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Saturday, June 30, 2007

900,000 Tubes of Tainted Toothpaste circulated in US - Problem Still Growing

Earlier this month authorities identified a few thousand of tubes of Toothpaste from China that were suspected as tainted.  They also found knock off toothpaste labeled as Colgate but shipped from South Africa.

Now the Toothpaste problem appears to be larger than originally suspected. 

The New York Times reported on Thursday that about 900,000 tubes of tainted Chinese toothpaste were more widely distributed in the U.S. than previously thought and had been distributed in correctional facilities, mental institutions and some hospitals.  Government is distributing tainted products to the nation’s more vulnerable people.

Source: Dismal Scorecard For FDA

 

Like the petfood recall, that originally started with a few small reports the tooth paste recall seems to be unfortunately expanding and growing.  Tainted tooth paste has been pulled from dollar stores originally, but now also its being found and pulled in hospitals, prisons and juvenile detention centers in small containers that might be described as travel sized.

The question that remains is how many more tainted tubes of tooth paste from China or South Africa or some other country are floating around in the world wide markets for consumers to use and potentially get sick or die?

Blog Advertising with PayU2Blog

This blog and several blogs in the Softduit Partners Publication Portfolio are monetized by the advertising services provided by PayU2Blog.  PayU2Blog provides blog advertising services to companies and websites that are working to promote their websites or individual product pages through inline contextual advertising programs.

There are many types of blog advertising programs.  This program works to manually place contextual links throughout the blogosphere pointing towards an advertisers websites.  Each of these links when placed contextually (like in the paragraph above) are identified by search engine robots that perform automated searches throughout the internet.

Each of these links are tallied up along with the keywords they are associated with providing a vote for that link on that keyword.  We place these links on articles within our publication system to help advertisers rank higher and to enable the on occasion to pick up additional visitors or traffic when people read the articles and take an interest in the hyperlinked keyword.

Walgreens Opens Advanced Distribution Center in Anderson SC

Walgreens announced the opening of an advanced distribution center in Anderson South Carolina.  Walgreens worked to design a DC that enabled people with Disabilities and Special Needs to work within the facillity and specially tailored work stations.  The DC will accomodate people with a range of mental or physical challenges. Their recent press release did not indicate whether or not Walgreens would employ people seeking drug rehabilitation services.

With the growing preponderance of people of all ages suffering from prescription drug addictions, drug distributors and retailers are coming under fire for not doing enough to protect the public and their own customer base.

Source: News: Walgreens Celebrates the Opening of Its 12th Full-Service Distribution Center in Anderson, S.C.. Genetic Engineering News - Biotechnology from Bench to Business

Prince - The Artist Formerly Available in Record Stores

Prince is facing a distribution back lash from UK retailers and Sony BMG music.  He had made arrangements to give away close to 2 million free copies of his new album with a UK newspaper.

Local retailers thought the free albums would compete too much with their own sales efforts and investments and complained to Sony BMG, who had nothing to do with the free give away.  Sony BMG then decided to pull the plug on the scheduled release of Prince's album for the UK. 

Paul Quirk of the Entertainment Retailers Association offered a notable quote and possibly a veiled threat considering the source, "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince should know that with behavior like this he will soon be the Artist Formerly Available in Record Stores." 

In all fairness to retailers, they have to purchase the inventory and dedicate shelf space and store signage to promote the sale of a new album.  Plus they have a lot of indirect costs to support from rent, salaries, even payroll software, so when the market receives an infusion of 2 million free albums that will have an impact on retail sales. Many people that want the CD will receive it free. Many that receive it free and do not want it could sell it on Ebay for a fraction of the retail price as well. So there is a legitimate concern there. Prince has been shopping his album contracts around since leaving Warner Music under a contentious relationship and contract that made Prince feel like a slave driving the change of his name from Prince to a symbol that was not trademarked and locked up in a contract.

Link to Prince Free Album Causes BMG U.K. to Pull Distribution - Singersroom.com

China Seafood Blocked at the Border - Food and Drug Regulator Sentenced to Death

China's Wild West like ways in manufacturing and food production are starting to have big repurcussions.  After many children died in Panama, several countries including the US have stopped the import of children's cold medicine and tooth paste.

Last week, the US finally (after months of delays and knowledge of issues) blocked the import of fish farmed fish that were raised with unapproved antibiotics and other chemicals.  China had been experiencing a lot of fish dying off in their fish farms and they treated those fish with antibiotics and chemicals instead of finding a way to prevent the sickness in the first place.

The US started noting that incoming fish imports had levels of drugs and antibiotics that had not been tested let alone approved by the US FDA.  These same antibiotics are thought to be responsible for increased levels of drug resistance.  In fact recent reports have indicated that in the US alone there are 10 times more staff infections that are resistant to antibiotics.  It could be possible that months of contaminated fish imports (and possibly other unidentified shipments) have taken the US population to a new level of drug resistance.

Even worse possibly, China is likely consuming its own fish and foods treated with the antibiotics.  The hundreds of millions of Chinese citizens that have eaten and are likely still eating fish dosed with untested antibiotics is probably very high and growing.  That means that  China is not only growing fish in their farms but they are growing people that are becoming more and more resistant to the benefits of antibiotics.  Not to mention encouraging potential super bugs to develop in both fish and humans.

A super bug if grown could not only impact China but the rest of the world.

Tough Penalties in China

China has reacted to the tainted medicine shipments by sentencing the Chinese head of food and drugs to death for accepting bribes.  But with the fish import ban by the US, China is starting to lash out at its customers.  They have held up multiple US shipments of food into China claiming unverified quality.

Maybe China is running out of Ministers to sentence to death or maybe they haven't figured out who to kill yet.  The problem however isn't tougher penalties its stronger rules and building a culture that is more careful and controlled in production.

China's actions have created an environment that has a severe level of potential to cause a world wide epidemic, which in this instance could harm either fish or humans or anything else that consumes the fish or the chemicals and antibiotics in the waters where the fish are treated. 

Link to Tainted seafood risks China's stake in U.S. | Chicago Tribune

Aggregating Internet Searches into Localized Sales

Krillion.com is launching an internet service that performs the function of aggregating internet searches from their website through a process that enables the searcher to find products and brand names online through the Krillion site.  Searchers can price compare and research the products ranging from electronics to consumerables to Whirlpool Dryers (an example provided in their press release).

Once the online consumer zeroes in on a product they can then refine their search even further.  They can filter that search down to show where in their local community the product is available and how much it will cost.  Consumers can then make arrangements to buy the product at their desired price and possibly from a trusted retailer of preference.  They can then hop in their car (or truck if buying a dryer) and drive to the store and pick up their product right away without having to wait for shipping, which often adds to the price of internet products in a way that can turn consumers away from an online purchase.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Home Depot is working to Dismantle the conglomerate created during the Nardelli Reign

Home Depot announced the sale of Home Depot Supply for $10.3 billion.  That portion of the company is now going private.  Wholesale companies in particular face a very difficult time in the publicly traded markets.  The demands of retailers, such as Home Depot make working in a public arena very difficult to compete or very difficult to compete within the generally accepted accounting principles.

Home Depot is essentially undoing former CEO Bob Nardelli's achievements.  He put together Home Depot Supply combining several wholesale and distribution companies to support Home Depot in a more vertical direction.  Stockholders and employees however felt that a more effective horizontal platform was in order and Nardelli left the company last winter under a firestorm of criticism aimed at Nardelli and the board resulting from his hefty exit salary.

Home Depot intends to repurchase about 25% of their outstanding shares for approximately $22.5 billion.  Much of the remaining cash will be borrowed to buy back the stock.  This increased debt will likely decrease Home Depot's debt rating. 

Link to Sale of Home Depot supply unit effaces former CEO’s strategy - Business - BostonHerald.com

Bain Capital Buy's 305 store Music chain for $1.9 billion

Bain Capital Partners LLC anounced that they will purchase Guitar Center for $64 per share or a total of about $1.9 billion ($2.1 billion including debt).

Guitar Center stock owners will receive a 26% premium on their stock.  The most significant aspect of this deal is that Guitar Center is going private.  More and more companies are going private to escape the regulatory scrutiny of the open exchange and of legislation such as Sarbanes Oxley.

Regulartory escapism was not noted by either the purchasing nor selling company, however, many retailers have been jumping on this trend over the last few years.  It provides companies with operating flexibility, a reduced emphasis on quarterly results and an increased ability to wheel and deal on complex price negotiations that would not receive favorable accounting treatments if the company were public. 

Bain Capital has a history of purchasing niche retail stores and businesses from Burger King to Staples.  The company is moving 'privately' into a wide range of retail from burgers to paper to mixer boards to chandeliers

For more information on this acquisitionsee Bain to Buy Guitar Center In Deal Valued at $1.9 Billion

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Safe Travel for Executives

Many Fortune 500 companies provide travel insurance for their employees. Smaller and midsize companies do not always have the luxury of covering this cost directly themselves. Sometimes they rely on travel agents and other firms to pick up his expense.

Today however many travelers and businesspeople can utilize the services of TravelSafe Insurance, a company that has been providing Travel Insurance for the last 37 years. This travel insurance can be used to ensure lost baggage and canceled airline tickets, and they can't cover unexpected expenses for medical problems in foreign countries to the cancellation of airline tickets at hurricane threatens. Regardless travel insurance is definitely one of those things that a savvy and prepared traveler will think of and plan for before they travel outside of the country.

450,000 Chinese Tires Recalled Ininitially

450,000 Chinese tires were recalled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration today.  This is an initial recall, and as these things go recalls tend to expand rather than contract.  This recall will impact the following brand names:

  • Westlake
  • Telluride
  • Compass
  • YKS

These tires were intended to be used on trucks and are being recalled as the rubber could separate causing an accident.

  The tires, made by China-based Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber Co., have an insufficient or missing gum strip, a rubber feature that helps prevent steel belts inside the tire from separating or from damaging the rubber.

"If you have gum strip missing, eventually the bond between the steel belts and rubber components will weaken and break," said John Rastetter, director of tire information for TireRack.com, an on-line tire retailer. TireRack.com does not sell any of the tires involved in the recall.

Source: Chinese-made truck tires recalled - Jun. 26, 2007

Apple iPhone Rates with At&T are Out

If you're thinking about an Apple iPhone, AT&T just published the results of their new rate plans for the iPhone.  The rates will range from $60-$100.  This will include plans that provide unlimited data access which normally costs about $20 from AT&T.  AT&T's plans to not normally cover unlimited text messages, but that seems to be thrown in with the new AT&T plan for the iPhone.

The plans for the iPhone include minute usages of 450 minutes to 1350 minutes in at $60-$100 grouping.  No one is yet identified whether or not people to purchase the iPhone will have to pay an early termination fee of $175 if they cancel their plan.  It is also not yet clear whether or not the iPhone will be sold with a minimum two-year contract to AT&T which has a five-year exclusive deal with Apple.

One thing's for sure, the iPhone doesn't have a keyboard and it's yet to be seen whether or not this product will truly be useful or if it will be all hype. 

Link to PC World - Apple, AT&T Unveil iPhone Rate Plans

Cornucopia of Online Degrees to choose from

It is a buyers market when it comes to finding an online degree program.  A recent press release indicates that there are over 1300 different schools offering professional certificates and degrees online.  Those schools have a combined total of over 9000 different online degrees to choose from.  The selection is growing so fast and is so large there's really no reason why a person with a decent Internet connection can find and make the time to get a degree.

Online degree programs have improved dramatically over the last few years as educators learn how to teach online and teach very effectively.  Good programs are typically broken up such that a student takes one class at a time.  Those classes are somewhat accelerated and taught within time periods at last typically from six to 10 weeks at most.  This enables the students get a very in depth in concentrated view of a particular topic, complete that topic and move on to the next course.  This is somewhat different than typical colleges that teach three to five courses through a semester at a time.

Students still get the same number of courses within the same timeframe, they just focus on one class at a time.  When you take a class on line this allows you to stay on top of your classes, stay focused, and build the results of completed coursework one after the next.  If a student needs to sit out of class for a week or two in between these classes they can pick up with the next track of courses that come along and they won't miss anything.  This enables telecommuting students to stay with their program and completed in a very timely manner.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Business News Video clips from 6-19-07

We are going to start providing video highlights of the news rolled up from multiple sources from The Wall Street Journal to the Associated Press, WallStrip and AFP.

Today's highlights include news about Chrysler, Oil Prices, YouTube, yahoo, Airbus-Boeing and multiple features like "Chinese Investors learn the hard way" and "Why Law firms are paying to work for free"

Corporate Relocations GMAC end to end

Sponsored Article I have relocated with many different moving firms over the years from Illinois to Missouri to California to Texas to Boston to Georgia to Illinois to Florida and then Georgia. I guess you could say that I have a great deal of experience with moving and with relocations in general. The last two moves that I went through I utilized the support of GMAC, partnered with my former employer during those last two moves, Motorola. The moves went off very well, but at the time GMAC out sourced the realtors on the other end of the move. Today GMAC now has their own realtor group and I think having this in house function could make for a better experience from the perspective of the person receiving the service and also for the companies sponsoring the moves to get a better rate on the total package. Relocations are not cheap for companies. I've worked with the relocations where I was receiving the benefits and on the flip side where we were setting budgets to pay the firms. A company that provides and end to end service and is vertically integrated will have more opportunities to make profit for their company, but at the same time will be able to compete more competitively on price at the same time as opposed to a company that outsources every aspect of the move watching margin get tacked on by every sub contractor in the chain
Monday, June 18, 2007

Northrop Grumman Announces Team for Global Combat Support System (GCSS) Bid

 Northrop Grumman is working to establish a network of companies to position the group to capture a key contract with the US Army.  Its a logistics program with a scope to deliver the right equipment and repair parts to soldiers at the right time.

The Global Combat Support System-Army (Field/Tactical) program (GCSS-Army) is a logistics transformation program, focused on optimizing battlefield logistics activities. The program will implement an enterprise system capable of providing the current status of all Army equipment and assets so that soldiers can best anticipate, allocate and manage the flow of available resources. Source: Northrop Grumman Announces Team for Army Battlefield Logistics System Bid

Northrop is well positioned to win this bid as they already work as the primary contractor for the Army's Property Book Unit Supply Enhanced (PBUSE) and the Battle Command Sustainment Support System (BCS3).

Northrop Grumman has experienced several serious scandals over the years.had $13.5 billion in military  contracts in 2005 after paying $1.68 million in campaign contributions in 2004.  Northrop Grumman works on projects from the Missile Defense System, to the B-2 stealth bomber  Northrop Grumman repaid the government $111 million for overcharges relating to a subsidiary in 2003.  They were caught bribing a Saudi official in 1972 relating to the F-5 aircraft.

Executive Placement Firm Blog

Our Sponsor AE Felmand provides executive placement services to professionals and businesses seeking each other.  They have been providing these services since 1967.  Along the way they have stayed on top of the trends in the job industry and establish many contacts to help make the right placements of key personnel to keep jobs in many different sectors and industries. 

They have recently established an Executive Placement Firm Blog in order to help keep both their company customers as well as their customers seeking placement in tune in in touch with the latest trends in the job market.  Establishing a company blog is an increasingly important method that many companies utilize to help keep their customers and key partners in touch with trends in their industry, updates and their services and offerings, and am formed in and tuned with the best opportunities available.

Distribution channels in India for Life Insurance

Insurance policy sales in India take salesmanship.  India's growing markets require that products like life insurance must be sold.  People will buy a banking service or account, but they must be sold on the need for life insurance.  That requires established companies in India like SBI Life, and it requires sales people on the ground getting the job done.

There was a time in America when door to door salesmen were more prevalent.  People had to be sold on items before they would buy.  They often didn't have the exposure to as much advertising as they due today, they didn't have as much hands on experience with new products from pots and pans to washing machines.

Similar trends are helping to build out a heavy weight economy in Inida.  Many people in India still need to be introduced and closed on certain products.  The products will not sell themselves without a person on the ground building a relationship backed by a trusted company. 

In India, penetration is very low, making distribution channels important, says Roy. India’s insurance penetration (gross premium as a percentage of gross domestic product) was 2.53% in 2005, against a global average of 4.34% the same year.

The distribution channels’ importance also puts them in a position to influence customer choice. “Most people do not understand insurance; what they understand is what is conveyed by distributors,”says Rahul Aggarwal, director, Optima Risk Management Services Ltd, which carries out broking in both life and non-life products.

Source: Distribution channels driving the insurance business in India - livemint

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Who Needs Marketing When You Have 60 Minutes Coverage?

There is some buzz that money just can't buy.  Hoodia was recently featured on 60 Minutes.  They talked about how Hoodia is supposed to work and how the reporter that tried it actually got it, to work.

Hoodia is a natural appetite suppresant.  Most diet drugs are some form of stimulant and they try and get your body to 'speed' up and process food faster.

Hoodia fools the brain into thinking that you are already full so that you eat less.  Kind of like one of those surgeries that decreases the size of your stomach. 

With hoodia you do not eat as much and do not desire to eat more.  With a gastro intestinal bipass, you want to eat more mentally, but your stomach can not hold as much.  Your eyes are still larger than your stomach.

Getting featured on 60 Minutes in an 'expose' that exposes that your product works is definitely the kind of marketing that money just cannot buy.

Friday, June 15, 2007

Smile All the Way around the Small World

Our sponsor Orlandofuntickets.com, would like to make it easier for you to get great deals on Disney World tickets.  Orlandofuntickets.com offers great deals on tickets to almost all of the major theme parks and shows throughout the Orlando area.

 

They help people coming to the Orlando area get good deals on their tickets upfront without having to pay full price at the gates.  Plus they can help you get great rates when you purchase things in package deals.  According to their release they offer many more services than just covering Disney World tickets, but regardless they can get you into the Magic Kingdom at a price that will keep you smiling all the way around the small world.

Retail inventories up in April

Retail inventories were up slightly in April by 0.3%.  The ratio of inventory to sales did not change and held at 1.46.  In addition import prices rose 09% in April another potential signal of inflation, this one coming from overseas mostly China.

 The inventory glut from last year seems to be coming to an end.  Many sales seem very strong across all sectors despite the hints of inflation, high gas prices and a troubled mortgage market. 

Much of the data in the report had been released previously. The one new bit of information was the 0.3% rise in retail inventories in April.

In the retail sector, sales fell 0.1% in April. The retail inventory-to-sales ratio stayed put at 1.46.

Source: Businesses work off overstocks in April - MarketWatch

Timing It in the Office

There's something about a watch, that is starting to define different types of people in the office.  It used to be that almost everyone wore a watch.  These days however that's not always the case.  People have many other options to tell time such as their cell phones, their computers, a handful of other digital products including the readout in their car and sometimes they don't even care.

People that still wear a watch often times do it for two reasons.  One in making a statement about their clothing apparel and accessories, maybe even wearing a hamilton watches.  Two, they like to remain grounded by knowing exactly what time it is whenever they look at their wrist.

Those traits can be very useful when you're trying to put together a team.  Some people might look at a team and think that it's important to align a team with people entirely of one persuasion or the other.  In fact it's better to mix up the team and try to utilize people that wear a watch those people that don't wear a watch.

 

The people that wear watch will help keep everybody on time and moving along at a brisk pace.  The people that don't wear a watch, won't stop working for anything until the job's done.  Very useful to have both types of people on your team the next time you're in the office take notice of who's wearing a watch and who's not wearing a watch.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Fake Colgate banned by FDA hits NorthEast Stores from South Africa

 Dangerous food and health products that have killed people and children in Panama are now being pulled off shelves in four states.  They are showing up so far in dollar store like retail outlets and they have obvious signs of dubious origins.

The toothpaste was sold in discount stores in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland.
"The counterfeit toothpaste can be easily recognized because it is labeled as 'Manufactured in South Africa,'" according to a Colgate press release. "Colgate does not import toothpaste into the United States from South Africa. In addition, the counterfeit packages examined so far have several misspellings including: 'isclinically,' 'SOUTH AFRLCA' and 'South African Dental Assoxiation.'"

Source: Valley-area stores strip recalled toothpaste from shelves : The Morning Call Online

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Information Workers Should get their Master's Degree online

For people that work in the information industry, whether they are accountants, or work in marketing, or logistics or even in law or research, they should get their Master's degree online.  There is little point in seeking a master's degree from a brick and mortar University where you sit in a classroom and read a text book.

It is actually much more practical to utilize the online tools for research and analysis that would be used in the office to learn the required skills to obtain a Master's degree.  When I received my Master's degree, I even used my work laptop at times to do some of my studying at night.  This actually benefited my employer as the tools I was learning to use could then be used for work as well.  All that educational time spent in adult education, where you setup bookmarks, blogs, do research, learn research systems like Westlaw and Lexis can easily benefit an employer.

Why port all those bookmarks and notes from your home computer when you could have them readily available on your work computer.  I learned how to perform legal research with Westlaw and Lexis and this proved to be extremely benefitial when it came time for me to perform due dilligence as an accountant and later as a credit officer.

It would have been extremely impractical for me to bring a stack of text books to work to copy crib notes out of the margins.  All my notes, all my research, all my shortcuts and all my research tools were on my laptop ready for me to use whether I was studying after work or investigating a potential future contract partners.

World Bank Putting $320 million to African Cellular Infrastructure

The World Bank is going to loan $320 million dollars to 5 different subsidiaries of Celtel to build out cellular infrastructure networks in the Sub-Saharan regions of Africa.  This technology boost will go a long way toward connecting many areas of Africa to the rest of the world.

Just a few years back Morrocco sponsored its citizens to adopt solar technology within their homes to bring electricity to remote areas.

This modular type of technology whether it is cellular or electrical in nature will enable remote regions to rapidly make dramatic bench marking improvements in their capabilities.  The pitfalls that need to be avoided are steep.  The World Bank and many African countries have together squandered large amounts of money and loans on many different projects in the past.

This loan is to a private company as opposed to a country.  In some regards that may enable corporate like controls, but there will always be on the ground issues with localized corruption.  Not to mention the not so unreal potential for a country or two to potentially attempt to nationalize a mobile infrastructure once its in place. 

Link to World Bank to fund African phone networks - Yahoo! News

1-800 No Drugs Gets People Help to fight Addiction

Public Service Article

Paris Hilton may not be the only person that needs help fighting an addition.  Drugs and addiciton issues typically hit a wide range of people.  Its very likely that you know someone close that may need help.  It could be a coworker, an employee, a friend or a family member.

You can hep them get addiction treatment by referring them to call 1-800 no drugs or visit 1800nodrugs.com.  Through this referall service people can find help getting the treatment, assessment and care they need to fight a dependencing issue or a drug or alcohol addiction.  That phone call or website visit could be the difference between life and death and could save you a loved one, a friend, a valued employee or a trusted coworker!

Be proactive and help. 

Ford Fighting off the Jaguar

 Ford is looking to sell Jaguar and Land Rover from its subsidiary focussed on luxury cars.  They will probably keep Volvo which is returning profits, but Jaguar and Land Rover will likely be sold.  Land Rover has made some turn around improvements, but Jaguar did not benefit from Ford ownership.

Ford ownership and part sharing strategies decreased the value of the brand and sales have slipped from 60,000 units to 20,000 units per year as a result.  Ford has sunk billions of dollars into the deal and will do well to sell the units for $2 billion total.  They need to do this however for the cash and to get back to basics.

Going forth, Ford is expected to focus on what it knows best; building and selling mass-market cars, pick-ups and SUVs.

Source: BBC NEWS | Business | Jaguar sale could secure Ford's future

Over 30 Tips on Dealing with Credit Card Charge Backs

Over the years I've worked with several large companies that have had to establish processes and controls to deal with Credit Card Charge backs.  Charge backs can be fraudulent and they can be valid customer disputes. 

Chargebacks can occur for a number of reasons including double-charges, expired cards,  bank errors, stolen cards, or customers simply not agreeing that services or acceptable goods were rendered for the purchase amount.

Source: Lowering your Chargeback Rates

I came across a site, Advantage Processors, that offers a great deal of helpful information and tips on credit card processing.

Their help article (link in the source above)) identified by my account over 35 different tips on managing charge backs effectively.  Chargebacks can be a significant challenge for any company, especially small businesses.

Working for a fortune 500 company I have witnessed scammers attempt to bombard a system to receive shipments of products and then dispute the charges and never pay.  A company needs to have very solid systems and controls and the bandwidth to analyze credit card payment and dispute trends to see if a potential series of transactions might be part of a new fraudulent attack.

Sometimes these things are from a real customer that has a true problem with your products or services or that has possibly been double billed.  You have to be very careful to truly separate your valuable customers from the people trying to defraud you.  You don't want to lose a customer through an incorrect accusation.  You definitely do not want a fraudster to steal from your company.

Once I saw a trio of fraudsters attempt to purchase a hot new electronics item, 10 at a time and have them shipped to several addresses different from the credit card holders billing address.  I called the credit card holder at home after looking up their phone number in the white pages based on their billing address.

Someone had stolen their credit card, had ordered these units to have them shipped to what I later learned was a doorstep, where they probably intended to sell them to a pawn or a fence.  I attempted to help the New Jersey State Police stake out the door step and arrest the person that picked them up to track it back to the fraudulent order. 

Unfortunately, that particular neighborhood of New Jersey was not safe enough for the New Jersey State Police to run surveillance and a sting operation so we ultimately had to let them go.  I was dumbfounded by the reality of the dangerous neighborhood, but at least we never shipped a single unit to the fraudster.  We caught them and with some of these tips you can save your company a loss too.

 

Inflation starting to hit Close to Home

For several years inflation has seemed to be holding back despite the rise in gas.  Well those gas price increases are finally starting to filter into some of the basket of items that are used to measure inflation, like the price of milk.

The price of milk was recently reported at over $4 per gallon in Alabama.  Cereal is coming in at over $5 and $7 depending on the cereal.  That means that breakfast for your family of cereal and milk could cost you $10!

That smells a lot like inflation and the weights of these staple items might start to push indexes on inflation up and that will in turn trigger a number of hedge funds to make adjustments for the new reality.  Business as normal has not been normal for a while and its about to get a little less normal as inflation makes its name known again. 

Link to FOXNews.com - Got Milk ... Money? It's Not Cheap; U.S. Dairy Industry Under Pressure - Business And Money | Business News | Financial News

Friday, June 08, 2007

A Spy Sweeper that Might Save your Job, Career, Life and Keep you out of Prison

Yesterday, I reported on a teacher that had been prosecuted and convicted for allowing seventh graders to see the pop up porn that had taken over her computer. Her conviction was over turned after four years when spyware experts revealed that her computer had been infected with spyware.

Its good that she has been cleared but who wants to suffer through that life scenario?

Its an extreme example, but spyware can cause serious harm in many ways.

  1. Your identity can be stolen
  2. Your passwords can be stolen
  3. Your computer can be rendered useless or slowed down to the point of non-function
  4. Your competitors can acquire your trade secrets
  5. Your clients, coworkers and family might be spammed

Those are just a few things that spyware can do.

Fighting Spyware with Spy Sweeper!

You can fight spyware with the best Spy Sweeper program available.

SPY SWEEPER IS THE MOST AWARD-WINNING ANTISPYWARE SOFTWARE

You can get Spy Sweeper for $19.95, saving $10. Plus, you can get a free scan before you buy it!

It's well worth the twenty dollars and it might even keep your computer running, keep you in a job, keep you out of jail and more. Besides twenty dollars isn't much to pay for peace of mind and avoiding the hassle and stress of a computer that just doesn't seem to work right anymore.

Anheuser Bush and InBev - Inevitable Merger

An article out by the Wall Street Journal details a distribution shortage by Anheuser Bush relating to its import and distribution of InBev's product portfolio from Europe to the US. The shortage is attributed to a legal quagmire, which would require A-B's customers to pay off the previous distributor's contract. So of course, they aren't doing that and not buying the product from A-B apparently. This has led the Wall Street Journal to conclude that A-B and InBev will likely be forced to merge to end the problem.

Distributing to Kids Channels

There are many ways to grow your sales channels.  Selling products to cater to kids channels is one of them.  Its not as easy as putting a simple print on kids bedding however.  You need to pay attention to two different customers when you move into a kids channel.  The kids and their parents become the decision makers in this equation.

You have to be either fun or pretty or cool to make the kids happy and you have to be safe and practical and durable and possibly educational to make the parents happy.  The parents might also want fun, pretty and cool also but that is a lesson you will have to learn.

Many companies over the years have toyed with slapping a widget into a different plastic mold and saying, "That walkie talkie is for kids!" when it was previously for hunters or construction workers.  Just putting a Diseny charicature on a product doesn't make it "for kids."

But there can be a lot of benefits to be found in revenue growth, new sales channels and product line revitalization when you find the 'right way' to expand into a for kids channel.

Digital50: VIASPACE Inc. News and more Business News

One of the technologies at CES 2007 that impressed me the most was the disposable hydrogen fuel cells.  These are cells that are typically a couple inches in diameter and can be a few inches long to almost a foot long.  They can be used to power small generators and they can be hot swapped such that the generator can remain running continuously.  (Ergo you have say 3 cells in a generator that holds four, you remove one depleted cell and replace it with a fully charged cell and you do this without cutting off the generator.)

Below you will find an interesting excerpt on an application of this technology utilizing methanol instead of hyrdogen, which sounds promising from a renewable energy resource, but might not be as clean as Hydrogen for the actual air. 

VIASPACE subsidiary Direct Methanol Fuel Cell Corporation (DMFCC) is engaged in developing, manufacturing, distributing and obtaining safety certification for disposable methanol fuel cartridges to provide the energy source for laptop computers, cell phones and other portable electronic devices powered by direct methanol fuel cells. DMFCC is establishing a leadership position in this growing market by providing the global fuel cartridge manufacturing, distribution and sales infrastructure the industry requires. The company has licensed a large intellectual property portfolio including 59 issued and 59 pending patents on direct methanol fuel cell technology from Caltech and the University of Southern California. DMFCC offers patent protection for OEMs and manufacturers of direct methanol and other liquid hydrocarbon fuel cells.

Source: Digital50: VIASPACE Inc. News and more Business News

Distributing Wedding Favors

Sponsored Article

Our sponsor ShopforWeddings.com is in the business of distributing wedding favors.  They provide personalized wedding favors from personalized cameras and matchbooks to Hollywood Fashion Tape and Elephant Place Card Holders.

Getting the right personalized gifts or products to the wedding on time is vital for a wedding and ShopforWeddings.com has the systems and processes to deliver.  When you are dealing with a once in a lifetime event, there is only one opportunity to get things right.  Performance is measured in a very binary manner.  Its either there on time and with the accurate items ordered or its not.  There are not too many shades of gray.

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Preventing Fuel Theft on Fleet Vehicles

Gas prices and average gas prices are soaring around the country and they really don't show any signs of improving anytime before the 2008 election. Small businesses and companies need to be twice as vigilant in protecting their vehicles and fleet of vehicles that hold fuel.

More and more theft of gasoline out of vehicles is starting to occur around the country as people siphon gas out of gas tanks. Fleet vehicles are often times very susceptible to this activity especially when they are visiting a client or on some routine errand where they might be parked outside in a less than familiar area for more than 2030 minutes at a stretch.

This isn't something that just happens in the city either, farmers have to worry about the same thing as gas prices are high everywhere even in rural locations. It's not unusual for a farmer that keeps a transfer tank in the back of an F350 to have large quantities of fuel stolen right out of their extra gas tank. In that regard it's always wise to double protect your vehicles and find a way to put a locking mechanism on your gas tank. For aesthetic reasons many gas tanks and gas caps have gotten away from putting locks on the capture tanks over the years. After the energy crisis in the early 70s it became more common to see locks on gas caps and gas tanks that required a key entry.

You don't see that very often today but you can find them and have them installed on a special order. Don't be fooled by the remote entry gas caps that come with some cars today. Just because you have the little lever inside your car to flip open the gas cap doesn't mean that a fuel thieves can come along with a small crowbar and pry open your gas To steal the fuel from your car. Though probably do a couple hundred dollars damage to your car and steal $5,200 in gas on the same shot. Protect your fuel with a real lock and not with a gimmick that the auto manufacturers provide you by default.

Managing Office Supply Purchases - Maintain Efficacy and Minimize Expenses

When you run your own business especially with the relatively small business office supplies can be one of those things that will make one dime you to death. You need to provide office supplies your employees so they can get the job done and have the right tools available to get the job done efficiently quickly and without too much... moaning and complaining.

You also do not want to have your employees pilfer borrow and steal or in some absent-minded way abscond with your office supplies. You also don't want to invest a lot of money in your office supplies, because eventually you will lose them or they will be destroyed or something will happen to them.

In this regard for many office supplies it's important to get off the supplies that are functional but cheap. You don't want anything that's too glitzy were too expensive looking or two special even, you just want tools that work and you want the cheap because you're probably going to have to replace them on a regular basis. You may be signing the checks but you may not be filling in the dollar amounts, it's possible that you have an office manager or receptionist unit handles the ordering of discount office supplies and so you won't even see the final approvals so it's important to set up policies and set parameters for the types and quality of office supplies that you want to have brought into the office. If you're not making the purchasing decisions it's important to have the people that are document what they're doing, what they're buying and why they're buying it. If you start with the cheapest Bic pen but money can buy in the pen doesn't work and your office manager ops for the next version up documented so that future purchases are not made of the pens that don't work in similarly future purchases are not made of the gold dip pens that cost $40 each and are rapidly stolen within 20 minutes of hitting the supply shelves.

Import Ban Trends for Safety and Security?

Recently the US government put in place import bans on Chinese toothpaste following the release that several distributors and manufacturers based of the China have been utilizing dangerous products in the goods that they distribute around the world. The information came to light after several children died in Panama.

This ban was put in place in relation to bathroom products and the ingredients are going to cough syrup. Does this import ban or blockade indicate greater changes in future import rejections for many other products. There has been a great deal of talk about changing the restrictions on the import of dietary supplements. Might the FDA reconsider their position on these items given the current circumstances?

And is that a step forward or a step backwards. There are many people on the other side of the equation that would like to see more free trade of prescription drugs even from countries that have access to cheaper prescription drugs than what we have in the United States. The FDA would counter that some of those drugs are not up to the quality of US standards and the toothpaste example may prove the point.

There's a fine line to walk between big brother protecting us, and big brother been manipulated into gouging consumers and business. Each year more more products come out to help us in various different fashions and many of them are so continuing to fall under the category of supplements. For example you can take dietary supplements to basically provide topical vitamins to your skin care product known as skinceuticals.

Innovation, marketing plans, and consumers demand is driving a constantly evolving marketplace, and the FDA can barely keep up on a good day. It could even be possible that they are over reacting and minor issues and under reacting in major ones. That type of from the hip reaction does not make for conducive business environments.

Hauling Gold

Sponsored Article Our sponsors the Monex Deposit Company (MDC) have recently provided a new press release covering their us gold coins and other minted products and collectibles. They provide hundreds possibly thousands of different collectible products that they have created to commemorate actual coins, and currencies from around the world. These items are cast in precious metals such as gold, silver, and even platinum sometimes. The Monex Deposit Company is not an official United States Government mint. They do not offer or exchange actual coins created by the United States Government mints even. Their products are commemorative or artistic copies printed in limited batches. Theoretically they have two levels of value. They obviously are worth their weight in the precious metal that they are cast. They sometimes also gain in value based on the popularity of the particular run of a product line that they have created.