N
em v o
20 r be
09
ue s s i
issue no. 4
Biz in Biz o u t
Welcome to Bizin-Bizout
Bizin-Bizout is a new kind of advertising service to new and existing businesses. It is designed to assist new businesses to advertise their products and services through the media and the internet.
Featured Companies MagicMundo Cubeonlinemarketing ProductFul Busy Lizzie
Be Thrifty.ie Actualise
Inside: •
Busy Lizzie Lifestyle management run by mumtrepreneur Tara Dalrymple helps small businesses build their foundations by providing Pay As You Go secretarial services. Pg5
•
Bethrifty.ie is an interesting and exciting new concept in Ireland. Pg7
MagicMundo Driver Theory Test Introduction
• Entertainment
The C4ward application\service is available to any one preparing to take the Drivers Theory Test in the following countries;
• Games • Applications • Games & Apps Once the download is completed you will given the option on if you would like to 'Start \ Open' the C4ward application.
c4ward
Republic of Ireland
You can choose to open it then or wait until a later time to open the C4ward application and complete the test.
Text PDTT1 or PDTT2 or PDTT3 or PDTT4 To 57800
On opening the C4ward application you will be presented with a screen showing a logo.
The cost per download is €5.00 You will receive two messages.
Select the 'Proceed' option and you will be presented with the first question of the questions that you will need to complete.
The first few messages are acknowledgements that your request has been logged and is been dealt with plus other information. The last message will contain the link (url) required to download the C4ward application on to your mobile phone. All you need to do is execute the link (url) and follow the instructions.
You will be presented on your screen with: • A question (at the top of the screen) • An image if required for the question (this shown just under the question)
The average length of time taken to download the test should be around 20 seconds.
• Using your navigation button on your mobile phone scroll down to the multiple choice answers. These can range from minimum of 4 answers to a maximum of 6 answers.
Also available for the UK http://magicmundo.com/c4ward.html
• To select the correct answer(s) for the question all one has to do is depress the navigation button on you mobile phone (this is standard for all mobile phones tested on)
Opening the C4ward application On completion of the download of the C4ward application (Driver Theory Tests questions) will be held (dependent on the mobile phone) in any of the following places:
• Once you have completed that question you simply take the option 'next' command or select any of the following: 'options' or 'more'
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or 'menu' (this is dependent on the make of mobile phone) to see the 'next' command. • This will move you on to the next question. • On completing all questions you will have displayed on the screen an option 'Finish'. • The next screen will give you the 'Good' news or the 'Bad' news on if you have passed or failed your practice driver's theory test. If you have failed your test and wish to see the questions you have failed on. You can simply select from one of the following: 'options' or 'more' or 'menu' then select the 'Check Answers' option
simply select from one of the following: 'options' or 'more' or 'menu' then select the 'Reset' option. This will remove all your answers, and will allow you to retake the test with the same questions.
This will display a screen showing you all the questions as you scroll down, with either: or (indicating right or wrong)
At any time while working your way through the questions you can stop by simply selecting from one of the following 'options' or 'more' or 'menu' then select the 'Exit' option. All work completed up till that point will be saved.
• The question number • The 'Correct Answer' • The 'Answer you supplied'
See our advertisement Phone Driver Theory Test
If you wish to take the same test again, you can
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Cubeonlinemarketing
C
ube are a Search Engine Optimisation company based in Dublin. Search Engine Optimisation is the process of helping websites to rank better in Google - I must say we do concentrate on Google as that is where 95% of the searchers on the internet are.
So How do we do Optimise Your Website? The starting point is your business, what do you sell, what service do you offer. From this we decide what are the best keyterms for you to rank for. This is based on how competitive the niche is and how much traffic there is in the niche. From there we can go away and complete a website audit.
A link is a hyperlink on another website that points to your site. Link building is where SEO consultants really earn their money - once the rest of the work is done this is the most important factor in ranking on Google.
This will highlight any problems with the current website and how they can be resolved. Once the on-site work is completed we will build links to your website.
Call or email me Leslie Gilmour 014434900 to find out more about promoting your business. www.cubeonlinemarketing.ie
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ProductFul
W
hy would somebody register their products online and store their receipts?
A
nswer: This is a question many people often ask me when I am discussing my business and trying to explain what we are doing. Well for a start registering online has the effect of prooving when you bought a product as it provides a digital trail of the purchase. Our website also allows the upload and storage of receipts. This is helpful when going to the person you bought the product off, or liasing with the manufacturer as they will always look for a copy of this, so they can check the purchase date. Many a time I have had people say to me , I had a problem with my product and I could not find the receipt, or I moved house and the receipt went missing!!! One of the other benefits of using our website is that you will be able to online to check if any guarantees that are offered by the manufacturer are still within date.
download , and review. This is very helpful as you have continuous access to them, but also www.productful.com is trying to help with the saving of paper printing for both the consumers and manufacturers. www.productful.com is currently working on finalising its website, but we also have some exciting functionality that we are looking into, which will make users of the website have a much more fulfilling experience.
One of the many problems faced by consumers is that while they can go back to the seller of the product to get it fixed, if it is not within the guarantee period it may be much harder to get a resolution, but the stautory rights afforded to people can help help someway here. Finally getting your product manuals with your purchase is nice, but I feel they always get mislaid, especially when a problem occurs at the most inopportune time.
Why not follow us on twitter http://twitter.com/productful or facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dublin/ ProductFulcom/135625479097
Our website will cater for this as we are looking to incorporate product manuals for users to
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Busy Lizzie Micro and Small Businesses Often Miss Out On A Vital Resource
S
mart businesses, especially small and micro businesses are outsourcing to one of our VPAs freeing up their time to concentrate on their income generating part of the business. This is a vital resource out there available to micro and small business owners in particular, but most are overlooking it. Why? Because they don't know it exists and if they have heard of it, they don't really realise how it benefits them. I am talking about virtual assistants. A virtual assistant offers administrative services such as secretarial work, transcription, book keeping, marketing, phone answering, website design, and the list goes on and on and on.
With modern technology so much work can be performed virtually. This is great for a business owner who is on the road a lot too, let the virtual assistant take care of all administration from their office.
Small business owners are burdened with hours and hours of unpaid administrative work, when they should in fact be outsourcing such work to a virtual assistant. This gives the business owner more time to concentrate on income generating work instead of doing non income generating work. By outsourcing to a virtual assistant the business owner actually grows his business and works smarter.
Too many micro and small business owners try to do it all themselves and this is not the smart way to grow your business. VPAs care about your business, because the more successful you are, the more successful they are. It's a win win scenario.
There are no hassles of employing staff and all the administrative burdens associated with that. Also most micro and small business owners don't really require onsite staff or full time staff, or don't have the resources for this anyway, but need administrative work performed for a few hours a week or a few days a week.
About Busy Lizzie Lifestyle Management Busy Lizzie Lifestyle management run by mumtrepreneur Tara Dalrymple helps small businesses build their foundations by providing
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Pay As You Go secretarial services; where businesses only pay for the time they need, Virtual Personal Assistance; to manage daily appointments and Emarketing; a capability that helps clients reach potential customers. Busy Lizzie at www.busylizzie.ie phone 091 565 353 e-mail info@busylizzie.ie. Busy Lizzie has offices in Dublin, Limerick, Galway, Cork and Wicklow. We strive to improve our clients lives with our time saving services.
Busy Lizzie Awards
• Listed in Top 40 Irish Female Entrepreneurs: Image Business 2006
• BPW Innovative Business Woman of the Year 2005
• Finalist in two categories: Network Galway Business Women of the Year Award 2006
• Finalist in Midlands & West of Ireland Regional LiveWIRE Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2005
• Listed in Top 100 Women in Business by Entrepreneur Magazine 2006 & 2007
• Finalist in JCI Galway Entrepreneur Award 2005 & 2006
• Finalist in The Image Magazine Young Businesswoman of the Year 2008
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e i . y t f i r h T Be
until e n i l n O t n e c a – Don't spend ave! s n a c u o y t a h w you see
B
eThrifty.ie have developed Ireland's first Cashback community. They have been in operation since March 2009 and have thousands of happy members who are saving money on their online shopping.
save you money on all of it, probably hundreds of euro".
BeThrifty operate by featuring links to stores such as Vodafone, O2, Expedia, Tesco, Next, play.com and many more. When a member visits www.bethrifty.ie and clicks on a link to the store they wish to visit, and makes a purchase there, they are paid a commission of the purchase by that store. Most
"This is a great service for anyone shopping online. We can save you money
websites do this and are happy to pocket the commission, but BeThrifty.ie is different.
on your essentials and your personal treats, taking some of sting out of the price which is especially helpful as we become more conscious of our spending".
They collect this commission and pass it back to the member who has made the purchase, as cash (CashBack). The commissions earned vary from store to store. They can be a percentage or a fixed amount per sale. For example, members of BeThrifty earn 10% CashBack on hotel bookings with Expedia and €40 CashBack when they take a phone package with Vodafone.
The main draw of BeThrifty.ie may be the undoubted savings on offer, but the fact that it is completely free with no fees, ever, should also have savvy shoppers signing up. Then there is the site itself. It has been designed with simplicity in mind. All of the stores are categorised and easy to find. Registering is easy, all you have to do is provide an email address then you can begin saving money the easy way. They also have handy features such as the Top Deals section, where the latest and greatest deals are listed and regular free to enter competitions. You can also read about their many media features on RTE and The Irish Times etc where they have been championed by consumer crusaders Conor Pope, Tina Leonard et al.
Taking the Expedia example above, a member who books a two week hotel break for say, €500, will actually save €50 just by using BeThrifty. If that member also uses BeThrifty to shop for the more everyday items such as books, CD's, clothes and even groceries, they could find themselves a lot better off. Founding member Glenn Gillespie is enthusiastic about BeThrifty's goals. "The aim of our site is to save Irish consumers money. If you take the average person's annual spending, they will buy a mobile
In summary, Bethrifty.ie is an interesting and exciting new concept in Ireland, it may revolutionise the way we shop online, giving more benefits to the people who need them most, the end consumer. As it says on their logo; "BeThrifty.ie - Shopping Online Makes Cents!"
phone or renew a contract, book a holiday, subscribe to a TV and broadband package. Then they will buy clothes, electrical goods, books and so on. All of this can be done online, and BeThrifty will
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Well thought out and written business plan
Y
ou would think that anyone starting a business would have a well thought out and written business plan – wouldn’t you?
How about someone who has been in business for years – maybe? But the truth is that many CEOs of growing firms do not have a well done business plan. Some don’t even have a good budget. Case in point: Arnie Miller, CEO of Matrix Essentials. When I met Arnie he was running a $220 million business with about 800 employees and no business plan. He was running alright, running just to keep up. I wrote a seminal article for Inc. Magazine a while ago about one of their Inc. 500 firms entitled “Stop the treadmill – I want to get off.” It was about another CEO of a rapidly growing firm who was in danger of losing his business and his family because what he set out to achieve – fast growth – was strangling the life out of him and leaving him no time for his family. In both these cases, and many more, I was able to get these CEOs to step out of the combat zone and put away their fire extinguishers long enough to focus on the age old questions facing any CEO: • Where are we now? • Where do we want to be? • How are we going to get there? • Without a plan every day is a crisis. What else can it be?
think clearly. Many CEOs of growing firms that I have met spend more time planning their vacations day-by-day, and sometimes hour-by-hour, than planning for the future growth and profitability of their business. Planning is anticipating the inevitable, but if you do not know what the inevitable will be you certainly can’t plan for it. Business is a numbers game pure and simple. It’s about customers, competitors and your unique selling proposition. Many CEOs I have met cannot clearly articulate what their unique selling proposition is, or in other words what is really different about their product or service than those of their competitors? The fundamental rule of the marketplace is that if you are not offering anything different, even if it's just better customer service, why should customers select your product or service over those of your competitors? For that matter why should they even seek you out? Isn’t that the fundamental problem that American car manufacturers have gotten into? Except for a few niche models there really is nothing unique
When the only plan you have is to sell more today than yesterday, and when that doesn’t happen panic sets in, there is no way you can
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or different about their cars when compared to their foreign competitors, notably Toyota. Toyota has achieved excellence in the three basic components of perceived customer value: quality, service and price.
One of the first questions I ask when I meet the CEO on a new planning assignment is “who is your most profitable customer?” Typically, the response is “you mean who we sell the most to?”
Did that happen by chance? No – it was planned.
Or, “our most profitable products are?” No, I am interested in which customers buying what mix of products represent your most profitable customers?
Planning is the process by which an organization can become what it wants to be. Planning is the identification of what we as a company can do to satisfy the specific requirements of a defined collection of customers better than our competitors. It is our core technology converted into our unique selling proposition for those customer types.
Business is about solving problems for customers. The goal should be to delight the customers with solutions to problems before they know they have them. Isn’t that what any well managed company does? It is part of their planning process. They are constantly looking for ways to deliver excellent customer
Planning is the identification of a problem that a distinct number of customers have and the packaging of your solution in such a way that it makes it difficult, if not impossible, for your competitors to duplicate for those customers. It is the work required to identify these types of opportunities and the allocation of resources in the form of a strategy to exploit them.
satisfaction by modifying their products to keep up with their constantly changing requirements Isn’t that what Toyota has done with the Camry? And now with the Avalon and Lexus? Are you planning for the changing requirements of your customers?
These strategies need to be clearly laid out in a narrative describing in detail who is going to do what with what resources in a specific time frame, and what are the expected profitable outcomes; and how are we going to control and measure progress along the way quarterby-quarter?
My next column will be on the need for an Advice Squad for CEOs of growing firms like you.
An entrepreneur himself, Bob has spent most of his career involved with starting, growing and selling businesses. Having held managerial positions with IBM, Pfizer and Exxon, he draws upon extensive organizational experience with large and small companies in advising CEOs of growing firms. He is available online to answer questions from Chief Executive readers, as well as offer workshops, tips, books to read and a monthly online column about common issues facing CEOs of growing firms. Bob has been featured in USA TODAY for his work with Inc 500 firms and is associated with NYU's Stern Graduate School of business in their Center for Entrepreneurial Studies where he is a Venture Mentor, Marketing Strategist and Business Plan Reviewer.
The real purpose and value of planning is to determine what we must accomplish this week, or this month, or this year so that our business will continue to grow profitably over the next years. Success at planning requires information – information about customers and their changing requirements. If the customer gets to the future before you do, they will leave you behind. I have met many CEOs of growing firms who really do not know their customers as well as they need to. In reality, you are in the customer business.
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Actualise testing Technology start-ups are essential to the recovery
Offering an evaluation of your testing needs at no
of the Irish economy. Fresh ideas and the innovative new products and services are at the
charge, Actualise can provide a number of activities that can add to the overall quality of your product:
heart of what start-ups are all about. A key component in the life cycle of a start-up
• Testing at various depths, from code-level through functional to usability testing
development project is ensuring that the product is of good enough quality to be launched in the market. Equally as important are the demands of time and cost. A start-up may not be able to justify employing a full-time tester; this is where Actualise can help. Evan Phelan is a highly experienced software test engineer, with a proven record of delivering software products on time and with quality. As an independent tester, his services can be tailored to meet your specific project demands, from a day’s testing to a number of weeks. The key is that testing is done only when you require it, and in a timely, efficient manner.
• Cross-platform and cross-browser testing as required • Clear and concise bug tracking either through an online tracking tool or other format • Knowledge transfer of best-practice test techniques and tips • Regression-test framework setup for future test case re-execution For a free no-obligation evaluation of your testing needs and how Actualise can help, please contact Evan at 087 140 9232 or evan@actualise.ie Web: http://www.actualise.ie
All flyers, posters, brochures,
Graphic Design Services
stationery, branding, web design Tel: 087 2515026 email: helenphelan70@gmail.com
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Directory Actualise Evan at 087 140 9232 email: evan@actualise.ie www.actualise.ie Cubeonlinemarketing Leslie Gilmour Tel: 014434900 www.cubeonlinemarketing.ie Productful www.productful.com BeThrifty www.bethrifty.ie
Busy Lizzie at www.busylizzie.ie Tel: 091 565 353 email info@busylizzie.ie. Busy Lizzie has offices in Dublin, Limerick, Galway, Cork and Wicklow. jdldigital Photography John Lowes Tel: 087 9456446 email: info@jdldigital.com. Helen Phelan Tel: 087 2515026 email: helenphelan70@gmail.com
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