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A wise friend of mine has often said, “There is no such thing as competition.” I happen to agree with that philosophy. In fact, I have many solid business and social relationships with people you might consider my “competition”. Some of my best friends are “competitors?”

Whenever I mention this, most business people disagree. “How can you say that,” they protest, “when every month I lose business to competitors?”

I explain why my viewpoint is different. Certainly, there will always be other people in the same kind of business as ours, but that’s not a bad thing. It keeps us motivated, and stimulated. And it also allows more people to learn about our type of business, which makes them more knowledgeable when we talk to them. I truly believe that there is enough business out there for everyone if — and this is the key factor — we are providing something valuable and unique enough to our target market.

Here’s what I mean. The public relations business certainly has no shortage of agencies and independent practitioners. When I started my company three and a half years ago, my focus was traditional marketing and public relations, with standard retainer and project fees.

But along the way, my direction changed. My clients and prospective clients gave me other insights and ideas that led to the creation of new concepts and services (the Do-It-Yourself Public Relations Kit

Tags: free publicity, pr, pr firm, public relations, public relations firm, publicist, publicityfree publicity, pr, pr firm, public relations, public relations firm, publicist, publicity

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On a bone chilling icy day nothing could be better than the sound of fire crackling from the fireplace, the smell of soup in the kettle, and cornbread in the oven. My nose was teasing my taste buds. My taste buds were basking in expectations of being bathed in absolute delight.

The usual calling card (aroma’s from the kitchen ) was being left and had commenced drawing everyone from each corner of the house, inside and out, to have a need to get a drink of water, a cup of coffee, or anything that would put them in, or near the kitchen. The only thing was we all knew that when Aunt Nelly was in the “cooking business” you didn’t dare disturb her unless, you had a chore in the kitchen, or, a 911 emergency which included blood! The reason being that cooking for a small army required much concentration and much more work.

Aunt Nelly was preparing Emerald Soup which would be partnered with hot butter Corn Bread. She had soups of all colors in her collection of recipes. Ruby Red Soup (Cream of Tomato & Pimento), Yellow Harvest Soup (Creamy Butternut Squash & Pumpkin), Brown Beef Soup (Savory Vegetable Beef). There was even a Plum Purple Soup which was served cold over a small square of pound cake as a dessert soup on hot summer days. What can I say, Aunt Nelly was a colorful individual. Her soup was not of this world, as Aunt Nita would say, “simply Heavenly”, or “this is divine!”.

Don’t be fooled by the secret ingredient here! It lends lot of flavor and even those who literally hate it can not tell you put it the pot unless you tell them. When you serve this creamy, appetizing Emerald Soup, your friends will be green with envy.

Emerald Soup
2 Ham Hocks

5 C. Water

1 C. Vegetable Broth

1 16 oz. pkg. of split peas

1/2 C. of canned spinach with juice (pureed) {secret ingredient}
salt & pepper to taste
1 C. Half n Half

3 T. butter
1 small yellow onion (diced)
1 clove garlic (minced)
pinch of ground cumin

In a large heavy stock pot place Ham Hocks, water, and vegetable broth. You may add salt to taste. Bring to a rolling boil.

Add split peas stir down and adjust heat setting to medium heat. Cover with lid, let boil slowly for 1 hour. Stirring occasionally, being sure to scrape down sides and bottom of stock pot.

While peas are boiling, in a small skillet on LOW heat melt butter.

Add onion, and garlic to the butter. Saut

Tags: appetizing, creamy, soup, spinachappetizing, creamy, soup, spinach

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These are the fundamental steps that lead a business to a path of progress and competitiveness enhancing efficiency and effectiveness of the business. There are 7 steps that are discussed below:

1. Finding the Gaps
It includes the skills and knowledge your company possesses and is a major determinant of your success. In this step you need to identify your strengths, areas needing further study and areas of concern that could seriously affect your ability to stay competitive. Once you are through with this step, you would have access to practicable online information and other references that will help you bridge any knowledge and skill gaps. Filling these gaps will help in making your organization better prepared and to ascertain benefit from valuable information relating to the various management functions.

2. Pre-Planning
Pre-Planning is the process by which the management of an organization foresee its future and develop the necessary measures and operations to achieve the goals of future. It includes development of the purpose, mission, vision, and value statements of the managing teams; communication of these documents and suggestions for improvement, culture survey to create a base against which change can be compared and last but not the least celebrating achievements and learning from mistakes. After Pre-Planning the team needs to formulate strategies and, clearly identify an action plan on which implementation is to be performed. As part of this phase, you will also need to repeat your mission and restate your company’s vision. Although there are many kinds of strategies but in this situation basic strategy should not change much in the short term, whereas sub-strategies can change rapidly in reaction to competitive situations.

3. Financing
Financing plan is developed to increase the business competitiveness through an improved knowledge of the techniques and methods of funding available. Equity and debt are two types of financing available to business. Equity is the money that you put into your business and Debt is what you borrow from others to invest in your business.

4. Involvement of Technology
The businesses are becoming more dependent on technology. By optimizing the use of technology, the business may maintain progress, improve its customer services, and gain a competitive edge over those businesses that are not utilizing their technology. In the modern world the change of information technology has become a vital part in competition with the real world. Now the Question is that why do we use technology in business? The answer is simple that it enhances customer service, can decrease cost, can improve communication, can facilitate research, can increase productivity, efficiency as well as effectiveness in the business.

5. Improvement in Human Resource
Using this resource to its best advantage is a means to maximize the effectiveness of the other entire systems and procedures already in place. The business or an organization having skilled and competitive employees is considered as the most competitive business. Proper human resource management is needed to increase effectiveness in work and to smoothly achieve the goals and accomplish tasks.

6. Marketing strategy
Marketing and related activities in a business, small or large, ensure that your business gets information from its customers, develops and markets the services to satisfy their needs and gets feedback on their satisfaction levels. Marketing acts as an interface between the enterprise and its markets. Marketing can be defined as the function that encompasses most activities between the producer of a good or the supplier of a service and the consumers. It is also a set of business development activities which starts with the consumer from whose needs, the business gets its service ideas and to whom it will sell its services.

7. Process of Quality Assurance
The Process of Quality Assurance in a business refers to planned, and step-by-step activities that determines that testing is being carried out correctly, results are accurate, and mistakes are found and corrected to avoid undesirable outcomes. Quality assurance is a constant set of activities that help the business to ensure that the test results provided are as accurate and reliable as possible. Maintaining quality assurance leads to customer retention, and an image as a competitive business in the minds of clients.

Conclusion
Competition in businesses is now found everywhere and in such a competitive world it is difficult for any new business or start-ups to survive and thrive. Implementation of the above steps can definitely help towards effectively competing in any market.

© 2006, Wholesale Pages UK. All rights reserved.

William King is the director of Canada Wholesale, UK Wholesalers and Dropshippers Directory. He has 18 years of experience in the marketing and trading industries and has been helping retailers and startups with their product sourcing, promotion, marketing and supply chain requirements.

Tags: business, business competition, business competition st, business effectiveness, business efficiencybusiness, business competition, business competition st, business effectiveness, business efficiency

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