Author Archives: 123outsource

Teaching experience is an excellent background to work in a BPO

January 14, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Management | Leave a comment

You might be thinking that teaching is academic and working at a BPO outsourcing house is business. What could the two possibly have in common? More than you think. As a business person, you need to do a lot of learning and teaching. You need to research your market, research and compare methodologies for many aspects of your business. You also need to teach new workers how to do their job. If you are experienced at teaching, you will be more patient, attentive and able to teach newbies how to do their job.

The other benefit of a teaching background is that teaching puts you in contract with under average people. If you are from an educated background, you might have limited experience dealing with or working with under-achievers. However, as a business owner or manager, most of the people you deal with will be under-achievers — and a few low-lives too! You need to know how to bring the best out of very mediocre people. It isn’t easy or fun either. But, most people will slack off unless you know how to manage them well. Being a teacher is the same as being a manager, after all, you are managing twenty-four people’s learning. Being on top of things and on top of a room full of people is similar to running a business. So, if you want to do well in BPO, try to do some teaching, or hire a teacher to assist you. Just try to get them to dress a little better than the average teacher.

There are millions out of work in Italy, Turkey & Spain, but a labor shortage here.

January 14, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest | Tagged | Leave a comment

In America, you can look at the statistics about unemployment, but those are deceiving. I don’t put too much faith in numbers tabulated by some “experts.” I prefer to look at reality. It is almost impossible for me to get people in America to do anything. There is always sluggishness, arguments, and stupidity. When I talk to my Italian friends (relatively new arrivals) they claim that Americans have the best work ethic they have seen in their lives — much better than Italy in their opinion. Perhaps it is the type of people in America who would stoop to work for the likes of me. No matter how well I pay, it is not good enough. People here who I come into contact with are either incompetent, mentally somewhat ill, or just plain don’t want to cooperate. That includes people who work for others who I do business with as well. India is somewhat better with work ethic, although competency in BPO companies is so low that I shudder to think of anyone actually hiring one — any one.

But, in Spain, Italy, Somalia, Turkey, and so many other countries, unemployment is sky high. The countries doing outsourcing like India and the Philippines seem to be at all time lows. For whatever reasons, they have jobs. No wonder it is hard to get them to even return emails for outsourcing gigs. I’m coming to the conclusion that unemployment might be a good thing. At least people have some incentive to get back to you and at least try.

Southern Europe don’t seem to be facing any huge political turmoil. Sure, there are the usual strikes and demonstrations, but they are not going to have a coup d’etat anytime soon. They don’t have rebel forces fighting for control assuming you don’t count the recent Syrian imports in that statistic. Why is their unemployment so high? And isn’t it possible that the rest of Europe or America could find a way to employ them?

Somalia is a much more difficult case. They have a war-torn country and it is not safe to do business there. But, what if a big corporation bought some land and had their own mini-army to protect their investment? That seems to be the only way to do business out in the wild.

Personally, these countries with high unemployment need to get into outsourcing. That is a sure-fire way to reduce unemployment to about 6%. It worked for India and Manila, it can work for Spain too. They will need to have good English skills and other technical skills. But, if India can do it, Spain can do it too. After all, Spain is more culturally similar to the countries doing the buying than India.

What about a business simulation game?

January 13, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest | Leave a comment

Maybe this shouldn’t be a game! There are flight simulators, virtual reality rides, but why not a business simulation game? I think that young people and aspiring entrepreneurs could learn a lot from a simulation game. There could be different settings. Since I am a fan of bootstrapping, I like the idea of having a setting where you start with millions and lose it all because you don’t know anything! Then, there could be a bootstrapping setting where you grow little by little as you learn the business. It would be even more fun if you get little notices (similar to monopoly cards) of what went wrong and why.

You just lost $3000 because you hired the wrong subcontractor. If you had gone to business school you wouldn’t have made that mistake. Or, you would be out $160,000 and would still have made that mistake!

You chose the wrong office, and your employees want to quit as a result. You should have picked an office with more trees even if it is not on the bus line.

Your habit of jogging helped you have more energy for work and got you a new contact you met in the park who is in financial planning. Congratulations, your investments just netted you an additional $1000. Had you jogged in the adjacent park you would also have met a financial planner — but, one who would have lost you $2000!

You chose a bigger office right when your business was expanding and then you took a dive. You lose $5000 this month. Try using more foresight next month (if there is a next month.)

Sorry, but you have exhausted your million that the venture capitalist gave you. You will not only be unemployed, but sued for negligence. Better luck next time.

In any case, it would be fun if someone could learn something by this game. The more realistic it is, the more fun. What would be even more fun is to base certain versions of the game on 100 real life entrepreneurs who learned by playing hard-ball in the game of life.

If you knew what you were looking for it might come faster than you think

January 13, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest | Leave a comment

Identifying what you want is the half the battle.

We all go through life in a huge hurry. Or at least those who I see. We think about the future, but we are so caught up in what we are doing that we don’t really think clearly. We know what we want, or what we think we want. But, in the long run, what do we really want?

How much time do you spend envisioning where you want your business to be in a few years, or in twenty years? It is hard to see that far ahead. And in real life, there are so many twists and turns on the road to success that what actually happens won’t be remotely like what you plan.

But, by envisioning our long term goals, we can influence what happens. According to yogic philosophy, what you think you become. I think about food, money and God. No wonder I am a fat amateur yogi with cash in the bank. I became what I devoted my thought to. If I would think as intensely about losing weight, I would be a thin amateur yogi with cash in the bank. I would be an expert at where the best places to get Chinese broccoli are in Los Angeles. At nine calories per serving you can’t lose.

Do you run a business? Do you dream about having a larger company with one hundred employees? Think about that daily, and it might happen. Then, when you get your one hundred cranky employees you’ll say, “But, I didn’t envision them being cranky.” Did you bother to think about their mood? Oops. Now, it will take you another ten years of envisioning happy employees. Then in ten years, you’ll realize that your happy employees are idiots. If you would just think about having one hundred smart and happy employees now, then in ten years, your dream will come true (maybe) if you work daily toward your goal. And if not in ten years, then in twenty-five. But, without the thought it will never happen.

The universe doesn’t happen on schedule. Things happen at the speed of nature. It takes nine months for a woman to have a baby. It takes sixty years to get cancer for most people. It takes four years to get through college. How long will it take you to get our one hundred employees? There is no fixed or set schedule. But, keep pressing for business growth and keep the thought in your head.

Meanwhile I have been in business for fifteen years. I have only one full-time worker and six freelancers working for me. I guess I didn’t meditate on having one hundred workers. Maybe that is because I don’t want it. I wonder what I do want. Perhaps this blog article is for me and not for you to benefit from. I’m glad I wrote it. Now, if you’ll excuse me while I ponder what I’ve written.

Wooing the call center client into a false sense of friendship

January 13, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Call Center | Leave a comment

Some call center agents are the type you just want to get rid of. But, there are some very personable ones out there. They would be the perfect people to woo your clients into a false sense of friendship. You know those girls who are just so nice that you want to talk to them all day? They are just so caring sometimes too. I bet after twenty minutes of chatting they could talk you into buying anything! I wonder what their conversation might be like.

TINA: Thanks for calling X Enterprises and how are you today?

CLIENT: I’m not bad. How are you.

TINA: It is a nice day today, not too cloudy. Did you have a problem with your computer?

CLIENT: Yes, the pop ups just don’t start.

TINA: Oh, I’m so sorry, pop ups can be annoying. How long has this been going on?

CLIENT: It’s been a few months.

TINA: Let’s use this gotomeeting app and I’ll see what is really going on.

CLIENT: Okay, I’m logged in.

TINA: I have disabled pop ups, and I’m doing a scan for malware. It will take a few minutes. So, in the mean time, what do you use your computer for?

CLIENT: Oh, social media is a lot of fun, and I write to my friends and family. It is for pleasure mostly — pleasure and pop ups.

TINA: that sounds wonderful. I hope you find great articles to read on social media.

CLIENT: I do. Today I read about wine tasting in Croatia as well as malware that comes from China. Very international stuff!

TINA: Well, we have all of that in the Philippines too you know. We have mostly New Zealand wine here though. Sounds like you have a lot of fun on your computer. We have just finished your scan and you had a lot of malware and spyware plus a few viruses. I have your computer all cleaned up — at no charge because you are under warranty.

CLIENT: That’s wonderful — I love you!

TINA: I’m glad you had a good experience with us. You can text me any time. And one more thing?

CLIENT: Name it — anything.

TINA: Would you like to join our car buying information network? An introductary membership is only $12.99.

CLIENT: I love you so much I’ll buy three introductary memberships.

(2 hours later)

CLIENT: (talking to himself) What was I thinking? But, at least I can enjoy my online car network without pop ups.

Outsourcing a Jihadi — a comedy about something not so funny

January 12, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Humor | Leave a comment

I take national security very seriously, so this skit is written in jest — Not to poke fun at those in Homeland Security who risk their lives to protect us!

The Hamas boys in Gaza found themselves outgunned and needed some help. A friend had them look around on the internet to see if they could find any helpful information. And, there it was! Outsource a Jihadi, in Gujarat, India. Mohammad and Hani in Gaza called this agency in India to see if they could obtain the services of a mercenary for hire and got more than they bargained for with Suresh.

MOHAMMAD: Okay, now let’s practice. The Israelis are hiding behind that embankment. When they surface, do you know what to do?

SURESH: Yes yes, we went over this in training class. I aim my rifle like this and then fire — “Allah hoo akram!”

HANI: You are saying it WRONG! It is not Allah hoo akram, it is Allahu Akbar. (loudly) “Allah-hu-akbar” (fires gun into the air) Are you even a Muslim?

MOHAMMAD: You dummy, you gave away our position!

(then, our three friends were subjected to a barrage of Israeli fire)

HANI: Okay, follow me. There is a tunnel that will take us to another location where we can fight.

SURESH: Okay, just to clarify, our contract doesn’t stipulate tunnels. And by the way, I am not Muslim, I am Hindu. But, I was trained by Dinesh who is a Jain, who was trained by Muslims.

MOHAMMAD: Contract? Listen, get in the tunnel, dummy, or you’ll get us all killed.

HANI: Okay, now the map says there is an opening around here. We are roughly 400 meters from our original location.

SURESH: Good. Just to let you know, our package deal is 1500 rounds of ammunition for 3000 rupees if you supply the amo with a three month contract, but next month we will be having a 10% off sale. We also have a promotion where you can get 200 backlinks to your website, and 4000 rounds of ammunition for an even better price, and a social media presence on Twitter.

HANI: Is that in the contract?

MOHAMMAD: Now, you are concerned about the contract? Forget the contract, we are fighting a war here.

HANI: So how do I pronounce your name?

SURESH: Well, I used to work at a call center outsourcing company, and went by the name John Smith. But, not that I work for a mercenary outsourcing company, you can call me Abdul-Aziz Hyati.

HANI: I’d prefer to call you Suresh, or Abdul-Aziz “Akram”

SURESH: “Allahu Akram” (bang bang) I just got two of them. You see, that guy on the left, and that other character in the middle?

HANI: You are still saying it WRONG! It is…

MOHAMMAD: Hani, he just got two enemy guys. Listen Suresh, you can say it anyway you like. Allahu Akram, Allahu Bok Choi, Allahu hino… whatever you like!

HANI: What is bok choi?

MOHAMMAD: It is some Chinese vegetable I think. I read about it online…

(bang bang… our friends are subjected to heavy shelling)

SURESH: “Areh Krishna!!!” (bang bang) I just got three more, and the others are running for cover.

HANI: Why is it that when he shoots he hits his target and I always miss?

SURESH: We received professional training using sophisticated simulation equipment. Here would you like to see the business card of our school?

MOHAMMAD: Don’t drop that here. It contains the address of your school. The Israelis will destroy the entire neighborhood if they find out.

SURESH: By the way, my buddy Dinesh, he has also been hired. He was deployed in Ashkelon. That is in Iraq, right?

HANI: No, that is twenty miles north of our exact location and he will be killing you and me in the next 48 hours. What the hell type of agency is this? You fight for both sides?

SURESH: Well, you see the contract says that…

MOHAMMAD: ENOUGH of the contract… The contract this… the contract that … “khullus!” (meaning enough)

HANI: Well, let’s celebrate, Suresh got five of them.

SURESH: Yay!!!! (throw his hands in the air and hits his finger on a metal bar) OUCH!!! Oh no, I’m injured. The contract says that if I am injured I must get immediate medical attention and get 20% extra pay.

MOHAMMAD: The contract again? Listen, all of our hospitals have either been bombed, or are overloaded. The only large intact hospital is 20 km from here and when they catch you at the checkpoint they will kill you for sure. Additionally, it is overloaded with people who have lots arms, legs, or have been so disfigured that their own mother wouldn’t be able to recognize them. You just have a sprained finger you numskull!

SURESH: Yes, and it is MOST uncomfortable

HANI: Would you like a massage? I specialize in that.

MOHAMMAD: By the way, what is this, “Areh Krishna” you said?

SURESH: Oh, I was just praying to my God

HANI: YOUR God? You mean there is more than one God now?

SURESH: We have many Gods in India in addition to Allah. Would you like me to educate you about them? I’ll do it even though that is not technicall stipulated in our contract under the terms regarding spiritual education.

MOHAMMAD: He is an infidel. And fighting on OUR side? This is blasphemy. And he is so good at it. How is this all possible. We have more in common with the Jews than with this guy. We both believe in Allah, the god of Abraham or Ibrahim as we call him, but this guy believes in false Gods. Quick. Query the Koran and see what we need to do with this guy.

HANI: It says we are prohibited from associating with him — no matter what.

SURESH: I understand completely. My Brahman friends feel the same way. But, they can cleanse themselves of my unholy Kshetria presence simply be engaging in a Ganga-Snan. A few drops of water from the holy Ganges river will purify you. It is our belief that water purifies everything and that water cannot itself be made to be impure.

HANI: Don’t we put water on people’s graves, is that the same thing?

MOHAMMAD: It doesn’t matter, because putting water on graves is not in the contract.

SURESH: If you are not going to take me to a hospital, then I shall be forced to call headquarters and get airlifted. (ring ring) Hello?

MOHAMMAD: NO!!!! The Israelis will get our coordinates from tracking your satellite phone.

SURESH: I’ll only be fifteen seconds…

(boom…. boom… a heavy sound of shelling.)

SURESH: Oh boy, I should have listened to you. No problem. We’ll just go back into the tunnel network right?

MOHAMMAD: They just bombed all of the entrances to all of our tunnels. We either run West, or we are sitting ducks.

SURESH: Well, for me, I prefer to fight my way out of this situation. And since I already have a sprained finger, I have nothing more to lose at this point in any case! Allahu Akram (bang bang)

This story ends as Mohammad and Hani run into the village behind them. Since the Israelis didn’t know their coordinates as they were running, they were able to make it. Suresh on the other hand, ran directly for Israeli troops. He killed a few more of them. Then, he crossed into Israeli territory, changed into civilian clothing and the Israelis didn’t suspect a thing. After all, his body language was completely Indian, bobbing his head back and forth and speaking with ultra-polite overly emphasized British Grammar.

ISRAELI: What are you doing here?

SURESH: I am lost. I was on a tour of a kibbutz, and then took a very long walk. Then I heard gun-fire and immediately became afraid for my life!

ISRAELI: Don’t you know there’s a war going on here?

SURESH: No, you see, I know, but I like to walk around and got lost. Everything looks the same around here, you know? It is not like my native India where I know the landmarks.

ISRAELI: Well, you are not allowed to be here. You are a security risk.

SURESH: Okay, I’ll leave. But, honestly the definition of what constitutes a security risk…

ISRAELI: Yes?

SURESH: Well, that is not in the contract!

ISRAELI: ENOUGH! Get out of here.

SURESH: Okay. No need to be belligerent. But, one more thing.

ISRAELI: What is it now?

SURESH: Our Gods are better than your Gods!

ISRAELI: Okay… this guy is crazy! (points his finger harshly towards the East!) Go!

Is Kim Kardashian just another face, or can you learn about business from her?

January 11, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Marketing | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

There are personal brands and corporate brands.
In the end, a successful brand makes a personal connection. Some people say that Kim Kardashian leveraged her family connections to gain fame and get a foot in the door to have a media presence. Her father’s prestige as a well connected Attorney who was involved with the most famous law suit in American history (OJ Simpson’s case) really helped plant a seed that flourished over the years.

Kim wanted to build her personal brand by getting the attention of the media.
Having a sex tape with a celebrity got her in the tabloids and general media. With one simple tape, she elevated her status from just another pretty face to a potential celebrity. After this bold and decisive claim to fame, she decided to make a name for herself as a trend setter and built this reputation on her various social media accounts. Kim spent a lot of time connecting and engaging with her followers which is absolutely essential in social media.

Using celebrity status to engage the media even more.
Once Kim had attained celebrity status, she built more of a presence with it by having her own show on television. She also posed “au natural” for several magazines to create more controversy and gain more attention. In the media, you can be fun, or you can be interesting, but nothing gains more attention than controversy.

Summary
Additionally, it should be said that Kim understands the entire trademark process. She knows the legal aspects of what to brand, how to brand it, and when, etc.

Finally, Kim partnered with very successful people to create brands. She was part of Shoedazzle, Bell Noel jewelry,a video game app deal, and more. Basically she leveraged the name she created for herself to market products.

To sum it up, Kim is a master of building a success on another success. She used family connections and a sex tape to gain fame. Then, she used it to build even more fame, and brand products using her name. Her innate and natural beauty is also critical to the process as she has a very unique and stunning look.

What can your business learn from Kim’s success?
First of all many businesses are on social media. Most social media accounts are dreadfully dull. You can learn from Kim how to jazz up your social media. Her Twitter account is very visual with lots of sexy and stunning photos. As a business, you will need more meat to captivate your audience, but the dazzle always helps. Your business can also learn to engage with people via social media. However, in general, a successful business is successful because you connect with people in a meaningful way and help them in substantial ways. And if all else fails, you can urge your corporate president to make a sex tape with a celebrity. Sure, it is not an ethical or moral thing to do — but, it’s all part of maintaining an image (not necessarily the one you want though.)

Yelp reviews for Call Centers? What would they look like?

January 11, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Call Center | Leave a comment

Have you ever thought about what a Yelp review for a call center would be? What would people complain about? What would they say they liked? Which comments would you love to hear, the ones that could help boost your business? Which comments would you dread, the ones that might discourage others from knocking on your door? If you approach your business with the goal of attracting positive Yelp comments, your business and your callers will both be better off!

Review #1 from Sam
* * * * * Jack’s Call Center rocks! I love their agents, and they are always there to help me. I was using them once a week, but now my business has grown and I am ready to expand to using them three times a week!

Review #2 from Jackie
* Jack’s Call Center is terrible. I signed up with them and they gave me the worst agent ever. The girl could hardly speak English and every time I asked her a question she said, “what?”

Review #3 from Patricia
* * The call center service was not bad. But, the incompetent manager called me at 3am. He forgot that California is 12 hours different from India time. Get a clue buddy!

Review #4 from Srikant
* * * * I love Jack’s Call Center. They employed all of my friends and give quarterly performance based wages. It is nice to be treated fairly for a change!

Review #5 from Andy
* * * * I wanted to give Jack’s Call Center five stars. But I was too lazy to tap an extra key.

Oh well. Just make sure your employees aren’t lazy on the job.

What if you could change the outcome of your next meeting using colors?

January 11, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest | Leave a comment

I bet the Bloods and the Crips would agree with this statement. If it’s red, you’re dead, and if you’re down with the blue, then you’re through. But, if you run an outsourcing business, you are probably not gang affiliated.

It is a proven fact that colors change your mood. Restaurants that have the right amount of maroon red seem to prosper. Red is the color of the fire element, and restaurants prosper when their innate element is present. Restaurants use fire to cook which is why its metaphysical color is red. But, the maroon shade of red seems to work miracles at Italian, Chinese and Japanese restaurants that I’ve been to.

Certain colors are good in advertising materials. Blue has a tone of stability while green stimulates creative thought. Pink makes you feel good while red is exciting and stimulating.

But, what about meetings? Does your meeting room have white walls? Maybe you need to paint the room every time you have a meeting to adjust what you want the mood to be. If you are having a meeting about creating a new marketing scheme, then green might help. Or perhaps having green plants in the room might help as plants have an amazing growth energy (if you remember to water them.)

Red is a good color to stimulate strong emotions. People might get all fired up or even angry if there is too much red around. I’m not sure being too robust at meetings is a good idea though. Red is a very strong color in feng-shui. A little goes a long way. The fire element can also stimulate other energies in a positive or negative way. So, be careful in how you use red!

Orange is a happy color. Also a fire element, but not as strong as red. Orange can stimulate enthusiasm, creativity, and determination.

Aqua is a very relaxing and calming color. If you want a meeting that is not too intense you could try aqua.

But, what if you could experiment with color at meetings. What if you could see if color theory really did affect your meetings in a small way, or even in a huge way. You could even have meetings by the beach, in a forest, or while walking just to see how the meeting went. There is a lot of experimentation you can do with meetings which can affect the output. My astrologer actually picks days for me to have meetings with various people. Certain days are good for business while other days are good for meeting with programmers if Uranus is in my chart on that particular day. It is complicated, but astrology has actually helped me plan my life. I avoid doing important things on days with negative constellations. So, experiment with astrology if you are using a professional. Experiment with color at meetings and with sales literature. Track the results of your experiments and see if color makes any difference.

What metro is right for your business in America or India?

January 10, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest | Tagged | Leave a comment

Many people don’t get it. They think they can run their business anywhere. Or they look to see where the best labor resources are if they are a large corporation. Neither answer is correct. Forget about the physical universe here and look at buzz, mojo, vaastu, or the feng-shui of particular areas.

I notice a lot while traveling. I love Los Angeles but complain that it is not so friendly here. I enjoy driving through the desert to Joshua Tree, Tucson, and many parts of New Mexico. What I noticed is that folks in New Mexico sure are friendly. However, I don’t feel like working more than five hours a day in New Mexico while in Los Angeles I feel like working almost non-stop. The “energy” or momentum of particular areas is good for different things. New Mexico has a great vibration for art. If you are an artist you will get plenty of clients and support in the loving state of New Mexico. If you run a casino or bar, you will get many clients. But, for the restaurant business things are usually very slow. Even most of the top notch restaurants have only 20% occupancy in the wonderful enchanted state of New Mexico. So, what am I trying to say?

If you run a business, you need to be in a city where you feel like working, and where your type of business thrives. You can import workers from other cities at a cost if necessary, but you cannot duplicate the supportive energies of your city somewhere else. I feel that Bangalore is a great place for technical businesses while Mumbai is great for commerce, wheeling and dealing. Los Angeles is great for creativity and getting lots done while Santa Fe is wonderful for spas and art galleries. Texas is great for herding cows, but Georgia is great for meeting neighborly people. I have not been to every part of the world, but you can investigate as many places as you like. To find a home for your business, the city you choose needs to support the type of activity you will be engaging in.

Most of my readers are involved in some way in BPO or office work outsourcing. Big cities in India seem to support this business although rent and transportation are miserable in most Indian Cities. While in the USA, it is the more remote states that support back office tasks like Call Center, Data Entry, and Medical Transcription. You’ll find lots of call centers in Alabama, Oklahoma, Colorado, and other square states. I guess if you need a square job, you should do it in a square state. California is more for more interesting work as the costs are higher and the talent pool is larger. I’ll leave the rest to you!

More San Francisco Startups

January 10, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Quotes | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Here are even more San Francisco Startups. We published a list a few days ago, and here is the sequel.

Product Hunt
https://www.producthunt.com/
Product Hunt helps buyers to identify some of the hottest new products. This company started being a newsletter for products and evolved into a big company.

Gigster
https://gigster.com/
Gigster helps programmers get connected with companies. The unique factor is that Gigster will analyze the request and output a guaranteed price for a specific and well specified request. The computer program Gigster uses is self-learning, so it learns to be better at estimating jobs the more it does it.

HackerOne
https://hackerone.com/press
HackerOne is a marketplace for bug fixing companies. They will find some hackers to identify and fix your site’s weaknesses and in exchange take 20% of the payments.

Shyp
https://www.shyp.com/
Why Shyp, just take a picture of what you want to send. A driver will come and pick up your package without all the hype. Shype comparison shops to find you the lowest charge for shipping and then adds on $5 to your cost. All I can say is that I hope the Shyp drivers carry bottled water and snacks like the Uber drivers do.

Eero
https://www.eero.com/
Eero uses blue tooth and mesh networking to optimize your web connection for flawless wifi.

Eaze
https://www.eazeup.com/
Eaze helps you find medical marijuana and get it delivered to you without leaving your desk. Now you can get high without dealing with any shady medical marijuana dealers or getting arrested. Now, it’s as “Eaze” as 1, 2, wow, like look at that door… I just noticed that… It’s just — there…. It just IS there… I never saw that door that way before. Oh, what was I talking about? Oh, right. It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3. Eaze turned the cannabis trade into a canna.biz!

Postmates
https://postmates.com/about
Postmates lets you get anything you want delivered in less than an hour. They can go shopping for you, pick up food, foot cream, kung pao chicken (easy on the pao, please) or more whenever you want it.

Sano
http://www.sano.co/
Sano helps diabetes patients to no longer need to prick their fingers by using a patch.

Medium
https://medium.com/
Medium is a publishing medium where anyone from a publisher, political activist or house mom can publish whatever they want. However, Medium has some major new competition from a company called Large.

6SensorLabs
http://6sensorlabs.com/
This company has a gluten tester that helps people find out what is in their foods. I hope they can tell you if the gluten is genetically engineered or not as well. Perhaps that will be the next generation of machines — and by then they’ll have genetic engineering for machines and for the humans that create them.

Shift
https://shift.com/
Shift wants to reinvent the wheel when it comes to selling used cars. This system will include photographing and price setting. Shift will also have someone bring the car to you to test drive. Sounds like a plan to me.

Operator
https://angel.co/operator
Operator helps you book flights, buy flowers, pick Christmas presents and more. Take the work out of shopping with Operator and operate like a pro!

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Thinking outside the croissant – a guide to making better business decisions

January 10, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Marketing | Leave a comment

We have a local coffee house in our complex. They have a very pleasant staff and make decent coffee concoctions. Their downfall is that they fail to understand very simple business concepts such as inventory management. In a cafe, you have coffee drinks which require storing beans and milk which can be kept for days in a refrigerator. You can also sell cold drinks which keep well. But, pastries just don’t taste the same the second day. So, what is the solution?

What is Perishable & What is Not?
There are items such as cookies which can be stored longer than pastries. It might also be possible to buy more pastries mid-day if you prematurely ran out. Biscotties are a type of dry bread that cafe goers love that keeps forever. However, our local cafe owner employs none of these strategies. He has a huge surplus of pastries in the winter at the end of the day, and runs out at 2pm in the spring and summer. He fails to base his purchasing on sales and refuses to adjust his habits or even think about the matter. His management style is pure madness and very stubborn.

A Pastry Algorithm
I suggested to him that he create a pastry algorithm. His ordering practice would be based on a combination of how many he sold last year during the same month — but, also based on how things have been going over the last two weeks. Maybe his business picked up recently because there are more neighbors who enjoy his coffee.

What Else can he Sell?
Our local cafe could easily sell sandwiches, fruit bowls, and dinner items. People would buy them. They used to sell them and it went okay. However, if you have the same old thing all the time, people might get sick of it. It is important to have the same old things that sell like crazy, but to also have new things so that your long-term clients don’t get bored.

It’s not hard to make big money
Some cafes are always packed. They have a vibrant social scene, a great staff, and great coffee. Other cafes just don’t do as well. The consciousness of the owner has a lot to do with this as well as the overall quality of everything else. But, if you don’t think outside the box or the croissant here, you will be limiting your success. Why put a damper or lid on your potential? Try some new ideas on a small scale and see how they work. But, don’t just try the ideas, really think about them and ask your clients how they feel about your need ideas and their experience with them.