Joomla! site syndication http://www.business-4u2.co.uk 2008-07-04T09:54:25+01:00 http://www.business-4u2.co.uk http://www.business-4u2.co.uk/images/M_images/joomla_rss.png text/html 2004-07-07T11:54:06+01:00 http://www.business-4u2.co.uk http://www.business-4u2.co.uk/content/view/6/2/ Market ends week on downerTHE stockmarket closed slightly down bringing an end to the four-day rally which rescued the market from its multi-month lows.At the close, the benchmark S P/ASX200 index was down 71.2 points to 6088.5 while the all ordinaries was down 62.5 points to 6087.2.At 4.26pm on the Sydney Futures Exchange, the September share price index contract was 103 points lower at 6081, on a volume of 31,290 contracts.Bill Bishop, private client adviser at ABN Amro Morgans said the sharemarket had been trading sideways all day, but had a wonderful run since last week. Today all is forgiven for the market. If it wants to have a breather today it's allowed to, I think, Mr Bishop said. Also there is some rather high-powered shouting from the (United) States that we might go into recession because of sub-prime (mortgage issues), but we don't know. I would like to say it's not true but it's a possibility. ... we simply don't have a handle on the amount of damage that the so-called sub-prime crisis is doing. The sub-prime issue is a mystery and a worry but the markets have rallied really strongly in the face of the drama last week. text/html 2004-05-12T11:54:06+01:00 http://www.business-4u2.co.uk http://www.business-4u2.co.uk/content/view/11/9/ Winning new business: How to avoid the giving trapwinning new businessThere’s you in pursuit of winning new business, all excited by the prospect landing a star client. You’ve spent months, even years, perfecting your policies and procedures and as quick as a flash you shoot yourself in the foot by giving stuff away.In the normal course of events, there’s nothing wrong with giving stuff away. Quite the reverse. Being generous is extremely good for winning new business, but it needs to be part of a strategy. Knee-jerk giving is not a strategy.In business, the giving trap can manifest in a number of ways, many of them seemingly harmless.Time generosity is the most common giving trap for independent professionals. If you charge for your expertise by the hour, it follows that every hour has a value. Your potential client or customer needs to be under no illusion that this is how you work.Dedicating time to the pursuit of winning new business is, of course, fine and often very necessary. But you need to keep a handle on it. Your clients must know what you’re doing, why you’re doing it and how far you’ll go.From time to time you’ll be pushed or gently nudged to go further and it’s your response to this that can see you enter the trap. The moment you go further - without at least clearly flagging it - you risk devaluing your services.Good, strategic giving is when you add value without being asked. The giving trap is when you discount your services or weaken the perception of your value by going too far. text/html 2004-08-09T08:30:34+01:00 http://www.business-4u2.co.uk http://www.business-4u2.co.uk/content/view/2/9/ 600 more Ford staff stood downA TOTAL of 1850 Ford workers in Melbourne have now been stood down without pay as the effects of the industry's latest strike action hit home.The carmaker said today it had been forced to tell an additional 600 workers not to turn up for work on Monday after standing down 1250 engine and assembly line employees at its Broadmeadows and Geelong plants yesterday.The stand-downs follow a walk-out yesterday by 242 workers at Venture Industries, which supplies Ford with more than 1500 major plastic components.The Venture staff claim they are owed $25 million in entitlements after the firm announced it was closing down the operation and moving to a different site elsewhere in Melbourne.Ford spokeswoman Sinead McAlary tonight said the manufacturer had also lodged a submission with the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) in an attempt to have the union-led Venture strike action suspended.