Business success: the changing of the placement in the market of several commercial structures.

The increase in discounts and offers from many traditional supermarket chains, has led many consumers to choose, sometimes, between the low cost products, those branded or at least those offered by retail chains that do not focus in the low total cost.

Open a company : how to position it?

Thus, the differentation among consumers (low-cost products for low income consumers and, in contrast, high-end products for a minority of consumers who have strong spending power and income), in this case, is scaled by two likely causes:

some commercial operators of the medium segment, offer discounts to attract customers of the low-end and so subtract space to the competitors of low cost;

consumption choices by many consumers that however, for some products do not compromise on quality.

It is obvious that the placement in a market segment of the several commercial companies, in real terms, it is not always so static or fixed, as you can imagine.

Indeed, the attention of many consumers to the branded products or found to be of quality, leads to choose them, especially, if they assign them a value as high so to allocate share of income for these products.

Open a small business: what strategies?

If also the large hard discount chains, have been surprised, even more so for a small company, becomes fundamental the ability to mix solutions and to keep a dose of flexibility and adaptability through discounts, promotions and research of winning tactics they must be a constant action for small and medium enterprises that must feel the pulse of the market and therefore of its consumers.

In this new report, dedicated to the creation of enterprise, we want to talk about a sector that despite being already from many time on the market, still reserve the opportunity to gain well: herbal medicine. This name, means a shop which sells herbal products, not only with therapeutic properties but also for aesthetic (cosmetic, hair dyes, creams).

OPEN AN HERBALIST SHOP: INTRODUCTION

By the term herbal products, we suggest, in fact, herbal products. The manager of the herbal medicine, is a person competent and prepared: the herbalist. So, start a shop of herbalist, is not the same thing to launch a perfumery, but is more or less equated to the pharmacy or pharmacy. For the avoidance of doubt, we do not want to say that entering in a herbalist shop is the same as entering a pharmacy, but that sense of responsibility and competence of the operator must be similar to those of the pharmacist. The boom of herbalists has been since the 70s, in the wake of the Anglo-Saxon import mode. At the time, was not easy to find customers. Consumers looked with suspicion or even contempt for the herbal products. Then, during the ’80s, things changed radically and the sales of herbal products, have been increased in that continues today.

OPEN AN HERBALIST: THE MARKET

Recent studies, say that the sector shows a sales increase of 40% per year. The reasons for this renewed interest in consumer products, herbal preparations, are the emphasis on health and welfare of the body achieved through natural products and the increasing use of the selfmedication.

The cuts in health spending that lead to the need for rationalize the costs of products dedicated to the “cares made by themself” the need to consume products with no chemicals in addition to meeting the body, also respects the environment and the growing incidence of allergies in both adults and children, probably caused by pollutants that leads people to cultivate interest in products with no chemicals, allergens and side effects.

The price of herbal products, generally lower than that of a drug can be an additional factor for loyalty of the customer. And now herbal teas, tinctures, lipsticks, creams, herbal strictly manage to find space in drawers and in the lives of many families of any social class, from middle to high. The competition exists, as with any business sector that has a long and established tradition in the area. And we, as usual, we devote the first part of our report, the examination of competition to analyse well in the next episodes, solutions and strategies that can enable us to achieve stable sales and earnings, despite the competition itself .

The voice “herbalist”, returns nearly 927 000 web entries, while the word “herbal online” returns more than 500 000. Regarding the territorial distribution of herbalists also through the web, Piedmont has 158 000 results 221 000 Lombardy, Veneto, 183 000, 236 000, the Trentino, Friuli 124 000; 159 000 Liguria, Valle D 110 000 ‘Aosta, Emilia Romagna 201 000; 155 000 Tuscany, Umbria, 133 000, 131 000 Abruzzo; 222 000 Marche, Molise, 114 000, 105 000, Basilicata, Campania 137 000, 150 000 in Puglia, Calabria 170 000; 147 000 in Sicily, Sardinia 189 000. The first step to beat the competition is to find areas where competitors are less presents. More or less, in fact, herbalists are widely disseminated in all regions of Italy, but there are always areas where there is only one local herbalist or none.

OPEN AN HERBALIST : THE COMPETITORS

To compete with these stores, are also pharmacies and also parapharmacies. So to establish itself as a herbalist, you will need, as they say in economic jargon and marketing, “increase the visibility of the brand” (see the famous TV commercials), that not only give value to what is sold as herbal medicine, but the role that the herb also manages to make it clear to customers that your store will receive the right advice and assistance on the correct product to buy. To complete our examination on the distribution of competition, adding that the “herbal online” in Piedmont, on the web, it returns 32,600 results, Lombardy 38000, 30700, Veneto, Trentino 52,300; 53 000 Friuli, Liguria 27,900, Valle D’Aosta 16,700, 33,700 Emilia Romagna, Tuscany, 32100, 27900 Umbria, Abruzzo 24,200; 92 000 Marche, Molise 16,100; Basilicata 16,700, 23,800, Campania, Puglia, 28,200; 54100 Calabria, Sicily 30900, Sardinia 24500. Continued …

Data sources:

http://www.lavoroeformazione.it/fare_impresa/come_avviare_erboristeria.asp

www.google.it

Rosalba Mancuso

Sources of images:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/34141375 @ N03/3576179086

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alice77/2683693920/

Andrea Figoli

In a previous article we saw how mature the research and the desire to make a change to our life.

Today, we wish to highlight another aspect:

change our life or escape from ourself?

It is hard to meet people who partially or completely, do not want to change their lives.

However, rather than a desire to change their lives, seems a desire to:

drop everything and run away!

While the two : needs / dreams, often they can easily overlap; it corresponds to the truth that in many cases in the search for a change of life, there is only the desire to escape from themselves and from their responsibilities.

Drop everything and run away: the consequences

Noting the many people the have made a radical choice : changing the place of their life, and the way of life, it is clear that:

who made a reasoned choice and he lived the change, not only in terms of geography and habit, but he have put in place a real change in their circumstances: he certainly has received advantages, changing in positive its condition.

Those who have just moved their residence and steered clear of any commitment and responsibility, have continued to worsen their situation, carrying their insecurities, fears and the same problems of their place of departure.

They actually restarted to live the usual life experience, changing only the geographic context and some exterior appearance.

Currency life : begin again from me.

It is so obvious that the change in our lives, pass first by ourselves.

Believe that to change and be happy with ourselves, is enough to put us a few thousand miles away from creditors, relatives, neighbors and other problems, often is only an illusion.
image source:

blog.libero.it

In the first installment of our reportage, devoted to open a shop of plants and flowers, we said that the job of manager of that business, ie florist or flower shop, it can not sudden, but you learn by following the appropriate training courses. Courses in this respect, are offered by professional associations that may also be a useful reference point to know all the steps for opening activity.

OPEN A SHOP OF FLOWERS: SOME ADDRESSES

Among the main, we highlight Assofioristi www.assofioristi.it, trade union, member Confesercenti, which includes within it the School of Floral Art Culture and Technology, which allows you to take courses tailored to learn all the techniques of flower arranging , from the simplest to the most innovative. The courses have different levels of difficulty can be the basis of specialization, monographs, primary, second level and so on. Even with the basic course, the aspiring entrepreneur – florist will learn to manage the relationship with the client to make floral arrangements suitable for any occasion, to create a bouquet. The basic course is divided into three modules lasting 28 hours each. Even the specialized courses, are structured in modules and duration of basic courses, which allow only to learn the most advanced techniques of flower arranging and managing of large scale compositions. The specialized courses, lasting two to four days and developed according to thematic modules that are used to learn the creation and management of floral arrangements for certain events. There are also courses overture, to learn the new trends in floral design and compositions required by the market (these advices, are also used to find employment opportunities and to ensure that the business is profitable).

The course price ranges between 150 and 300 euros. May participate, owners, partners or employees of the flower shop. Another association that offers educational opportunities is Federfiori www.federfiori.it, belonging to Confcommercio. Inside by the National School Federfiori Carlo Pirollo. Again you can attend basic courses, and updating higher that allow to the beginner florists, to have knowledge , but also the title of Floral designers recognized at European level. Entrepreneurs already operating in each province can take refresher courses sponsored by Federfiori. The cost of lessons from a minimum of 50 to a maximum of 560 euros.

BECOME A FLORIST. OTHER COURSES:

If you want to acquire a university education, can attend degree courses in botany, set up at major universities. The degree course can be particularly useful for people wishing to cultivate their own crop of flowers for resale at wholesale or retail. Botany and plant science fact that is taught at the Faculty of Natural Sciences. Another very useful way to work the subject of our report is the degree course in Agricultural Biotechnology and Plants. Just inquire with the university’s Office of your area of residence to ascertain the activation of these academic courses. One of the critical issues faced by a florist’s job is (apart from the competition), the without permission activities. Various floral arrangements are sold to every corner of the city, from street vendors, including foreigners, often not covered. The phenomenon exists since the 90s and seems to have become more intense in recent years, but this criticism can be easily overcome with imagination and creativity and the training that we have reported in this article.

OPEN A STORE IN PLANTS AND FLOWERS: HOW OPEN

A plant and flower shop, does not just live with the bouquet sold on Valentine’s Day or Women’s Day. Its core business, ranging in different activities, such as the delivery of flowers and plants at home (we had already said in the previous episode), but also the sale of more complex flower arrangements for special events like weddings or mourning. That’s why the location of the activity, is the first thing to bear in consideration in the start up phase.

Better to open the store in areas of low competition, in walkways and much frequented, near cemeteries and hospitals or in shopping centers and supermarkets are some of the areas that are now competing with traditional flower shops. Another solution, would be to act as a manufacturer and wholesaler of particular types of glasshouse grown plants and flowers, that is open a nursery of plants. Essential is the purchase of the lot, where grow the plants and flowers to sell. In the next episode we will discover how to do. Follow …

Source of some data:

http://www.lavoroeformazione.it/fare_impresa/come_avviare_negozio_fiori.asp

Sources of images:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/13549634 @ N06/3395192075

http://www.flickr.com/photos/81974988 @ N00/2934486006

Happy Monday

I retake an argument, even after an email that arrived two weeks ago.

Basically, a reader asked us:

what type of activity is more profitable in a suburb of a medium-small city.

If we look at the activities that they have occurred in a given street or neighborhood in the last 30 years and over (and of course would be appropriate to consider other areas to see if there is a match), we can understand what type of company better resist major changes and to the developments in the trade and also, which are the new businesses opened?.

Open a shop, what can i open?

Without using the statistical data, we can see, even compared to ten to fifteen years ago,

an increase of:

fast food and ethnic restaurants

centers for international calls, services of delivery/sending money

(These two sectors have strong growth as a result of the growing presence of foreign nationals, residing in particular in the suburbs.

What can it open?

Instead, others, they have been reduced:

Sub agency insurance offices

(cause :competition of the Internet and increased ‘mobility’ of customers)

shops and intimate apparel

(cause : competition from shopping centers, outlets etc.).

shoemakers and certain services of niche

(Even for the shoes, always prevail more disposable products)

stationery neighborhood

(competition of big distribution)

video stores and music stores

(Internet competition and different methods of distribution and consumption)

small haberdasheries

many others, but for lack of space and time we do not indicate

Open a shop: the activities that are in positive

Have held up well and in some cases even have developed:

Pizzerias of any kind

(Especially with home delivery)

restaurants

bar

circles

self-service laundries

These are just some of the activities that can be reported.

In reality, each situation, must be observed and analyzed for the context in which it resides.

If for example, we take into account the small computer store, we could certainly say that in most cases, small retailers are in crisis for several years and others, taking advantage of the lowest costs in the suburbs, have chosen to settle (as other activities) in the suburbs, more like the logistic and technical point than of selling their products in that area.

Given the breadth of the subject, back to the subject in the future.

Good job

Andrea Figoli

To try to understand which activities to undertake in the future, today we make an experiment.

Imagine living in 2030 and try to identify ourselves in those years to understand how certain consumption activities will be made by people, and what will be changed than the current situation.

To begin to evaluate it, think about what has changed in the last twenty years:

Growth in sales of products and services for seniors and singles.

Growth of selling of the technology (mobile phones, computers, etc…)
Increasing attention to leisure and personal care.

Increased travel and holidays, though ever shorter, and often, oriented to low cost.

Changing population characteristics: greater age, lesser presence of young people and increasingly a multiethnic and multicultural people.

Obligation for the majority of the population to devote more hours and years to their work (pensions that are moving more and forward).

These developments have occurred in some western countries in recent years.

Profitable ideas: What will be the winning business in the future?

Services to the third and fourth age:

Starting from the evidence that we have emphasized above, it is not difficult to imagine that the further aging of the population in Western countries, will lead to increased demand for services for this consumer group (pharmacies, assistance elderly and disabled persons, meeting places and recreation for the third and fourth age, organizing trips and vacations for these people, etc…)

Intermediaries in crisis?

As we emphasized in the past, the disintermediation is affecting new areas.

Internet is helping to quickly disintermediation in many fields: just think of the tourism and real estate. And this especially in the low end.

More and more people are organizing their own travel without intermediaries and also the sale / purchase of property, through some sites.

This is affecting the low-end market (real estate and tourism services to medium and low cost).

Certainly, this phenomenon will grow in future and the traditional operators need to focus more and more towards services and groups of consumers groups that can retain them also in the future; sectors, where an operator (broker) can, with his professionalism, still to be crucial.

Future businesses: the effect scissors on the range of products and services offered.

Another element that is becoming increasingly clear is the scissors effect on consumption gap.

We can see a tremendous growth of low cost products and services and the collapse of services and supplies in the medium segment while the achieve of an increase in services in the high-end products.

Surely, this is a phenomenon that will tend to emerge even more in the future.

So, in the develop of your business plan, you need to define well the segment in which we wish to operate.

Appointment in the future to further investigate the topic.

image source:
comune.jesi.an.it

After a long succession of Information concerning the bureaucratic and about the training to open a shop, let’s give you some useful advice to develop physically activity.

OPEN A PET SHOP: THE STORE

A pet shop, as say the same name, first, is a store that sells pet products. Even if you decide to go with a website, the local head office, management and warehouse, they must exist.

A pet shop, small but well equipped with products and accessories, it should have a minimum area of 40 square meters (offices, racks of sale or depot). The investments that will be done is about on the premises (purchase), in the furnishing and delivery of products to sell, in addition to the fixed costs of utilities (electricity, telephone), any rent and the staff. A small pet shop, requires a figure of a member and one employee.

If you decide to offer additional services, such as home food delivery, transportation, animal or pet sitting, you can resort to external partners through cooperation agreement or occasional project contracts. Be careful not to abuse these tools for the regulation of labor relations. The casual employee may not carry more than 30 performances a month or greater than the annual income of 5000 euros, the project contract provides, however, an agreement between owner and employee based on a specific project for a specified period of time and a certain fee. If the pet shop, requires the presence of a permanent employee, for store hours, duties and obligations with internal recruitment will be through employment contract for a specified or unspecified time.

We can say, here, that the tools so-called “flexible” , they may serve the employer for the star-up phase of the company, where work, of course, is not a lot.

When it will conduct a development scheme, the presence of a permanent employee, to take just opened the shop and replace the holder, will be essential, or you must request the assistance of outside professionals with VAT.

OPEN A STORE FOR PETS: THE LOCATION

The shop will be launched in a country or town with at least 40 000 inhabitants; some data also suggest 20,000. The important is that the competition is not exaggerated and that they are areas of special interest tourism and trade. Before identifying the ideal location of the pet shop, we need to study the potential market, know the number of pets per capita, distribution, competition, and (we had mentioned in the first episode), the habits of the owners treat their animals as nutrition, cleaning and care. The strategic location to open a pet shop, are also big cities, choosing areas where there are no competitors, but only a good number of families with animals, but also the tourists, whose accommodations are organized in time for the persons and also for their ’4-legged friends.

If you decide, to sell in the store, also Pharmaceuticals, medecines, as well as feed and supplements, the minimum size of the shop, goes to about 60 square meters. The minimum investment for the implementation of the pet shop is about 50 000 euro per 100 square meters. In order to fall within a reasonably acceptable from the investment, must also consider the charge to be made on products that must be around at least around 50 -60% of the purchase price. Nothing prohibits making discounts and promotions to build customer loyalty, better, however, agree on the price reductions with supplier firms, in order to respect the proper proportions of reloading.

OPEN A STORE FOR PETS: THE MANAGEMENT OF THE SERVICES

For ancillary services, such as pet taxi, can think of subscription rates for a fixed number of rides, even for pet sitting, you may want to ask the customer a subscription for a certain amount of support period. As for grooming, although in this case, are preferable to define a tarif for service, to provide a service a bit as tariffs Hairdresser.

For the home delivery, for example, it would not interesting to pay the delivery of a single box, better define a minimum amount of deliveries. Another way to create a pet shop is profitable to bet on services most needed, such as home care and transportation for the high demand by owners of older animals. The sale of dietary products and drugs for species other than dogs and cats, or fish feed, are niche markets to consider in your pet shop. To find customers, the best form of advertising is word of mouth represented by veterinarians. And ‘useful, therefore, contact your veterinarian and leave the area in the waiting room of his study of leaflets which give the owners know of the existence of your store, this is physically and online.

Bibliography:

Corriere.it

http://www.vepafarm.it/franchising/index.php

Sources of images:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ondablv/1383178100/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/voirella/3248126020/



Two weeks ago, I went to dinner at a pizza restaurant where, sometimes we meet with some friends.

A clean and orderly restaurant.

An efficient service, but….

The analytical observer of who is trained from years to analyze costs and revenues, unfortunately, was not at rest, even in a relaxing evening.

Thus, together with the other diners (2 small entrepreneurs and an accountant) we could not not notice a discrepancy between the number of customers at the tables and the staff employed in various functions.

Basically, throughout the evening, an attendant every 2.5 customers.

Since prices are not high (in general), we inferred that the activity was fully at a loss.

Open activity: the cost control

Now, we examined a small but traditional activities such as this, to try to understand, the causes of inefficiencies and unfortunately the cause of the closure of many small and medium business.

The restaurant, we mentioned, is open for some time and plan the exact number of staff needed to cover the needs, was not difficult for its entrepreneur.

Sometimes, it is not the number of employees but their usage patterns.

In this case, there were more waiters that tables occupated, but in many other situations in the coming weeks that we will analyze, we will find that a wrong use of the tools and resources and a careless business management and careless planning staff, brings to similar results .

Open an activity: the management of the business resources.

In the coming episodes, we will explore in the various areas, where you can improve efficiency and productivity, thus improving the business results.

Goodbye

Andrea Figoli

image source:
comune.prato.it

Even in this new report dedicated to creating enterprise, we come back to deal with a very traditional sector, which has a good competition, but also good opportunities for innovation and, therefore, gain: Shop for plants and flowers. Who runs it is a florist, a job that you can not suddenly overnight, but that is acquired through appropriate training courses.

OPEN A STORE IN PLANTS AND FLOWERS: PRESENTATION

We said that, since it is a business that has a long tradition, the competition is certainly high, but the ideal location, combined with creativity and innovative ideas, can make a difference, by allowing good margins. Meanwhile let’s take a look at the distribution of competitors. Also on the web, the sector offers more than two million results in Italian. The competition is present, there are no doubt. But in such areas is more iron? Let us discover it together. We trawled in directories that are managed by large national and international brands in the world of flowers.

Major affiliated with these trademarks are in Lombardia (near Milan), Lazio (the province of Rome), Piedmont (Turin), much less in Liguria. Discreet presence in Bologna, similar to Florence abundant in Naples; in Palermo it is not excessive; slightly higher in Catania, Cagliari and Lecce have a similar distribution in Palermo, Bari, Catania approaches, decreases slightly in Udine, Trieste low with just three affiliates; Bolzano totals a number of activities similar to those of Palermo. Below Perugia and Reggio Calabria, as Catania, Pescara and then with less activity than the previous. Venice, Verona and Padua have a uniform distribution of activity, similar to those between Catania and Palermo.

The regional distribution through search engines, submit, however, these results: 31,600 in Sicily, Calabria 28,100; Puglia 28,200, 28,500 Campania, Basilicata 78,000, 29,200 Marche, Abruzzo 106,000, 36400 Tuscany, Lazio 30400, 92000 Umbria, Liguria 32000; 35400 Piedmont, Lombardy 43,200, 89,500 Friuli, Veneto 35900, Aosta Valley 985 000 (the term gives too many results in relation to the area of the region, we typed Aosta and we got only 89,800 results (the value seems more reliable), Sardinia, 24,500, 75,800 Molise, Trentino Alto Adige 96100, 28900 Emilia Romagna.

BECOME A FLORIST: WHERE TO OPEN

The first strategy to win the competition listed above, is to open the shop of plants and flowers in areas less populated by competitors. Second, we already mentioned, is to make the most imagination and creativity to launch innovative services required by potential customers. The florist, which is the proprietor of a shop that sells plants and flowers, is actually an artist who can create unique floral arrangements and sophisticated, suitable for any occasion: weddings, engagements, events and festivals, opening ceremonies, mourning. These are the times when the customer asks to buy a plant or flower arrangement. One of the services currently required by the market, is the delivery of flowers at home. The best known cases, belong to large enterprises with corporate form of spa outlets have spread in every part of Italy and the world. Through powerful database web and great advertising campaigns have succeeded in penetrating the market for home deliveries, obtaining orders from all over the planet. Who started the business from scratch, can not aspire to similar results in the short term.

For this, the delivery of plants and flowers at home is designed for consumers nearly, or however that live near the store. You can even match a site’s online sales of flower arrangement, for example, with other shops of flowers and plants located in other geographic areas that do not have selling tools on the web. To contact you, just look at the lists of the phone. This will become brokers for the sale of products and others in the price of delivery shall be deemed to apply to any charge made by the settlement price of retail outlets. To reduce the startup cost of the shop, you can even think of opening a corner inside a supermarket or shopping mall. The business of flowers also affects the world of the big distribution.

However, if you is own land, plants and flowers can be grown in greenhouses and selling them to wholesale florists and supermarkets and at the same time, distributed within a retail outlet. Many florists have begun to producers, cultivating their own plants and flowers and selling them through his own business of their family (wife or children). In the next episodes we will better understand how to start the company by examining all the facets that make up (training, ideal location, start-up costs, sales prices etc.). Follow us.
Some sources of data:

http://www.lavoroeformazione.it/fare_impresa/come_avviare_negozio_fiori.asp

http://www.fioristaonline.it/chisiamo.asp

Rosalba Mancuso

Sources of images:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/blunight72/124144835/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidaola/1793947014/

Happy Monday,

We restarted with the latest post published to come back for speak about the development of sites and portals.

During latest days, they were appeared many commercial spots in television to promote e-commerce portals, travel portals etc..

We do not mention the return period of the New Economy but certainly at this time, the online business is recovering its own space and this time, not to be temporary as had happened in the past at the time of the New Economy boom.

Doing business online: new strategies

On the one hand, we have the old (so to speak) vertical portals (think of the myriad of portals on tourism, real estate, e-commerce, meet of friends etc..) That are competing with each other and simultaneously with the new competitors.

These latest, in fact they are not more as vertical portals, but are site predominantly oriented to the price comparison between many sites or are sites of social networks (think for example how much space they have removed to the chat of meeting).

Other types of portals, they will submit in the market in the coming months and as a result:

they will subtract other space to operators off-line, bringing more and more users / customers to the digital economy;

they will occupy spaces of other players online;

they will oblige the old portals to do strategies of contrast (lower prices, increase services, to make alliances, etc.).

so, they will born new business models, related to different and new ways of monetizing that it will help more the sites that have a big audience (or a traffic in big quantities) than the others.
Good job

Andrea Figoli