include linking the violet line to it. A part of the Phase III plans involve the setting up of the Lal Qila Metro Station which would link the line from Badarpur. This would then provide an additional route from Central Secretariat to Kashmere Gate increasing the opportunities at the later. Brands can expect to find more scopes in terms of numbers and audience segments when Phase III of DMRC gets completed.

Kashmere Gate Metro Station has always seen heavy rush hours during the office hours and college hours of 9-11 am and 5-6.30 pm. It is one of the largest metro stations and has been one of the most promoted sites of TDI, the Delhi Metro Advertising Agency holding exclusive advertising rights on it. It has recently seen a spate of advertising campaigns from a diverse clientele. In one of the firsts for the media, educational institutes also took part. The unique position of the metro station makes it ideal for both educational and commercial institutes. Its large size also allows for the installment of high impact sites that leave a marked impression on the viewers. The brands advertising at the station are confident that Kashmere Gate will soon enhance its position as a prime advertising spot after the expansion works are completed.

network Marketing For Dummies Provides Useful Information For Novices

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Novices in network marketing need to learn as much information as possible before signing up with a company. However, they may not know how to go about finding the right information in an effective manner. “Network Marketing For Dummies” provides useful information for beginners just venturing into this type of marketing. Zig Ziglar and John P. Hayes are the authors of this easy-to-understand guide that is available in Kindle and paperback formats. What information do these authors share with their readers?

In the Introduction of the book, it talks about what network marketing is and isn’t to clarify what a person should expect of it. It talks about the fact that this is a legit type of marketing and not a pyramid scheme. This section also states that this way of marketing will not make a person rich overnight. Numerous other points are made as well in the Introduction.

Part I of the book provides facts on why this style of marketing works. This part of the book is not telling you how to go about this marketing. It provides some of the history about it, talks about its future and whether is it right for you. These are discussed sufficiently without boring the reader. This section does cover the beginning of network marketing and its rise to a billion-dollar+ business.

Part II explains how to locate and evaluate the opportunities that are available today. This section will explain what you need to know before you invest in any network marketing opportunity that appeals to you. Even when you will only be placing two-hundred or three-hundred dollars at risk at first, you still want to invest your money wisely.

Part III of this guide offers pertinent information about how to sign up and set up in a successful manner. Anyone who has never owned a business before needs to pay close attention to this section. You will learn why you should not treat network marketing like a hobby. You will find advice about setting up your chosen business as well as partnerships. There is valuable info about working from your house. This chapter also talks about turning to the corporate office for help whenever necessary.

Part IV in this book talks about the many skills for both marketing and sales that you will need to build a business successfully. This information covers recruiting people for your downline, seeking customers, motivating those working with you and numerous other skills. You will learn that this type of marketing is about relationships instead of just selling.

Part V of the book provides you a quick read for a number of different resources and ideas. It has a number of lists that each includes at least ten valuable points, methods or ideas to assist you with your network-marketing venture.

This information just gives you a sampling of the information that “Network Marketing For Dummies” provides for novices in this type of marketing. It is an important read for you before investing any of your personal funds into any venture that is of interest to you. Check it out today on your own to see how it will help you.