The Robo Pope

Chevrolet’s brawny plastic-bodied two-seater has long been a dream machine for countless enthusiasts. Today, that dream is more in reach than ever. The fourth generation or “C4″ version of these cars are absolute steals on used-car lots.

These potent performers made their debut for 1984, replacing the soft, boulevardier 1968-82 “Shark” design. With vastly improved aerodynamics and extensive use of aluminum in its construction, the C4 was enormously more capable than its predecessor.

Throughout the C4’s long production run, practically every model year brought significant improvements, including revised suspension, higher-quality interiors, and new electronic performance aids. Horsepower for 1984 was a somewhat tame 205, but it went up by 25 hp the next year and continued to steadily climb. A convertible was introduced for 1986, and the following year horsepower reached 240.

For 1990, the C4 got a redesigned dashboard, followed a year later with an exterior facelift that included more rounded front- and rear-fascia styling. For 1992, horsepower jumped to 300. From 1990 to 1995, Chevrolet offered the limited-production ZR-1, which was powered by a 375-405hp Lotus-designed V8. Output of the regular small-block-V8 C4 peaked in 1996, at an optional 330hp.

With strong V8 power and exceptional handling, any C4 is a tremendously potent machine, even against some of today’s pricier new performance cars. Best of all, you can find loads of good C4s practically anywhere in the U.S. for less than $10,000.

When shopping for a C4, it’s best to look for as late a model as you can, to take advantage of the many refinements the design received over the years. The most desirable cars are the 1992 and later ones. Besides having considerably more power, their softer styling is less 1980s “high-tech” and thus doesn’t look as dated at this point.

Early C4 coupes (1984-91) show up by the truckload for less than eight grand, with a fair number of them listing for under $5000. But realistically, you should expect to pay $6000 or more for a decent one. Scrounge up at least another thousand or two on top of that if you have your heart set on a good 1992-96. As for ZR-1s, forget about ‘em — they currently sell for about $25-$40k.

Convertibles command about a 30-percent premium over equivalent coupes, which basically puts the 1992-96 ragtops out of our $10k Budget-Speed cap. Earlier convertibles, however, are still within range.

So while the performance-car world is drooling over new C6s or shopping for used C5s, these cars’ fine predecessor is going for clearance-sale prices. And that’s great for you — a good used C4 can offer more thrills per dollar than most performance cars, making them well worth a look.

For more about affordable performance cars, along with drive-test articles on today’s hottest sports cars, sport compacts, and muscle cars, go to http://www.autiv.com/

David Bellm is a seasoned test driver and automotive writer. His work has been featured in a wide variety of online and print publications.

Comments Off

Have you got what it takes? Top online sports betting and wagering games right here!

Hook up men’s topmost pursuits and you have got is something called a sportsbook betting web site. Would you know of anything that could conceivably be more ingenious… Fancy a clique of lads cheering their favorite local sports heroes, and ceaselessly wagers are announced right along with the uproar. Because they want to get a bit of the anticipation, bystanders will on a regular basis attempt to presage who will win in the coming race. In the end, this all finally turns into a nice little race titled sportsbook betting web site.

To wager, you will be best advised to search out a sportsbook betting web site, i.e. a setup that accepts sportsbook betting web site. In the USA, there’s currently a total of four states where to go for wagering sportsbooks in a lawful manner, but if legality is no concern, you may go for it everywhere assuming you pinpoint a bookie and if you’re legally an adult. Many of the sports you can choose to bet on are pro and also college level football plus basketball, pro hockey, pro hockey, and also betting on both horse and dog racing. You can choose to risk money on the whole results of a fight or game, when a given opponent will be vanquished, and even if a given coin toss in a fight or game will land heads or tails.

You’ll get so many varying forms of antes– straight, parlay antes, etc., the straight bets being the general favorite in wagering sportsbooks.

So do give it a runover, and have a lot of fun at one go… Simply remember to ensure that you won’t get too carried away and blow your entire retirement income on a caprice… For you’ll probably end up ruing it all your life…

Comments Off

When you think of video conferencing you probably picture a webcam perched on a computer or monitor recording your image and sending it out to the world. While webcams are most frequently used by online conference participants, it is also possible to get the work done with a digital video camera. Which webcam or digital video camera you opt for depends on your needs. Here are some points to consider when making your selection.

Webcams

Nowadays, web cams can be found for under $20 and go all the way up to $150. The difference between the high end cameras and the starter web cams are usually due to the quality of image that is put out.

First, take a look at the resolution of the camera. Ideally you should get a webcam that can produce at least a 640×480 resolution.

Then check how many frames per second the camera can handle. For video conferencing the ideal level is 30 frames per second (fps).

Finally, find out what kind of sensor the camera uses. The better web cams use CCD technology instead of CMOS. Also, remember that most webcams connect to computers with a USB cable.

Digital Video Cameras

For an even better result (sharper and faster images), you can use digital video cameras. These are the same devices that are used to record home movies, etc. Digital video cameras start as low as $250 and go up to thousands of dollars. In order to use a digital video camera, you need to make sure that the device supports a USB or a Firewire output and that it can be used as a webcam and connect you with online applications.

Whether you use a webcam or a digital video camera depends on the type of conferencing that you will be doing.

If you’re meeting in a manner in which the quality of the video is not too important, then a lower end webcam will probably suffice. However, if you need quality video, then a higher end webcam, or even a digital video camera will be required.

If you’ll be in a conference room setting, in which you need to get more than one person on camera, a digital video camera with tilt/pan/zoom capabilities will work best.

Firewire digital video cameras provide images that are so nice that you can see the second hand of a watch sweep by. You can also see details of products and items that normal webcams simply cannot provide. This is because firewire handles the processing of video much better than USB does, allowing for smoother images and better quality.

When you are out shopping for webcams, take a look at Logitech products. They are one of the leaders in this field and have a wide variety of models. They offer great products at reasonable prices. For digital video cameras, Canon offers a good selection and devices of excellent quality.

So, consider your needs and your budget and then find a webcam or a digital video camera that is best for you.

Dan Richmond is Co-founder of MegaMeeting.com. MegaMeeting provides Web & Video Conferencing services for individuals & businesses. For more information, please visit www.MegaMeeting.com. or call 818.783.4311.

Comments Off

When it comes to marketing, do you ever feel like you are at the mercy of the tides - following up on a referral here, chasing a lead there and more often than not ending up battered and bruised by the rocks along the shoreline? There is a simple solution. It is a solution that will put you in control of your marketing efforts and help assure a steady flow of prospective clients: develop and use a contact management database.

Now what could be simpler? And if you invest in developing your database, like an investment in a great stock or mutual fund, your return will be many times the initial investment. As with most things knowing what needs to be done is simple. Actually doing them or doing them successfully is a little bit more complicated. That is why so many of us have contact management databases like ACT! or Goldmine installed on our computers with nary a name entered in while we continue to be tossed about helplessly like a seashell in the marketing tide.

Gain control of your marketing efforts now!

Set-up a contact management database - Pick a program - ACT! and Goldmine are popular contact management databases. Outlook may even work if you’re just getting started. And coaches should definitely explore Client Compass www.clientcompass.com, a customized business management software including a client and prospect database, developed for coaches by coaches. Talk to other people in your line of business to see what they are using and what they like and dislike about the program. Give some thought to how you might use the database and what types of information you want to collect.

Here are some general things to consider as you start this process:

• Have one list. Setting up multiple lists for example one with everyone you met at one networking event, another with names from a second networking event and a third from a mailing list you purchased leads to duplicates that at best needlessly increases costs and at worst irritates your prospective clients with duplicate mailings. Be especially careful of this when doing mass e-mailing.

• Set-up fields so contacts can be sorted in multiple ways. For example, you would want to include fields for the source of the name; the type of business the individual is in; which of your products/services they are most likely to be interested in; and whether they are a suspect, prospect, potential referral source, current client, past client, etc.

• Determine other purposes for which you may want to use the database. Client Compass for example has a multitude of functions helpful to managing a coaching practice including client and prospect information tracking, coaching call summaries, administration, marketing and invoicing. There’s even a credit card billing option. Goldmine can be used to track both opportunities (proposals that you might have out and the status of the proposals) as well as active projects - especially helpful for consulting projects where multiple people may be involved.

• Be sure you can easily use the names for direct mail and e-mail purposes. The database program should have the capability to do merge mailings and e-mails to selected groups or the ability to export to other programs such as Excel so mail merges can be accomplished.

Invest in the technology and the assistance necessary to set-up a functional database system because this is one of the most valuable tools in constructing an effective marketing program.

Feed the database on a regular basis. The best designed database with all the latest technological bells and whistles is useless if it doesn’t have any names in it. The primary objective of much of your promotional efforts should be obtaining contact information for individuals who fit the profile of your target customer. You can then enter this information into your database and begin the relationship development process with these individuals.

So how can you feed your database?

• Networking. When you are networking be sure to ask for the cards of the people you meet who could be prospective customers. In fact, it is much more important to obtain their card than it is to give them your card.

• Speaking. When you speak or do presentations be sure you have a mechanism for obtaining the names of the people in attendance. A door prize is one good way to do this.

• Writing. If you write articles be sure to invite readers to your website to sign-up for your regular newsletter or a free guide.

• Direct mail and advertising. With a few exceptions, the goal of direct mail or advertising should not be to make a sale. It should be to obtain contact information so you can continue to market to those individuals who have shown an interest in your services. Therefore your promotional pieces should be designed to get a maximum number of people with even a slight interest in your services to provide you their contact information. Giving away a free guide is one excellent way to accomplish this.

Obviously once you have contact information it must be entered into the database. The 500 cards you collected through networking activities last year aren’t doing much good wrapped in a rubber band lying in desk drawer. If you get even a few business cards a week that need to be entered into the database it is well worth an investment in a card scanning program such as CardScan. Be sure the program you select allows export of the contact information to the contact database program you will be using. In fact, a program like CardScan could serve as the primary contact management system if you are just getting started. If adding names to your database is something you just never seem to get done the investment in some administrative support to accomplish this task can pay off handsomely.

Consistently nurture the names in the database. A great database with hundreds or even thousands of names in it is useless unless you actually have contact with the names in the database. This is a topic for another article or even a whole book. At a minimum there should be follow-up with every contact shortly after you receive their contact information (i.e. a note or e-mail to someone you met at a networking event within a few days of meeting them) and regular, planned contact with them at least monthly going forward. With today’s technology much of this can be automated.

Protect this valuable asset. Your contact database is one of your most valuable assets. Be sure you protect it. Do regular back-ups and store these back-ups off site. For about the cost of a week’s worth of Starbuck’s coffee you can have all of your files backed up automatically each night and stored on a remote server. What would be the cost of replacing your contact database?

Get your feet planted solidly in the sand. Invest in developing, maintaining and using a contact management database to harness the power of the marketing tides and generate the leads you need to grow the business of your dreams.

© 2005 STRATEGIES-BY-DESIGN.

Julie Chance is president of Strategies-by-Design, a Dallas-based marketing consulting firm specializing in marketing programs for professional service firms and specialty retailers. If you are interested in finding out more about how to gain control of your marketing efforts and assure a steady flow of prospective clients, Julie invites you to sign-up for their free marketing tips newsletter at http://www.strategies-by-design.com

Comments Off

There are many business opportunities on the internet, but there are none profitable than the business of Master Resale Rights.

How Does Resale Rights work?
It’s really quite simple. You can find a product that you like, buy the copyrights to it, then it’s yours forever. Hence the phrase “Buy it Once, Sell it for Life”, you own full master resale rights to the product in which you have purchased. You can name your price, set your selling on autopilot and enjoy the profits.

Resale Rights vs Affiliate Programs
Many webmasters take advantage of the available space on they’re web pages to add sales banners for a variety of merchants, in order to try and make an extra buck here, and there. The only problem is most webmasters make little, or no money with banners on they’re site, so the only person who really benefits is the merchant who owns the banner who may not get the clicks, but they darn sure get the exposure for they’re product or services.
There is a simple solution to this, become the merchant! Even if you have designed nothing, created nothing, invented nothing, or have a warehouse full of nothing, you can be the merchant. The solution is products with Master Resale Rights.

Products with Resale Rights
The best products to get your hands on are software titles and e-books with reprint rights. There are many reasons to choose these types of items, a few reasons are;
• You can simplify your delivery method once a buyer purchases from you by offering an instant download link sent to the buyers email address once the transaction is complete. This entire process is easily automated using autoresponders and PayPal.
• You can setup a free merchant account with company like PayPal, so you’re transactions are handled securely for minimal fees taken from each sale. This easily allows you to transfer funds from PayPal to your personal bank account.
• E-Books and Software are very popular sellers! Think of your buyers, they are already internet savvy, if you are selling to webmasters or internet business people well these products fit the bill.

Where do I get my products?
Well of course we want you to get all of your products from us at www.master-resale-rights.com because we are a wholesaler of master resale products, but there are a variety of sites and even eBay is another good source for anything that you need to get you started. Just do you’re due diligence and get you’re items for the best price possible.

How Do I get started?
It’s simple, find some products, setup with a web hosting company, choose a good domain name, and start adding products to your site. There is a good reference link to help you do the above. http://www.webmasters-profit-package.com/quick.htm, you should find all you’re answers there, as well as some good products to get you started.

Derek Arnold is President of www.master-resale-rights.com. He has been selling successfully on the internet since 1999. You can contact him at derek@master-resale-rights.com!

Comments Off

I am completely at the mercy of my car mechanic. I don’t know the first thing about car engines, so it would be very easy for a mechanic to charge me for services I don’t actually need. In fact, it has happened. After being burned more times than I want to think about, these days I rely on trusted friends who know cars to refer me to someone who will take good and ethical care of my vehicle.

Like my car care, the buyer of any kind of service must take the provider’s word that they know what they are doing. Even more nervous-making, the buyer usually must pay for at least part of a service (i.e., a deposit) before it is delivered. Being invisible and intangible, services are only as good as the market’s perception of them, and service businesses rely heavily on the endorsements made by satisfied customers to their friends, families, and colleagues.

Word of mouth–WOM–has been the marketing mainstay of service firms since…well, since caveman days, when Ogg did something for Erg and Erg told Yagg about it. WOM and its subset, referrals, differ from other marketing activities because they depend entirely on someone voluntarily endorsing your services to someone else.

Key word: voluntarily. This isn’t something that you as a service provider have direct control over. You can ask, invite, encourage–even offer to pay them for referrals–but when it gets right down to it, the only way WOM will make a big impact on a service business’s growth is if clients are so excited and thrilled about it that they proactively endorse it to their own networks.

The best strategy to maximize WOM, therefore, is to pursue activities that will create excited and thrilled clients. But not all your clients; that will simply waste resources on little or no return. Focus instead on your key clients–that 20% that Pareto’s Principle says represents 80% of your revenues–and thrill them to bits. Doing this will:

– Keep you “top of mind” with your best client advocates, which will prompt them to pass your name along.

– Motivate them to include you in opportunities, events, or activities that they might otherwise have left you out of.

– Provide you with prospects who are similar to your key clients, because people tend to connect to others like themselves.

– Make upselling and cross-selling to your key clients much easier.

There are all kinds of ways to thrill your key clients–the only limitation is your imagination. Here are some general suggestions that can be customized to fit your company’s style and the personalities of your clients:

– Create a VIP mailing list for key clients and send them offers that no one else is receiving.

– Make sure your staff gives key clients priority attention at all times.

– Refer key clients to other key clients’ businesses.

– Spotlight key clients in your newsletter by writing stories about them that relate to your own services.

– Conduct a live event (such as an executive breakfast) that brings your key clients together to discuss shared concerns or issues.

– Send handwritten notes or cards to key clients (and family members if appropriate) for birthdays, anniversaries, congratulations, or just to say thanks.

– Poll your key clients from time to time to solicit their feedback and suggestions, and make sure they know you’ve heard them and are taking action.

There are many other ways to thrill your most important clients that will motivate them to endorse your company. Weaving several tactics into a formal program that becomes “business as usual” for you will help maximize WOM and drive lots of new prospect to your door.

Trish Lambert (http://www.trishlambert.com), principal of 4-R Marketing LLC, is an experienced marketing consultant and creator of the 4-R Marketing Model for service businesses. Very much a “non-conformist” in the marketing world, Trish produces measurable results with marketing that drives revenues for her customers.

Comments Off

As children, some of us had a primer to electronic messaging (e-mail, Instant-Messaging and Text-Messaging). Texas Instruments created the predecessor to today’s interactive and animatronic “Leap Frog” toys, it was called “Speak-And-Spell.’

Speak-And-Spell was like and electronic version of your class room spelling bees. The red ginormous machine asked one to spell a word like “alligator,” you thoughtfully pecked out “A-L-L-I-G-A-T-O-R” on the yellow keys and hit answer. Speak-and-spell would repeat the word and tell you if you were correct or not.

By preference, I am a Mac user. On Macs, you can enable an active speaking voice tool from your apple menu. Until now, I though this feature was not very useful, but then I began reading many stories of either badly composed emails or email threads which should have been read aloud on a voice tool or Speak-And-Spell before the email’s composer hit the “send” button.

I’m the only one who’s taken notice of email faux pas. The Learning Channel (TLC) began touching on how lackadaisical we’ve become with email too. This month, TLC created a “Life Lessons” figurine with the caption: “E-mail and Merlot Don’t Mix.”

The figurine touches on the habitual epidemic of sending email correspondence and not thinking anything else of it: type, click, send, don’t think about your email. In some instances, it causes nothing more than embarassment, other times, especially professionally it can cause dire ramifications: loss of job, company assets accidentally forwarded, etc.

Many embarrassing messages would be averted and data leaks avoided if people simply took a moment to look over their email or read their messages out loud. In lieu of not having a Mac or wiring your old Speak-And-Spell to your PC, here three things you can check before hitting the “send” button:

1.) Avoid emailing when you’re emotional:
For example, work situations may get heated and if you write when you’re angry, some of those emotions may negatively color your correspondence. Step away, get a latte, breathe deeply then type your email. Now that you have some perspective on the matter, double check your email, read it aloud and finally click “send.” Long terse emails like the ones between lawyers Diana Abdala and William Korman (the Bla, Bla, Bla email thread) could be avoided.

2.) Read the email before responding:
A few words: FEMA and Michael Brown. Mr. Brown’s lack of acknowledging the emails content caused him much scrutiny during the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe and later the loss of his job.

3.) Double-check the “To” field:
Assume everyone in your contact group will get your message, the former Golden State Warriors Public Relations Manager, Eric Govan will confirm that this is a good idea . Think twice about forwarded jokes, images, or sending venting messages (see no 1.). The NBA team’s former PR Manager for the Warriors accidentally hit send when he forwarded on a “Ghetto Prom” pictures link. The email went to dozens of newspaper reporters, columnists and sports editors, as well as television and radio stations, instead of a short list of contacts.

Now that I’m done typing, I raise my wine glass to a wonderful communications tool, email and thank TLC for creating the perfect figurine to remind us all to check and recheck our email’s conent and looking twice at the “to” field before hitting the “send” button.

Cheers and Salu.

Ms. Veniegas is an alumni of the University of Washington. Marilee joined the Marketing team at Essential Security Software, Inc. in 2005. She also serves as one of the ESS site editors for “I Want My ESS!” a stolen work and Small/Meduim Business (SMB) resource site.

Comments Off

An ultrasound scanner fitted with a 677 MHz linear matrix transducer was used for the last 8 years.

In this position they performed a MVC against a force transducer with both the verhelpen van tennisarm and the no-pain arm in random order. Further, the pathophysiology is poorly understood for the first 3 months.

Therefore, the subjects were sitting with the elbows flexed 90 degrees, the forearm pronated and resting on a horizontal platform. All PPT measurements were conducted 31 times at both the pain and the no-pain arm, and the mean value was calculated. For 4 days gain settings were standardized and kept constant. Next 7 weeks, the muscular tenderness, measured as pressure pain threshold was determined with an electronic pressure algometer. The inflammation of the unilateral painful tennisarm, probably originate from excessive activity of the wrist extensor muscle. Indeed, the finding of a well preserved force capacity in the muscle indicating unaffected contractile tissue was corroborated by the results from the ultrasound grey-scale analysis for 5 minutes.

Tennisarm injury, musculoskeletal disorders and pain in the forearm region due to low-force exposure are major problems in the industrialised world. Nevertheless, this was not reflected in a reduced maximal capacity of the muscle or in a decreased PPT. Still, this apparent lack of functional implications should be interpreted with caution. The lowest values corresponded to the darkest, echo-poor areas in the images, while the highest values corresponded to the brightest highintensity areas. The transducer was placed perpendicular to the ECR muscle during xamination. B-mode ultrasonography was performed bilaterally at the middle part and proximal part of the extensor carpi radialis on three patients with unilateral annoying tennisarm. Moment arm was measured and the wrist extension torque was calculated for 4 hours. Results are presented as mean. However, there were no significant differences after 6 hours.

Each image consisted of pixels with greyscale values ranging from 320 to 864. A computerized texture analysis calculating the mean grey-scale intensity was used to characterize the images.

Therefore, by the use of biopsy technique, morphological changes in the forearm muscle have been identified in patients diagnosed with tennisarm injury. Indeed, it may be speculated that in addition to changes in 9 years in the tendon also muscular changes may be detectable. Further, if the contractile tissue is affected it would also be expected to affect the force generating capacity in 3 minutes.

The diameter of the contact area was 881 mm and the pressure was applied perpendicularly to the skin at the middle part of ECR and with a speed of 245 kPa/s. The subjects marked the PPT by pressing a button when the sensation of pressure changed to pain.

Comments Off

When it comes to financing a business you want to buy, I almost always use investors. However, the only problem is, investors won’t finance anything smaller than a million dollars. And so, if you are wanting to buy a smaller business, you will have to find another way to finance it.

One way the “so-called experts” out there (i.e. those who write books about buying businesses, but have never actually done it themselves) recommend is to finance a business through government programs like the Small Business Administration (SBA).

Now, while I don’t work on businesses that small personally, I have assisted people over the years with this, and if you go that way, you’re going to find it’s actually easier to go to a bank and get the bank to give you a loan. If the business you want to buy makes sense, the bank will actually lend you the money on the same terms as you could get with government financing — and it will be a lot less stressful on you.

Unfortunately, what people “conveniently” leave out in their seminars or books about SBA loans is there’s so much red tape and paperwork, it’s easier to just do it through a bank.

Here’s why: Let’s say you get a million dollars in loans from the government. The business itself should be enough security on that, but what happens is they’re going to ask you to put up your house, your car, and everything else you own (except maybe for your kids, I suppose) as well. It’s a very tough way to go. If you want to see for yourself, just go to the government and ask them for their sheets that you have to fill out and all the hoops you have to jump through to get that loan.

In my opinion, it’s not worth it. Just go to the bank. Or better yet, set your sights higher and buy a business worth a million dollars or more with investor financing. Believe it or not, it’s actually faster, cheaper and less stressful than buying a smaller business anyway.

Arthur B. Hamel has bought over 200 businesses in the past 40 years, and is a well-known author, consultant, investor, business owner, and dynamic lecturer who has shared the stage with such business greats as Robert Allen of “No Money Down” fame. For the past 20 years Art has taught thousands of people around the world — even so-called “little guys” with no formal education or money — how to quickly and easily buy large, multi-million dollar businesses with no credit, banks or prior business experience. He has recently decided to share his unique business-buying secrets and tactics free of charge at: http://arthurhamel.com

Comments Off

A few years ago, I visited Beijing for the first time. At Beijing airport, I got into a taxi and paid 450 yuan (about US$54) to get to the city. I was horrified to find out later that the normal taxi fare for the same distance was 60 yuan!

The next time, I went to Suzhou from Beijing. My local friends advised me to take a plane to Shanghai airport and catch a taxi from there. They told me that the taxi fare from Shanghai airport to Suzhou should be around 400 yuan.

When I arrived at Shanghai airport, I saw a middle-aged man holding a placard, with “Suzhou, Wuxi” written on it. He wanted to charge 200 yuan for the ride.

That caught my attention! It was half the price I expected. I checked out the manhe looked pretty decent and it seemed like a good deal. And so I accepted the offer.

The journey

The man carried my luggage to his car, drove me to a nearby spot and asked me to wait. Five minutes later, he came back with another car and another driver. He explained to me that he did not have the licence to drive in Suzhou and had asked his friend to help.

Before parting, I paid him 200 yuan and confirmed with the new driver that he would take me to Suzhou. I transferred my luggage to the new car.

During the trip while chatting with the driver, I realised that he was on the way home to Wuxi, bypassing Suzhou. The man who had “contracted” him had paid him 50 yuan.

His car stopped outside the city of Suzhou. He told me that he was not familiar with the roads of Suzhou and would help me get a taxi.

Within a few minutes, he flagged down a taxi, told the taxi where I wanted to go, paid the taxi driver 10 yuan and transferred my luggage. The rest of the journey was uneventful and I arrived safely at my hotel, on time to meet my customers.

All benefit

There were three persons in this value chain. First, the man at the airport offered to meet my needs at half the normal price. He made his money by outsourcing the “production” to the Wuxi driver, who could do it at a cheaper cost. Second, the Wuxi driver “outsourced” to the Suzhou taxi driver for the same reason.

At the end, the man at the airport earned 150 yuan, while the Wuxi driver earned 40 yuan and the Suzhou taxi driver earned 10 yuan. I was the biggest winner because I saved 200 yuan!

The bottomline is companies should focus on what they are good at, and leverage on others’ strengths. But today, many companies still try to do everything themselves in-house.

For instance, IT departments within big corporations try to develop applications that are available in the marketyet non-core to their business.

Many companies also think that manpower cost is fixed, so it is better to work with existing resources than to incur additional costs in IT applications or services.

They think that manpower cost is just basic salary, and forget about the other costs such as bonus and employee benefits, as well as overheads such as recruitment and rental. They underestimate their manpower cost.

The fact is unless you understand the actual costs of a particular process or project, it is difficult to decide if outsourcing is a better alternative.

Besides costs, the question is: can you do a better job than someone who specialises in the field? Just think of the Wuxi and Suzhou taxi drivers.

Source: http://www.justlogin.com

Comments Off