Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Helping Children Cope with their Parents' Divorce

Not everyone is blessed with a complete and happy family. It is quite acceptable to see broken families, children dealing with step mothers or step fathers, or children dealing with a single parent. Divorce is acquired by most couples who cannot deal with their relationship anymore, or simply cannot work things out between them any longer. When this happens, their children are the ones who suffer the most. They now encounter a state of depression, wherein they tend to think about what they had before as a family, their connection, their close relationship between each other. This often links to even more decrease in their happiness, causing further psychological problems if not dealt with as soon as possible.

When dealing with divorce, the couple themselves need to analyze and think of what is going to happen with regards to their shared finances, their house, and most especially the custody of their children. It is critical for each parent to know what the their children are feeling, since this is a state of anxiety not just for them, but also for their kids. Of course, feelings of depression cannot be avoided by everyone, since their lives are about to change, hopefully for the better. But divorce is a hard stage to manage because all family members involved have feelings of anxiety and sometimes depression, which could make things even worse to handle or accept.

Children with divorced parents can truly be unpredictable. Some may show optimism by showing that they are independent and mature with regards to their parent's condition. This can be seen when children are of proper age, and can understand this kind of predicament. Others may react differently, showing no emotions whatsoever. This situation must be guarded accordingly, since the child may suffer from anxiety or depression but is not capable of letting it all out yet. In this case, it is wise to let the child into family counseling, a good way to communicate and interact with their thoughts and emotions. In this way, they may be able to express what they are truly feeling about the situation, and the respective counselor can assess the child's behavior and can give an appropriate evaluation of the child. This can really help in finding peace within the child himself, and can also make him easier to accept the unfavorable situation. Younger children requires at least one from the couple to be with them during these kinds of situations since they cannot take care of themselves without having at least a parent nearby. It would be recommended to try and talk to the child in a nice and loving manner, simplifying the events that are taking place. The child needs to know why his parents are not together anymore, so that he may not fall into a state of depression. Giving extra time and effort to the children can be of great help to their emotional healing. Children should be given the attention they need. Being able to communicate well with your children, asking them about their everyday lives, and just to be a part of their life can have a huge impact on their upbringing. Parents should continue to see, talk, and love their children even when the only option to take is divorce.


Learn where to get authoritative information on how to win child custody court cases.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Deciding Unique Baby Gifts

Knowing your family or friends having a baby is one of the amusement things. When the baby coming, there must be big party held, and you get the enouncement, it means that you have to come and participate with their happiness. And the things that can represent your feeling that you are happy too with the arriving their little new generation of the family is unique baby gifts.

The unique baby gifts can be various, as it depends on many factors. The popular gifts are baby's clothing. But, it does not mean, the thing is must. You can also choose shoes, baby's toys, baby's food and many other gifts. Before you choose a gift, it is better for you to decide how much money you are going to spend for the gifts.

Instead of that you have to consider what is the gender of the baby you are going to give unique baby gifts? Whether the baby is a girl or a boy will help you much in deciding the gifts you are going to buy. If you decide to bring clothes as the gifts, you have to know first the length of the baby. It is to avoid unfitted clothes, so that what the thing you give will be useful for the baby.

Choosing clothes as the unique baby gifts should noticing some considerations like the size of the clothes, you also have to be smart in choosing the material used for the clothes as the baby skin is so sensitive. You do not want to make the baby irritated, do you? So you have to choose the material that is soft and comfortable, it is advisable; you buy the clothes from the reputable baby stores.

The last thing is the style of the clothes. In order to your unique baby gifts will be remarkable forever, instead you have chosen the comfortable material you also have to choose a unique baby clothes. If it is possible, you can design by yourself the awesome clothes for the baby. You can see the baby fashion magazine as the references. Hence, you can give the most unique gifts for the little cute baby.

About the author: Margareta Diana's Baby Monitors guide. Providing the best, up-to-date information on the best in Baby Safety research, tips, & much more! Check another Guides and Visit .... http://www.babystear.com.


For the best unique baby gifts, visit Simply Unique Baby Gifts where you will find a large selection of baby gift baskets free shipping for boy, girls, unisex and twins.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Baby Gift Baskets Are The Hottest Gifts You Can Give

One of the most difficult decisions to make is the choice of gifts to give new parents after the arrival of their baby. It seems rather simple, but believe me it is a tough one.

Though this might sound funny, but its usefulness as a gift for new parents is getting increasingly popular. The item is baby-gift-baskets.

They are a very good gift option and are always welcomed, perhaps due to their utility nature. This kind of baskets can be used for variety of tasks.

Baby-gift-baskets are available in retail stores, and if you prefer shopping online, you can still order one from several internet shops. Those with a flair for creativity can even go a step further by making a baby-gift-basket of their choice.

When purchasing the gift, or if you are making one yourself, you must consider the gender of the baby. These will guide you about the theme to choose for the basket.

An interesting theme is "diaper duty". If you decide to go for this, then its best to include disposable diapers and baby powders for the parents.

If you are not disposed to the above, another option you can go for is to fill the baby-gift-baskets with travel sizes of the products most used by the parents.

Items to consider for this includes baby shampoo, soap, baby wash clothes, creams and lotions. The parents will appreciate this because the gift items will just fit into the diaper bag anytime they go out with the new arrival.

You can also include fun items like toys and books in the baby-gift-basket. They will come in handy when the baby begins to grow.

A very good idea is the addition of a memorable item in the baby-gift-basket. The best item for this will be a copy of the local newspaper for the day the baby was born.

An alternative to baby-gift-basket is a small rocking chair the baby will be able to use when it becomes a toddler.

And like other baby-gift-baskets options, this one too goes with accompanying items. Clothing and toys are good examples of what to add.

If you are not too keen with a rocking chair, you will want to give a baby bathtub a look in. The bathtub can be filled with all bath essentials like soaps, shampoos, wash cloths, and towels.

Fun items like a bath toy or bath crayons can also be added to the baby bathtub gift. This will offer something for the first few years of the baby's life.

However, when planning for the purchase of the baby-gift-baskets, you should also ensure you include a small gift for the new parents into your budget. A bottle of wine will be just fine, as it will enable the parents toast to their new bundle of joy.


Simply Unique Baby Gifts

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Restaurant Marketing Tips - Advertise Online For Free! Part 1

There were 11,820 searches for pizza restaurants in Chicago on Yahoo! in May, 2006. In Los Angeles there were 7,993 searches and in Detroit, 5,522. Identical searches occurred in nearly every major and not so major city in the U.S.

And not just for pizza restaurants. Italian, Mexican, American, Chinese and just plain restaurants, all had their share of online searches.

In short, there are a lot of people looking for good food online. The smart restaurants are positioning themselves to reach these online customers, make them feel welcome, and encourage them to try their restaurant's food.

Marketing your restaurant on the Internet means targeting your Internet advertising so that it will reach your local customers. Bring them to your website, give them good reasons to try your food and make it easy for them to place their first order with you.

Unless you happen to own a national restaurant chain, or are located in a major tourist destination, your customers are probably going to be located within a five to ten mile radius of your restaurant.

Your ultimate marketing goal is to get people to try your food. Internet marketing is no different, only the tools you use are new. One key tool you should have is your own website.

Once potential customers visit your website, your site should have all the tools needed to convince them to give your restaurant a try.

But before your website can do its job, you need to bring local online visitors there.

That's where local Internet advertising comes into play. There are plenty of ways to reach your local online community on the Internet. One often overlooked method is the Yahoo! local business listing.

Anyone can create a local Yahoo! business listing for free. The listing can contain your restaurant contact information and include a link to your website.

With a local Yahoo! listing your restaurant can show up near the top of the search results when someone does a search for your selected category. When they browse your listing they can click on your web address and will be taken to your web page. For example, let's assume you operate a pizza shop in Chelsea, Michigan. Go to Yahoo! and do a search for "pizza restaurant Chelsea Michigan" or "pizza Chelsea Michigan." In the first page of the search results notice a section called local listings. You will probably see an entry for Ollie's Main Street Pizza. Click on it and you'll see their local listing which includes their website, www.olliesmainstpizza.com which you can click on to visit their web page.

You can create your own local listing on Yahoo! just like Ollie's.

To create your free listing, use your web browser and navigate to http://local.yahoo.com. If you have a Yahoo! member ID and password and are not logged in, you have to log in now; if you are not registered with Yahoo, you will need to create a member ID and password (it's free) to list your business.

Once you have accessed http://local.yahoo.com, scroll down to the bottom and click on "Add/Edit a Business."

You will then be on the Yahoo! Search Marketing Local Listings page. In the lower right of the screen you will see "Local Basic Listings FREE". Click on the Get Started button (you may need to scroll down to see it). You may need to log in again with your Yahoo! ID and password.

The form for your local business listing now is displayed. When filling it out, be sure to include your full web address. That is, http://www.yourpizzeria.com rather than just www.yourpizzeria.com.

Include a description of your food and services in the description section. Avoid hype or blatant advertising, the listing must pass Yahoo's editorial review and the simple facts are your best bet here.

Also, be sure to select the appropriate business category and sub categories. In our case, this would be restaurant and pizza.

Assuming your listing passes editorial review, it should show up in 3 to 5 business days.

When it does, someone who searches for pizza restaurants in your town will see your restaurant in the local listings on the search results page. Through that listing they will be able to visit your website and you can convince them to try your fresh baked, hand tossed, home made pizza.

This is just one of many ways to advertise online for free.

Bear in mind though, that all the free Internet advertisements in the world will do you little good unless your web site can engage your visitors and convince them to become your customers. Since it is not yet possible to upload the mouth watering aromas that waft from your kitchen, you'll need to use other techniques on your website.

We'll talk about that in the next part of this article series along with another free online marketing tip.

Read more content marketing tips to attract and keep customers in your B2B company.

Monday, November 9, 2009

Mobile Sales Force Automation - How companies doubled its sales volume with wireless technologies

Introduction

In countless vertical business markets, mobile professionals are roaming far from their corporate campuses with laptops and cellular phones in tow. The increasing ubiquity of Wi-Fi hotspots and high-speed cellular networks, in part, has made these road warriors depend on real-time access to email, calendars and other corporate information systems.

Similarly, Sales force workers equipped with mobile devices such as Tablet PCs and ruggedized handhelds can be found in retail stores, on construction sites, in manufacturing plants, on service calls and everywhere else business is being done. Mobility gives them the tools they need for order-entry, shipment tracking and business intelligence reports. The use of mobile devices increases accuracy and eliminates redundancy, so there’s no need to carry around a stack of manuals.

Throughout business locations such as factories, offices, hospitals and other facilities a new breed of mobile worker, often referred as corridor warrior are seen armed with lightweight, handheld devices linked to wireless local area network (WLANs). The real-time communications and information access made possible through these complete mobile solutions is redefining the ways professionals perform at their jobs and consequently the costs of doing business.

These solutions are helping to raise the standards that both businesses and their workers are held to. This White Paper will discuss how the benefits of mobile solutions, are empowering Enterprises and their employees to improve revenue, engage in industry best practices and offer the best practices possible with its new features, functions and capabilities.

Obstacles in traditional SFA

A firm that has mobile sales force has been facing a lot of obstacles in recent times. They must continue realigning as the market changes. Earlier SFA Applications served the basic needs of field workers such as access to emails, contact management, calendaring and scheduling. Even though these features remain the dominant in SFA, the portfolio of capabilities has started to expand. A firm must adjust the pace of rebuilding the mobile force to match expected obstacles. The common anticipated obstacles are

  • Focus – Wasting time, money and resources on uninterested prospects. Instead of focusing on best prospects, sales force spends time on all the prospects.
  • Access – The Sales person often are not able to satisfy customer needs as they do not have access to the information that are sitting elsewhere in a database back at the office.

This led to the expansion of Mobile Sales Force Automation.

Expansion in Portfolio of Capabilities

  • Quick Access to Information – Imagine having outdated and inadequate information when you are in a sales call. Sales people should have critical facts and figures on the field that help them to close a deal. By providing the sales people with quick access and communicate information to and from the field allows the sales people to get the most from the time they spend with the customer.
  • Shortened Sales Cycle – Sales people can access current product information, check inventory and quote prices during a customer meeting which gives an outlook that they are very responsive. During the sales call customer can be informed about their accounts receivable status and credit standing with the push of a button. By using their mobile device the sales professionals can remove tedious tasks and reduce the delay in sending accurate information about customer meetings. Remote order entry capability also eliminates manual input of data into ERP. With these sales cycles are shortened, accurate information is gathered, customer is satisfied and revenue is increased.
  • Sync Capability – Synchronization provides a simple method of sharing data and merging new and updated information between offline users and the Mobile Server. When the offline user comes online he should be able to retrieve the updated information from backend server through mobile server and the information in his mobile device should be updated with the backend server. This ensures timeliness and accuracy of the information. The changes made outside the wireless coverage should be reliably conveyed to the backend. This ensures the sales professionals have most recently updated information and at the same time they need not reenter data again and again into the database. For Example, the corporate network of a major banking industry is designed to provide sales professional with reliable real-time access to their server. In a customer’s place network coverage is not stable always, it gets lost. They need to use their mobile device and enter data as they interact with customer and then make that data available to the server as soon as the connection returns.
  • Always On Sometimes Connected – During sales call, sales professionals are in consistent time constraint. They need to deliver their messages efficiently as well as effectively so that they don’t waste the face time with the prospects. The required boot of the laptop can waste a considerable amount of time in front of the prospect, which makes it less optimal. In such cases, sales professionals needs a mobile device which can help them access critical information in a small screen. “Always On capability is a must and the sales professionals can connect sometime to retrieve information.” An efficient and powerful search capability is an important requirement.
  • Security – With the growing functionalities in today’s SFA security plays a very important role. The primary security requirement is that all users should authenticate themselves as a verified user into the corporate systems. This ensures the sales professional accessing into critical information is an authorized user. And also an insecure connection or a lost device can cause a loss to company’s proprietary data, in turn lowers competitive advantage. Mobility devices should have strong encryption capabilities for application data as it is transmitted over a network using a standard communication. A strong encryption system such as Triple AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) or DES (Data Encryption Standard) is necessary in ensuring the application data on the device is protected. In case of any lost or stolen devices, they should have the ability to remotely disable it.

SFA Mobile applications open up new frontiers

Recent advances in both wired and wireless Internet access solutions have spurred faster growth of mobile sales force population in the last couple of years, with hosted applications promising to open up new frontiers. The following features emerged into SFA applications, assures companies to maximize its capability to effectively and efficiently manage mobile users and devices.

  • Policy-based Management – Can provide a way to allocate network resources, primarily network bandwidth and security (firewalls), according to defined business policies. Users can be defined as individuals, groups, communities, and have specific management capabilities applied to them. This can be easily changed, and can be tied to a directory.
  • Broad functionality – Can function with a wide variety of applications and data requirements. Most of the applications have the needed interfaces to allow customization and additions.
  • Directory integration – Can interface with already defined directory structure and policies so a stand-alone or duplicate directory is not needed.
  • Scalability – Can provide management for a large number of users with a large number of devices.
  • Single console for all network/application/device/security – can provide a single console from which it can define, control, deploy and maintain all aspects of the device, application, network and security.
  • Web-based console – can be managed from a web-based console from any standard browser, allowing management from local or remote locations, and on a variety of devices.
  • Support for diversity in devices, platforms, and networks – supports a variety of devices, connections and platforms, and will continue to expand on the device types and OS flavors.
  • Security components – Provides at least a minimum set of security capabilities within the product. Can be integrated with higher-level security tools.
  • Bandwidth aware – can adjust for whatever bandwidth is available for the particular connection (e.g., delivering massive file updates on a slow connection).
  • Dashboard – can provide a management dashboard of information on processes, users, devices, performance, etc.
  • Backend management integration – can integrate effectively with other back-end management infrastructure already deployed within the organization without needing to retrain existing staff already familiar with the application.

Emerging trends in Mobile Capabilities

Today, an assortment of technology is used by sales professionals, ranging from laptop computers to consumer-grade personal digital assistants (PDAs) to beepers and cell phones. These top features provide a solution for everything a sales professional may need while out of the office.

  • Integration – Ability to integrate with enterprise-level business applications.
  • Operating System – Defining a standardized OS environment has greatly eased deployment of devices. Much like the PC desktop environment, the ability to deploy a single platform to all users means allowing a uniform distribution of SW, and a consolidated support requirement. Can support Familiar Microsoft Windows Mobile-based operating system.
  • Deployment platform – Companies ultimately deploy applications on one of two major platforms: Microsoft .Net, or Java. However, many organizations will deploy both. Can run in either environment (e.g., running a JVM on a Windows Mobile device supporting .Net).
  • Third party application availability – Many application vendors now offer mobile extensions to their application suites, providing a convenient means of extending applications to a mobile sales professional. However, not all vendors provide such capability, nor do they support all platforms. Third party middleware extensions provide needed functionality when not available within the application.
  • Asset Management – Deploying devices to users is only part of the challenge. The greater part of the challenge is managing the deployed assets. Devices deployed in enterprise settings provide the appropriate tools to mange the devices adequately, even when used with a third party asset management application.
  • Connectivity – Companies are relying on the notion of the “real time enterprise” which requires up-to-date data acquisition of business activity information, as well as empowering employees with the data necessary to make the proper decisions. Mobile devices offer connectivity, even if not immediately used with the expansion of WiFi deployments within companies, as well as in public places. Can also allow a choice of radio connectivity options.
  • Battery Life – Battery life varies greatly depending on usage factor but the bottom line for most users is, can mobile devices get the user through the workday without a recharge? Most consumer PDA devices are challenged to provide a full day’s operation when using a wireless connection (WiFi). Can provide sufficient powerful batteries to provide at least one day’s operation, and allow full recharge overnight. Further, can provide field replaceable battery, as most batteries will only withstand about 300 charge/discharge cycles.
  • Data Capture – Data capture options provide linear and two-dimensional scanning or imaging.
  • Voice telephony – Voice telephony for push-to-talk (PTT), peer-to-peer (P2P), private branch exchange (PBX), one-to-one or one-to-many communications.

Future Technology Accelerators

Tablet PC

Tablet PCs combine the touch screen and handwriting features of the PDA with the computing power of a notebook computer in a compact and light weight design. End-user experiences the same look and feel in the office as in the field. Other advances in battery life and wireless capabilities are also eagerly anticipated.

Voice

Emerging technologies that allow natural text to speech dictation will allow easier data capture by both sales professionals and other members of the sales channel. Such services can run on mobile devices or via telephone services to a central server. Such solutions will tie directly into sales and marketing applications and can help increase the amount of useful data that can be captured in the field.

Extending into Field Analytics

As wireless networks improve, our ability to access information throughout the enterprise increases. Through integration of analytics into a mobile environment, we bring the sales professional in closer contact with the home office and help them to better highlight customer needs. We will be able to better measure and predict behavior and the interactions with the customer and, in turn, support changes in the business landscape, such as product launches and formulary changes.

RFID [Spell out] – Radio Frequency Identification

An RFID system comprises three main elements: electronic tags, tag readers and software to store collected data.

The tags, which consist of a silicon chip and an antenna, provide each individual object to which they are attached with a unique identifier. When scanned, the tag transmits a wireless signal to the reader, which in turn sends the data to a database. The reader can also write information to the tag if required.

RFID technology is becoming prevalent in logistics where the movement of mobile tags, for example on pallets of consumer goods, is read by static readers, say, in goods in/out bays of a warehouse. However, for Sales Force Applications, this concept is reversed: the tags are static and the readers are mobile, i.e. carried by the sales professional. Tags can be attached, say, to a fixed location for proof of attendance, or to a specific item of machinery to be checked.

Top 5 reasons to make SFA MOBILE

  • Company conducts business in a national or global market.
  • Sales professionals spend more than 25% of the time out of office.
  • Business depends on quick and informed decisions from people who are frequently on the road.
  • Sales professionals need to have quick access to information and provide quick answers to the customers when they are on the call.
  • Nimbleness is a competitive advantage for the sales professional.

Sample Case Study

Challenge

A famous Banking company needed a robust tool for managing sales leads and opportunities with visibility of the sales pipeline. The company desired a web-based, customizable solution that would be a good fit with that company’s mobility offerings to their sales professionals. It also desired a low-risk solution that could scale as the company grews. They also wanted their sales professionals to have up-to-date information about the leads they handle.

Solution

They selected ZSL’s middleware technology for its wireless capabilities, ease of deployment, configuration and customization. Through ZSL’s middleware technology the sales professionals were able to wirelessly access the provisioning functionalities such as sales order management systems and hosted prospect database. In addition, they were impressed with ZyPrism’s ability to synchronize data’s with reliable real-time access.

Results

Because of availability of data at real-time sales professionals were able to respond to customers at a quicker rate, shorten the sales cycle, increased their productivity and greater revenue generated. Because leads are pushed via alerts directly to sales professional’s Mobiles, sales professionals started experiencing faster response times to people who register interest via the web or its sales call center.

Conclusion

By providing quick access to information to sales professionals available at back-end data and applications helps them to shorten the sales cycle, gather accurate information, improves customer satisfaction and increase revenue. Sales professionals become more responsive to customers through expansion of capabilities in SFA.

With Synchronization feature in SFA sales professionals are equipped with real time and updated information, which in turn helps them to provide customers with up-to-date prices and inventory available. Remote order entry capabilities reduce the burden of entering the data again in the database residing at the server and help them to close the sale quickly and efficiently.

Business productivity and customer satisfaction can be achieved when mobile and wireless solutions are used wisely. Mobile solutions have truly come of age and can literally transform business to newer heights. Now is the time to evaluate how becoming more mobile sales professionals can be more productive. Its time to craft your mobile strategy otherwise your competitors are likely to go mobile giving them the competitive advantage.

Expansion in the capabilities of Sales force automation applications holds great promise for improving the efficiency of mobile sales professional and reducing the overall cost of sales. The enterprise network should be properly equipped to provide reliability, security, bandwidth, adequate remote connectivity and management controls. Mobility can give all the business advantages with these capabilities.

About the Author

John Solomon is with ZSL. ZSL realizes that salespeople are mobile by definition. ZSL uses technology to make sales team more focused and successful. ZSL’s solution is customized in such a way that sales professionals get the direction they need and managers get the information they need. The bottom line is increased profits.

ZSL is an ISO 9001 certified provider of Onshore, Offshore & Near shore technology services. ZSL offers substantial cost savings and enhanced performance associated with a secure and effectively managed global development model. For over 10 years, ZSL has been partnering with a loyal following of clients seeking to leverage our proven delivery methodology, as well as 24/7 access to the very best technical resources and development tools available anywhere.


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