Chipp Thomas Business Blog

Any business these days need a strong online presence to be competitive. People of all ages shop using their iPhones or androids, and they’re doing it in increasing numbers. Two year ago, 60% of all shoppers had a handheld device, and 80% of those people made their purchases the same day they did their shopping. Most shoppers expect to find you on the internet, and don’t have confidence in you or your business if they can’t even find a website. However, the internet, while it is one of the best ways to market your business, is not the only way. Here are some great ways to build up your dresser business using both traditional methods and the internet.

Brochures and Catalogs

Hardcopy brochures and catalogs are almost a thing of the past, but they are not gone, entirely. The cost of printing can be prohibitive, but if you can have some printed, you can put your product in the hands of potential customers. There is nothing like a professionally done glossy publication to bring full detail to life. This can also be done online. Have a professional photo shoot of your products, and create an online catalog. Use the same material for an email newsletter. For the newsletter, you can break the products down into specials or featured furniture for the month, or week.

In these photos, make sure that significant details of your dressers are spotlighted. For example, dove-tail or finger joints should be featured. Special finishes, drawer slides, and other features that make your product stand out should be drawn to the customer’s attention.

Shipping

Your customers will be concerned about shipping. Furniture suppliers will want to know that you can provide the amount of stock they need to keep their customers happy. Individual customers, shopping for their own homes, will want to know that their package will arrive in a timely manner, for a good cost.

Your shipper can make or break your business. National franchises are often considered to be more dependable, but be aware of regional problems with any delivery system. You may want to contract with private shippers and pay a little more to get conscientious service.

Quality

Use the quality of your product to sell it. A high quality product should be marketed as such. When people are looking for high-end furniture, they know that they will have to pay more. Couples just setting up their first home will often want quality items, if in small quantities or one piece at a time. People setting up a second home or guest facilities will usually want quality furniture, as will those who are progressing in their career.

If your product is a budget item, market it as such. Some people want an inexpensive item to get them through this deployment, or through college, or to carry them through until they get married. So, if your product is made of fiberboard and glue, don’t back away from it – that’s what a lot of people are looking for.

Employee absenteeism costs businesses millions of dollars a year. The costs are calculated in several different ways, including the expense of hiring temporary help, loss of sales, and customer dissatisfaction due to understaffing. There is help, though, from an unexpected source – Mother Nature. You can reduce absenteeism in the office by adding plants. Office plants can actually be good for your health.

Air Scrubbers

Living plants actually scrub the air, removing many toxins. Carpeting, for example, has

formaldehyde in it, as well as other chemicals. The off-gasses from paint, drywall, and other construction materials can create dry sinuses, allergy symptoms, headaches, tired eyes, and even lower the immune system over time. Rather than installing expensive air scrubbers, clean the air in your office with some leafy plants.

Dracaena, for example, absorbs chemicals in the air from painting products. Typically, plants with a lot of leaf surface are best for scrubbing the air, simply because there is more contact area. Ferns have a lot of small leaves, as do ficus trees. Spider plants are another specie that has a lot of leaf surface.

As the plants absorb chemicals from the air, they release oxygen. This enriched atmosphere is healthier for your employees and customers.

Regulate Humidity

You can also regulate the humidity in your office with live plants. As the plants complete photosynthesis, they not only add oxygen to the air, interior plants release moisture as well. Increased humidity helps workers to avoid dry sinuses. This reduces the number of colds during the year. Since bacteria and viruses tend to thrive in dry, irritated nasal passages, the increased humidity from live plants in garden pots and soil in the office Is one of the best ways to battle seasonal colds.

Eye Fatigue

In today’s Workplaces, many employees spend the majority of the day staring at a computer screen. That, combined with the stark lighting of the office, contributes to eye strain and vision problems.

Plants in the office soften lighting, creating a more natural atmosphere. The leaves reflect light, which breaks it up and reduces glare. The variations of light that result is healthier for the eyes and reduces eye fatigue. Plants also make it more likely that employees will glance away from their computer screen more often, which is much healthier for their eyes.

Stress Reduction

The addition of natural elements like plants to the office helps to reduce stress. The human body responds physiologically to nature. Stress hormones are reduced, blood pressure decreases, and respirations slow down in natural environments. While you can’t make your office the equivalent of the “fishing hole” or a woodland campsite, you can break up the harsh, straight lines of office architecture with plants of all sizes and shapes.

The foliage is a living feature that sways when climate control switches on and off. It softens hard edges, mutes ambient noise, and filters light. All of this reduces stress. When you combine these qualities with the air purification, office plants are a smart idea for your health.

Eighty percent of people who have an iPad, iPhone, or android phone use their device when out shopping. They may be looking for lunch, coupons, or your location. Roughly 60 percent of these people will make a purchase that very day. These statistics are something to keep in mind when you are marketing your clothing website. You can reach more people and wider demographics with savvy use of mobile devices and branding.

Conversion

Shopping doesn’t make you much money unless the shopper is purchasing, too. They won’t be shopping with you if they can’t see your store online. This is even harder with handheld devices, because the webpage has to be optimized to resize for smaller screens. Sure, many people shop on their laptop and desktop computers while they are at work, but when you get an 80 percent conversion from handheld devices, its worth updating your website to adapt to those operating systems. Check with your web host to see about updates. This will help conversion rates and increase profits.

Brand Recognition

Optimizing the brands you carry in your clothing store can increase your profits. When it comes to the internet, the word “optimizing” takes on a technical meaning. This is the term used when content is designed to catch the attention of search engines. It usually involves a keyword – the word or phrase the shopper types into the browser. For example, “Sahara Clothing” is an example of brand recognition, optimization, and keywords. If you have known brands in your store, you already have brand recognition in your favor.

One way to optimize brands on your site is through the use of widgets. These little buttons on the page display the brand logo and name. When a potential customer clicks on the button, they get more information on that brand. You can also make money from the brand based on the number of click-throughs, if you have enough traffic on your site. Add these widgets to your social media sites, as well. This increases exposure for your store and spreads the word that you carry name brands.

Use the brand names as keywords in content, too. A blog post about how much you enjoyed your Prada pumps increases the likelihood that search engines will notice your site. Check into Google AdWords, too, because it can get you a lot of visibility on internet searches.

Social Media

Never underestimate the power of social media. You can not only promote your business through Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other sites, but you can gain credibility with search engines, too. The broader your reach in the realm of electronic communications, today’s sophisticated search algorithms note all of this, and use it to determine whether or not you are a serious business or a spammer.

Marketing your clothing website is easier and less expensive than ever. Optimize your brand, and stay active on the internet, and you’ll find that business is booming.

Successful internet marketing is a matter of finding your target customers, and helping them to find you. This is done through quite a few tactics that can bring customers to your website and encourage them to make purchases. The key is to identify demographics that will be interested in your product or services, and place your information where they will notice it. In this example, you may want to market your website to enthusiasts of solid oak furniture. Here are some pointers for getting the attention of such people, and for encouraging them to engage with your business.

Keywords

Keywords are the words that people type into browser search fields to find information or answers to questions. There are a number of excellent, free programs on the internet that will tell you the most popular keywords for your content. For example, “solid oak furniture”, “oak furniture”, “oak tables”, “solid oak dressers”, and “antique solid oak furniture” are all examples of the different ways your important identifying words can be combined. Placing these keywords on your website will enhance your visibility to search engines.

Links

However, keywords are not enough. You need to build links, too, internally and externally. This means you put content on the internet with the keywords in it, linking back to your website. You’ve seen this – you are reading an article on the internet, and there is a word highlighted. If you click on it, it redirects you to a website. When you include links, you gain credibility with the search engines. You can even link pages on your website to other pages on your website, but external links are best. Just be careful not to link your visitors to competitive sites!

Social Media

You would be absolutely amazed at the effectiveness of social marketing. Simply building a Facebook page for your website not only increases brand recognition, it also gains the attention of many additional users if promoted correctly. Even being mentioned on social media gives you additional free advertising. Having active social media accounts with Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube give your entire internet presence credibility, and allow people to find and connect with you and your company on many different websites. Of course, you want to make the first page of search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Firefox, and Opera, because most shoppers seldom click on page two of search results.

Use Social Media Data Bases

When you have an account with social media sites, you also have access to their tracking data. They record everything about people and businesses that use their sites, and can make it available to you. This is with the permission of the people who use the sites, who click on calls to action, sign up for newsletters, and provide their email addresses.

Each of these suggestions will help you find people who are interested in solid oak furniture. And, they will help them to find you.

Web designers often find that the biggest obstacle to successful web sites is the owners themselves. This is often due to the fact that the owners don’t realize just what the internet can do for their business. Internet marketing is the least expensive, most far-reaching exposure you can find for your company, and for the minimal cost of web hosting, you can promote your brand and expand your customer base. Here are some of the benefits of website marketing.

Conversion

Conversion is basically the process of changing shoppers into buyers. These days, shoppers do most of their shopping online. And, the majority of this shopping goes on with hand-held devices. This means that not only do you need a website, you need for it to be responsive to smartphones, iPads, iPhones, and other handheld devices. Imagine a group of friends who are out shopping, and decide to have a late lunch. They’re not going to go home and boot up the desktop computer to find a restaurant. They’re going to take their smartphones, type in “Mexican food restaurants near ____ street”, and make their selection there. The list of websites will determine where they eat lunch. If they tap your link, and the website takes forever to download, or they can’t read the menu on one screen, they’ll back out and find another restaurant.
80% of the shoppers who shop using their smartphones will convert within the hour. That’s a good enough reason to market on the internet. Or, you can advertise on TV, reach everybody who doesn’t mute their TV or fast forward through the commercials, and hope that they remember you the next time they’re shopping.

Print

There are still chances to purchase advertisement in newspaper and magazines. You can also print off brochures, and mail out newsletters. However, you’ll actually reach many more people by building up your email list. I’ve seen successful email marketing performed on a constant basis. Code 6 Timber have had many successful email campaigns. Social marketing encourages people to enter their email addresses on a secure form in exchange for free stuff. Your web designer can help you set up calls to action on your social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and other sites. In return for signing up, you can offer a free newsletter. This type of advertising is totally free, and reaches far more people than a print ad which costs hundreds of dollars.

SEO

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is crucial for promoting your website. SEO is accomplished by content. Quality content is that which has proper placement of search terms, to catch the attention of browsers yet keep customers engaged. Well placed articles on the internet will draw in shoppers and improve your rankings with browsers such as Google and Yahoo. This, in turn, moves the link to your website up so that it shows up on the first page, rather than further back. This is success, in the internet world.
Website marketing, when properly done, will propel your business into a larger customer base, more sales, and greater success.

The phenomenon of the internet has created an entirely new way to market your business. It is now incredibly easy to sell services and products overseas, and developing brand recognition is relatively inexpensive. Here are some pointers on how to market your business in other countries.

Culture

It pays to be aware of the culture of the country to which you are marketing your business. There are, for instance, commercials that are perfectly fine in France, but banned in the United States. In addition, there are many cultural taboos that are not widely known, and even words and phrases have different meanings in various cultural settings.
For example, when Coca Cola started marketing in Mexico, it was not popular. Finally, someone figured out that the word “cola” meant “tail” – and nobody wanted to drink that! Thereafter, it was simply marketed as “Coke”. Do a little research on your own, and read up on cultural differences between your country and the country to which you will market.

Lots of companies have been successful in taking their products or services to other countries. Have a look at IOTA home and garden for instance, they have an Australian company aswell that does a lot of business.

It pays to enlist the services of a translator when you are planning your foreign marketing campaign. Whether you have an interpreter or translator on staff full time or on a consulting basis, you can get valuable information on the appropriateness of your product and service names, advertisement campaigns, or blogs. There are many translation services available – just be sure to get one with real people who speak the language naturally. Automated translation programs are designed to interpret one word at a time, often yielding gibberish as a result. If you try to translate your own correspondence using automated translators, you could end up in “a world of hurt”, as they say in my part of the country.

Language

While the generalization is that the whole world speaks English, the reality of this is that, to build your business, you need to speak the language of your potential clients. This is where it pays off to have your website offered in the language of the area. Hire a professional to translate or to interpret you website and its pages.
Basically, a translator takes what you have said and translates it into the target language. An interpreter will take what you say and translate it, but also interpret any cultural vernacular that might cause concern if strictly translated. A skilled translator is also an interpreter, familiar with the cultural norms to which you are trying to appeal. Have your translator rewrite your website so that you can communicate to your target audience more effectively.

Search Engines

In the United States and Europe, Google and Yahoo are the two most commonly used search engines, followed closely by Bing. As you plan your marketing campaign in a foreign country, find out which search engine is used the most often in that country. Learn its algorithms and how to catch the attention of that particular search engine, and you will have more success.

Basically, marketing your business in other countries simply means that you do some market research and know your potential market.

Online personal training is as easy as using an app. There are, now, many different workout regimens out there that are available via an app, and you can even have a personal trainer who will plan your regimen to suit your needs, just as one at your gym would do.

Take it With You

For people who travel, gym memberships and personal trainers may not be the most ideal way to stay in shape. Often, people will find out if a gym membership will give

them admittance to all the gyms in a chain, specifically because they travel so much. But, with personal training online, you can keep up with your regimen no matter where you go.

Your personal trainer can direct you to facilities in the area to which you are traveling, or to area parks or tracks. He or she can work on a routine for you while you are in that area, so that your physical exercise does not have to suffer.

Also, your personal trainer will also be able to give you advice on which restaurants to eat at while you are away. If you are not traveling, but still want a personal trainer, your remote personal trainer will be able to give you suggestions for when you eat out in your area, so that you can stay on your diet.

Online Personal Training

Online personal trainers do everything that your personal trainer at the gym does. He or she will plan your workout routine, make dietary suggestions, and supervise your progress through online data trackers. You may even find that you get nagged just as much by the online trainer as by the one at the gym.

One of the benefits of online personal training is that the scheduling will fit your lifestyle. You do not have to meet someone else’s idea of when or how long to work out. You also do not have to cut a meeting short because you are supposed to be at the gym.

Instead, you contact your personal trainer that you will be a little late, and he or she will go on with his life, because you are not in actually a physical meeting. If your trainer is unavailable, there will be someone on call who will be familiar with your regimen and who can coach you through the workout.

Feedback

In many cases, the app that connects you to your online personal trainer will also transmit your vitals during the workout. Your heart rate, respiration, calories burned, and even water level can be transmitted so that your trainer can make decisions about your workout. All of these things will be charted, so that you can view them later and discuss them with your trainer. It is this type of feedback that helps most people stay on track with their exercise and health routine, and the personal attention from your personal trainer online can be even more accurate than an in-person trainer.

Did you know that sitting can cause cancer? For reals – studies are now showing that even active people, who exercise 2.5 to 3 hours a week, are more likely to get colon or breast cancer if they sit for 8 to 9 hours a day. Sitting causes cancer – who knew? Now, look at what you do for a living, and what you do for entertainment. Do you sit while you do those things? Then you may be at an increased danger of early death and cancer.

Blogging

Take blogging, for instance. Blogging started off as a sort of online diary activity, in which private individuals shared their thoughts and opinions, their stories and experiences, with others on the World Wide Web. Now, blogging is a multi-million dollar business, with money to be made with affiliate advertising. Websites move up in ranking on search engines with well written blogs.
Secretarial Jobs

Other desk jobs, however, are just as deadly. Secretaries, engineers, CEOs, and anybody else who sits at a desk are in line to increased health problems, simply because they sit for 2,3, and 4 hours at a time. Even long-haul truck drivers face the same threat. Delivery drivers are not so prone to diseases, since they regularly leave the driver’s seat to deliver packages.

As Bad As Smoking

In fact, health professionals are now saying that sitting for 8 to 9 hours a day, whether you are a person who exercises or not, is as detrimental to your health as smoking. Even people who run but who have sedentary jobs, suffer from the same debilitations as those who do not exercise.

Illnesses

According to the Mayo Clinic, there are several different health problems that you can encounter from too much sitting. Colon and breast cancer have already been mentioned. Colon cancer rates increase for those with sedentary jobs. To put it bluntly, sitting for hours at a time is estimated to cause over 170,000 cases of colon cancer a year. And, that is even among those who are physically fit. Most of these are among men. Women more typically will get breast cancer.
Metabolic imbalances also occur with those who sit for long periods of time. Exercise does, indeed, boost the metabolism. Muscles continue burning calories even during rest. However, sitting, even for those physically fit, slows the metabolism, often leading to metabolic disorders.
High blood pressure, excess fat around the waist and abdomen, raised cholesterol, and high blood sugar will plague even the most fit of people who spend hours sitting.
Blood clots in the legs can also be a problem. We have long known that passengers on extended airplane flights need to walk around periodically to avoid blood clots. And, hospital patients are carefully guarded and receive therapy to keep blood clots from forming. However, few think about the risk of clots that accompany sitting for hours in an office chair.

Solutions

What are the solutions to this problem? Apparently, even someone in good athletic shape, who works out on a regular basis and who eats a healthy diet, can suffer from ill effects of a sedentary job, and sedentary hobbies.
Thankfully, the solutions to this problem are not as extreme as you may think. You can counteract the effects of sitting simply by – not sitting. As you write your daily blogs, stand to do so. That’s all you have to do. Standing will counteract the ill effects of too much sitting. If you work from home, place your laptop on the kitchen counter every now and then, and write one article there.
Can you work from a treadmill? Some people can do that, and it’s great if you can. You can get special equipment that will hold your keyboard while you stroll on the treadmill, and get your blood flowing again.
Simply taking a walk around the office can do wonders for your body. Recommendations are for you to stand for a few minutes every 30 minutes or so.

Improving Health In The Meantime

There are many things one can do to try to help improve your health if you are someone who sits for multiple hours in a row. For instance, it can always help you to practice a healthy lifestyle , and if you’re not feeling great in yourself, maybe try a detox retreat UK or something similar.

Counteracting The Effects

The key to counteracting the ill effects of sedentary work is to remember that it does not have to be strenuous movement. Simply walking to the refrigerator in the work room to get a bottle of water is enough to break the cycle of sedentary abuse. If you have room, and the boss allows it, keep a glider in your office space. Every 30 minutes or so, spend 2 or 3 minutes moving on the glider, while you make a phone call or two. If you work from home, do a load of laundry or unload the dishwasher.
So, the answer is, yes, blogging is unhealthy for us – if we don’t move around a little bit, too.

Office workers take a great deal of care to personalize their office space. Even the most lowly cubicle is carefully set up to function as an extension of the worker’s needs and to reflect his or her personality. For those who work out of their vehicle, the same personalization is equally important. The function of the vehicle is critical in helping the workman work quickly and efficiently.

Vans

Most contractors who carry any type of inventory need a van for security and storage. A panel van, for instance, can provide several cubic feet of storage for the plumber, electrician, or mechanic. Racks and bins keep inventory from getting lost or rolling around, while the door can be locked and bolted for added security from thieves. In some cases, you may find that van contract hire is the most profitable. You can often hire a van for your company use, saving money in the long run over buying a fleet of vehicles.

Trucks

Trucks usually differ from vans in that the cargo area is not enclosed. While this may leave equipment and inventory exposed to the elements or to potential thievery, there are many good reasons to use a truck as opposed to a van. A truck with the same sized engine as a van will still be more powerful, because it is not having to propel as much weight down the road.
While vans can be equipped with four wheel drive and off-road capabilities, you’re more likely to find this in a truck. This can be invaluable in the construction trades, considering that you may be called to travel on unfinished roads to reach worksites. Trucks, also, can be rented or hired.

Heavy Equipment

Most craftsmen will say, “Use the right tool to do the job.” This is true with heavy equipment, as well. If you need a dirt mover or a crane, very little else will do. In these cases, hiring heavy equipment is certainly a viable option. While you may justify purchasing a van or truck because of everyday use, specialized equipment is a different story. Most construction companies, for example, will hire a crane to come in and lift trusses on a number of different job sites. The short-term rental is far less expensive than purchase and maintenance of equipment that can cost upwards of a million dollars. Road graders, concrete trucks, and other such equipment are oft3en sub-contracted out for a reason.

Appearance
The appearance of your work vehicle can’t be overlooked. This is often more of a problem for the independent contractor who works for himself, and has no or few employees. You may feel comfortable riding your Harley up to a million dollar mansion to fix the plumbing, but will the residents feel comfortable letting you in the house?
Any businessman is wise to consider his company image along with the function of his vehicles when he makes such a big purchase. Your vehicle will reflect the type of job you do, so choose wisely.

One of the things that has really changed over the past 20 years, is my thoughts on travelling. At the beginning of my career, I really enjoyed the travelling that came with the job, it was nice to see different places, new sights new sounds, it was all very exciting. As soon as you have been around the country a few hundered times, that magic seems to wear off, and it becomes very much like a chore. There are times where I still find myself unable to sleep in those solid hotel beds, with the clinical feel of the room, but I found the internet here comes in handy.

When you know you’re going to have to travel, plan your route ahead of time, you don’t necessarily need to use a premier inn or a travel lodge, have a look on trip advisor and see what places are close with good reviews. I usually find that with a bit of research, I can find a place with just the right comfort level. It was only the other day when I had to pass through Crowcombe, I’d already pre-selected my venue, A lovely little bed and breakfast, http://www.thecarewarms.co.uk/. I’d booked in advance because as I’ve just previously told you, I like to plan in advance. When I got to the venue I’d had enough time to realise that I’d made the right choice. This little building was clearly a listed building with history, the windows were all lead lined and it looked just quaint and beautiful.

The staff were very helpful and the bar downstairs (which also served as a pub for the locals) was very cosy, with a nice warm fire roaring. I had a nice pub dinner, and ended up having an early night and departing to my bed. I was greeted with a professional wake up call, and I went down stairs for my breakfast. Breakfast was delicious, I gobbled it all down and went on my way. A delightful experience.

If you compare that experience with your usual travel lodge or premiere inn, where the staff are young and don’t really care about service or being polite, you’ll notice you can have a much more relaxing time in a B&B. You also get a much more homely feeling and a great atmosphere, none of this clinical and plain environment.

So there are advantages to planning ahead, make sure you look into it and don’t make the same mistake as I.

Business The Only Way We Know How.

Welcome To Our Business Blog

Great Ways To Build Up Your Dresser Business

Office Plants Good For Your Health

Marketing Your Clothing Website

Marketing Your Website Toward Solid Oak Furniture

Website Marketing: How Important Is It?

Marketing Your Business In Other Countries

Personal Training Remotely

Is Blogging Unhealthy For Us?

Why Using The Correct Vehicle Is Important

The Trick To Staying Away On Business