International Business Strategy Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

International Business Strategy - Case Study Example In addition, this business strategy report identifies the existing cultural and institutional differences between the domestic location of the parent company and the host location of the proposed European subsidiary. The identification of differences is followed by the evaluation and assessment of the existing differences that are likely to influence the operations of the parent company in the host location and hence affect the achievement of the primary objectives of India Motors. And accordingly the report provides recommendations and suggestions as how to deal with these differences. Lastly, the report provides suggestions for the adoption of basic organisational structures and the control strategies that will be in enhance the minimisation of institutional and cultural differences. According to Michael E. Porter, "the prosperity of a nation is not inherited but created" (Porter M.E., 1990). He emphasizes that the prosperity and opulence of a country does not stem out of its national inheritance or bequests or for that matter a nation's labour resources, its currency value or the interest rates. But a nation's competitiveness and the conclusive prosperity depends on the capability of the nation's industry to upgrade, innovate, create and harness its limited resources to the maximum (Porter M.E., 1990). Due to the rapid advancements made in technological and information spheres, the economic developments in the last few decades have witnessed a rapid increase in the global integration of economic activities worldwide. Major countries and cities are being assimilated into the global network through the flow of technology, commodities, capital, information and labour (Dawson J.A. & Larke R., 2003). This development which is more commonly referred to as globalisation has made industries and companies to look beyond its domestic horizons towards international destinations and markets to upgrade, innovate, create and harness their limited resources to create a sustainable competitive advantage that will result in the overall national prosperity. Companies, business firms and enterprises in every industry today, want to take advantage of this modern phenomenon of globalisation so as to increase and sustain their competitive advantage. Their search for new and more effective strategies to benefit from this phenomenon has lead to companies resorting to global strategies, which in the economic terms is known as internationalisation strategy. Strategic alliances, international partnerships, Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) making entries into the international markets are some examples of internationalisation strategies. The basis of these strategies is to gain competitive advantage over its competitors and the long term sustenance of the gained competitive advan

Permit Processing on Mercer Island Essay Example for Free

Permit Processing on Mercer Island Essay The rapidly increasing population and land use is one of the significant yet phenomenal challenges in today’s public administration. Accompanied by the spatial utilization and maintenance is the urban planning and management as one of the functionalities of city administrators in dealing with the simultaneous increase of land use, wherein various types of uses demands a particular place within the city limits. Relevantly, the expansive modality of business districts or areas must be complemented with a system or process as a procedure in obtaining of permits to operate a business is necessary and required. Thus, the system or process is needed to ensure the systematic flow of urban zoning. In this regard, the city administration must work on how permit processing would respond to the aspectual needs of the population without hampering the sustainable community development. Dealing with urban-community issues tackles various considerations in the processing of business permits, such as organizational functions of city administration must be streamlined through conduct of dialogues and campaigns in the implementation processes. This procedure is one of the components in public administration where urban-community issues must be resolved. In Mercer Island, the city manager have studied the situation in permit processing and found the significant action of implementing the system or process that is meeting both administrative functions of the city government and the demands of the residents. The implementing programs of permit processing in Mercer Island could have found the breakthrough of a procedure in public administration. This paper will account the discussion of multifaceted issues that significantly drawn the decisiveness of city managers in administering Mercer Island’s public administration programs. Methodology The result of the case study, entitled: ‘Permit Processing on Mercer Island’, conducted by Judith Noble as her Master’s Degree thesis at the Graduate School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington and published by The Electronic Hallway in 1996 will be the derivative of the literature review, taking into account the issues, actors and organizational forces that have been depicted in the public administration of Mercer Island. Likewise, additional literatures will revalidate the presentation or exhibition of data reflective of the conducted case study. Literature Review City overview: history and township Mercer Island was named after the Mercer Brothers who explored the place while on food gathering and subsequently first established a non-native settlement at the north-west side of the island in 1870s. The settlement has thoroughly expanded to the north-east side of the island and known as the East Seattle where became famous of the Calkins Hotel as a landmark of commercial land use in 1889 (Mercer Island Historical Society, 2006). In 1908, the East Seattle have grown with residential and business population, wherein the urbanization was largely developed from 1930s towards 1940s when a floating bridge was built that reached towards its state of Washington as the nearby area of commerce (City Government of Mercer Island, 2008) Presently, Mercer Island is a highly urbanized city being established from the 1960 incorporation and 1970 merging of north-western and eastern municipalities that has been fully developed as a business district of Seattle with 23, 894 population (US Census Bureau, 2007). Brief background of the issues As manifested by the continuously growing population and developing commercial zones, the city administration of Mercer Island has employed its ways and means in the processing of business permits. In 1996, the Mercer Island’s City Manager Paul Lanspery was persevered to act on the result of a report that has been commissioned and studied the status of community development. As cited, the tremendous increase of land use has been attributed to the establishment of businesses, in which even residential areas diversify into commercial use. The situation could become a perennial problem to the majority of the residents as well as the natural environment may soon marginalize and disintegrate by the potential pollution (Noble, 1996). On the other hand, Lanspery was worried of the â€Å"systems thinking† of the city administration, wherein the processing of business permit application must be reviewed in order to assess the public administration and accountability of the city government and its employees, as there were â€Å"pressure groups† from the residents that advocates the call in preserving the city from further commercial development. The personal, organizational and external forces  Reflecting on the report on community development and through the conducted on-site observation, Lanspery was motivated by his personal beliefs on â€Å"continuous improvement† (Noble, 1996). It may be interpreted that Lanspery’s personal belief could be an â€Å"internal motivating force†; reclaiming â€Å"continuous improvement† of Mercer Island is achieving sustainable development in the community. Based on the conducted on-site survey, Lanspery has brought the organizational accountability of the city government to objectively see and find the perspective of Mercer Island amidst its commercial diversification. The land use of the residents must be coupled with responsibilities in nurturing and protecting the environment. Hence, the city government must actualize the administration of public interest to preserve the natural habitation of the island without hampering the on-going business activities of the city. It may be summarized that Lanspery’s personal belief of continuous improvement retains the organizational accountability of the city government as the external force in implementing sustainable means, instead of sustaining an intensive â€Å"environmental change† that in fact deface the natural beauty of Mercer Island. To cite, preserving Mercer Island culture and natural environment is a challenge to its city government in improving sustainable business operation and administering of its investors in a participatory process, adhering efficiency, quality and commitment (Noble, 1996). The environment and public administration According to the case study, the topography of Mercer Island is not suitable for high-rise buildings and definitely limited to horizontal construction. On the other hand, the windy atmosphere of the Island is susceptible to fire-igniting materials, like the fire tragedy in 1889 that burned-flat the fire-prone Calkins Hotel. The topography of Mercer Island has been critically considered in the implementing guidelines of the city government, as a response to mitigate environmental risks and preservation of the environment from potential threats of commercial abuse. The public administration has organized a team of diverse technical expertise that composes the building department personnel who will evaluate the application of permits for residential and business or commercial land use. To cite, the government has likewise regulated a countless permit application for construction of small structure and land use projects, taking into account an estimated of 70 percent from the total 1,300 permits being issued yearly (Noble, 1996). The public administration in the issuance of permits was consistent in the implementation of environmental protection programs and risk mitigating measures, such as to cite the intensive evaluation and qualification procedures on application of mechanical permits for installing furnace pipes, plumbing, hot tub and lawn sprinkler systems, electrical wiring, and even burglar security and fire alarms. Part of the revenue collection campaigns were also managed by the city government on penalties and fines from illegal permit fixers, violators of health and safety guidelines, and other proceeds from residential construction permits acquisition (Noble, 1996). Nature of policy system and processes of policy and decision making It may be reflected that the decentralization of local government units or city governments have been enacted as part of streamlining the Federal bureaucracy system, devolving the powers of the local government executives in executing the municipal or city programs and projects. In which case, the city government of Mercer Island is spearheaded by the executive function of the Mayor, the legislative power of the city council and the city manager who is mandated to act in administering the township development. The enactment of land use policies were outlined in the â€Å"check and balance† configuration of area implementation. Specifically, the city manager headed the tangible implementing procedure of the Department of community Development that enjoined the technical maintenance, engineering and the public safety programs. Part of a functional public administration and transparent decision making process is the conduct of public dialogues that has been initiated by the City Council, expediting the legislative process and synergy among the council membership. To cite, the legislative function of the city council reaches out the public concern in terms of interpreting the city codes and ordinances. The city council has even organized citizen boards and commissions to enable a transparent and community-participatory undertaking of relevant issues on land use and the city government’s public administration functions, like the creation and establishment of the Building Board of Appeals that act as a quasi-judicial body, examining and interpreting the technical description, meaning and implementation of the â€Å"building code† as the ethical parameter in the land use policies. Leadership, management and administrative ethics It may be found that what has been highlighted in the case study is the decisiveness of Paul Lanspery, being the city manager, who persevered the undertaking of necessary public administration processes and fully utilizing the organizational elements of the city government. The overall representation of the case study [according to the literature review] has also found Lanspery’s ideals, having the personal beliefs of continuous improvement of Mercer Island. The personal beliefs could be perceived to have influenced the systems thinking, character-values and governance. Lanspery’s position as part of the â€Å"politico-persona† in the executive function of the City Mayor’s Office, wherein city management emanated its mandate or functions, has contributed to â€Å"streamline the system†. Based on the case study, it may be recalled that organizational dysfunction has threatened to be a problem of the City Council in implementing the ordinances or enforcement of the building code and policies on land use. As cited, such problems pertain to be the (1) deficiency in coordinating with departments which the city government has established non-substantive change, (2) failure in completing inspections and its technical evaluation results, (3) discrepancy in applying the technical standards of the building code and engineering guidelines (Noble, 1996). To cite and quote Mercer Island’s City Councilor Fred Jarrett, â€Å"reliability and consistency in dealing with the processing of permits is required for changing a cedar roof to tile for one home but not for another† (Noble, 1996). Meaning, making reliable and consistent the â€Å"way of leadership† may require the need of change in the system and processes on how the permit application would be more beneficial and contributory to a decisive public accountability and administration, specifically on sustaining the judicious utilization of the landholdings in Mercer Island. Post activities and findings  The assumption to office of Paul Lanspery as Mercer Island’s City Manager has significantly shown with substantial change in the functions of various departments directly involve in the processing of business and residential permits, land use, public safety and order and the city’s environmental maintenance programs. As a city manager, Lanspery has implemented the organizational system on reporting, evaluation procedures, ethical standards, quality values, effectiveness and efficiency. The implementation of service-value-oriented ethics was the first and foremost organizational procedure employed by Lanspery. The action-oriented response through holding of regular meetings among the personnel of each department was aimed to improving and developing the responsible and accountable execution of task of every working personnel, in which adherent to creating good governance that shall harmonize the public administration. Lanspery has also introduced the â€Å"strategic component† of leadership accountability, wherein department managers were directed to participate in â€Å"visioning exercises† that would visualize the sustainable needs of the community and specifically to preserve the socio-economic life of Mercer Island from threatening effects of commercial land use. A synergy of public administration has been conceptualized to harmonize the fiscal management of every department. Strategic budget planning, monitoring and auditing system were also established to enable the efficient performance of the city government in its revenue collection and budgeting, and financing of community projects that focuses on improving the socio-economic life of the community. Meanwhile, the judicious implementation of permit processing is complemented with social and judicial sanctions to ensure the importance of law enforcement in mitigating the unlawful land use, being deterrent to commercial abuse of Mercer Island’s economic resources and environment. At this point in time, the case study has accounted the decisive managerial skill of Lanspery who enabled the â€Å"political will† of an area manager that prevented the vulnerable exploits of Mercer Island. Through that decisive and dedicated public administration has streamlined the organizational set-up of Mercer Island’s Department of Community Development (DCD), manifesting a more accountable city government. Conclusion Public administration could be the ethical standard in managing public accountability. The processes and ethics in public administration is a continuing challenge in the dispensation of the local government units and its local executives. Indeed, the political will of the local executive is necessary to supplant the weaknesses and flaws with transparent and good governance. Like Lanspery who have visualized the needs of Mercer Island has not submitted to the disguise of commercial development but reclaims the vision for sustainability. In Lanspery’s oath of office has transpired the vision, mission and goal of the city government as an organization that sustains the socio-economic life of Mercer Island. The collection of revenue from permit processing application, approval and issuances could have been substantial to the coffer of the city government yet vulnerable to irregularities and corruption. The case study on Mercer Island’s city management depicts the broad understanding of ethics in public administration, enabling effective implementation of key policy programs that accounts the majority interest of the population and its environment. It may be then concluded that public accountability must manifest an unwavering leadership in local governance, whereas devolution of power from the national government must promote the local participation of people towards sustainable development of communities.

Point Of View In A Film Film Studies Essay

Point Of View In A Film Film Studies Essay Often many good animation films mesmerize the vital element of the film known as Point of View to allow a viewer to make important connections and seeing the world in certain way. How To Train Your Dragon uses its first act of point of view through the use of camera shots, the collage of friendship , the upper and lower shot cuts to get across the range of dragons that inhabit this world, including the one nobody has ever seen, the sinister Night Fury. Its a character (Hiccup) that has end of game boss tattooed across it from the moment its first mentioned. Hiccup instantly knew that dragons werent harmful to humans but only defend themselves as would a typical person had done in unease situation. Crammed with lively scenes and plenty of action, this rowdy tale is just right for fantasy fans or anyone with a spirit of adventure. The Point of View in a film is a vital element because similar to narrative it has connection with the literacy and visual arts. Point of View as defined by Corrigan is as the vantage point from which a story is presented, something is seen and, by implication, the way the point of view determines what you see (49). So it makes sense that there would be a sudden surge of movies from this point of view because it so connects to peoples experience. Anything that calls for a level of naturalism and voyeurism can absolutely be filmed in this style. The face to face of the Hiccups and night fury for the first time, the way the intense scene the camera presented, the closeness among the sounds of approaching danger, the alert generated when the night fury first abandoned by the hiccups, the closeness of facial gestures on both the characters ultimately not only created a suspense but a general attraction to the shot. The short and long term camera angle around the eyes of night fury as he see the hiccups for the first time made a statement pertaining as if an unknown person was looking doubtful and vicious. With a dragons eye view, the viewers fly through gorgeous wrinkly rock formations that rise from the sea. As mentioned in the A Short Guide to Writing about Film by Corrigan, the camera can take the actions to the higher level bringing subjective and objective perspectives so that what is shown is not confined to any one persons perspective (49). In Viking culture, theres nothing more disloyal or perilous than consorting with the enemy- especially when its a dragon. But Hiccup discovers that maybe the dragons fear the humans as much as they fear them. Will Hiccup finally become the man his father wants him to be by slaying a dragon, or will he honor his newfound friendship with Toothless deliberately done by the camera work? A different kind of simplicity works, to equally satisfying effect, in the scenes that refer most directly to the films title. When Hiccup first meets Toothless, a type of dragon especially feared by the Vikings of Berk, the animal is hurt and scared. As noted in the middle of the movie, the camera mainly focuses more on the actions of hiccups and the objective actions between him and night fury to build a concept of the film. The camera gives close shots of night flurries first outburst and then love with the hiccups thus making the entire scene vibrant with the sounds, realism, and voyeurism what a norm al viewer would have asked from a good film. As viewer notes hiccup in a scene where he goes to explore the place the night furry fall, the camera makes the scene more vibrant than anything to create a stage of exploration, a new settings and tone of the shot. The dragons, not surprisingly, are the main visual attraction and come in various shapes and sizes with clever names like the two-headed Hideous Zippleback, or the Monstrous. The most fearsome and illusive of all is the Night Fury basically, a fire-breathing stealth bomber in black scales. As he further to the point where he notices the impaired dragon, the close of up shots, a complete silence, and along with the direct sound, the camera ultimately changes the position of sniper, to be exact the view of the people. It takes the audience through the entire scene as creating fear, a fear that any typical human would have gone through at the moment when he or she has seen something vicious, out of frontier, and moreover compell ing to defeat. The camera slowly builds a tense situation, close shots at the face of the hiccups to pertain the sweating of a normal person, and none the less to show cause and effect. The broken tree truck in half, the impact of the fall of night furry on the ground, the long muddy slide made by the fall, recalls in viewers mind that the dragon must be something dangerous and so powerful that his fall slashed a tree in half and made a drag in the dirt. This scene represent as if the viewer were walking through the process of finding the dragon. This is another factor of point of view that as viewers watch the particular scene they might feel that they are seeing another character through the eyes of Hiccups, and that character of course is the viewer himself (49) This film doesnt excite straight away, but when it starts to warm up, youre left with a moral tale and a fun animated kids film. Hiccup is a pretty rubbish viking. His lame Viking-ness is made much worse by the fact that his dad, Stoick (Gerard Butler) is the daddy of all Vikings and chief dragon slayer. When Hiccup downs one of the toughest dragons of all no-one in the village believes him. That is until he feeds, tickles, tames and flies the beast leading to the blurring of the line between human and dragon. Gone are the ironic one-liners, replaced by some genuinely funny jestings. From when Hiccup first encounters Toothless and all the following dragon/human interaction that follows, the jokes are straight from the Pixar more than words handbook. As for the flight scenes, its really not too far off the majesty of other animations, comprehensive and soaring over seas and forests. The viewers will believe a dragon can fly. As for the mild danger that adorns the movie scenes theres n othing particularly mild about it. Toothless may have huge, pensive eyes and tiny retractable teeth but some of the other beasts are enough to get the viewer scared. The camera angles around the Night Fury physical appearance make his look so aggressive and enormous in size but in fact the dragon is merely a small compared to other dragons. When the true foe rears its scaly head, the camera affect will surely make children and adults alike quivering in their glasses. Hiccups world is turned upside down when he encounters a dragon that challenges him and his fellow Vikings to see the world from an entirely different point of view. Although the viewer might feel stranded from the actual element but fire-breathing dragons, medieval projectile weaponry and dragon dive-bombing provide edge-of-seat suspense. The action sequences are well-balanced with humorous and poignant scenes from the emotional life Hiccup so the subjective and objective perspectives stay alive and viewers get the mix of all kind of emotions. Regardless, Hiccup ventures out into battle and downs a mysterious Night Fury dragon with his invention, but cant bring himself to kill it. The scene that makes Hiccup realize that there is a hope of consideration that dragons are likeable, and the camera switches back and forth to the actions of both to make a scene of curiously. In the process, Hiccup finds a kindred spirit and gets to know the secret life of dragons (it turns out that theyre far from nightmarish beasts, despite being snuggle-toothed and bug-eyed). A scene that would make a twist or force the viewer to think, Will he! Will he! Kill the dragon or not. Beside that scene the viewers doesnt get to see that much interaction between both of them, especially when Hiccup and Astrid were taken by the Night Furry to the dragon world. The overall view and standpoint after the in progress of the movies changes as to something solemn. Instead, Hiccup and the dragon, whom he names Toothless, begin a friendship that would open up both their worlds as the vigilant boy learns that his people have misjudged the species. But even as the two each take flight in their own way, they find that they must fight the destructive ignorance plaguing their world. Through the use of point of view in the film, the viewers get to experience the abnormal yet adventurous and realistic scenes in the film. The camera help generate the scenes that viewers perceive would have experience themselves thus making the film more enthusiastic, blastic, and more over the complete scene of something fresh off the bucket. The notion of significance or urgency immensely is shattered all throughout the entire film scenes. Several examples but more truly the love of Hiccups for Astird is visible through the friendship of hiccup and the night fury. Since she hasnt seen the coolest dragon and noticed the hiccups have controlled the deadly one, it has opened a path for a girl to trust someone who is capable of dealing with vicious dragons. Hiccup spends much of the film flustered and frustrated. But with a voice that is both geeky and vulnerable, Hiccup ultimately winds up attracting our sympathy and love. The bond between both the hiccup and dragon are can be pertai ned as ultimately, a boy and his dog, only the dog is played by a massive black dragon named Toothless. Both characters are shown openly taking risk of their own safety to protect the other, and their connection is all the more affecting because its wordless. The viewers ultimately feel that Toothless, like the rest of the dragons, is not anthropomorphized or attribution of human motivation, characteristics, or behavior to inanimate objects, animals, or natural phenomena. Unlike the creatures in other Animation films, Toothless doesnt speak or crack wise, make pop-culture references, or dance to songs by Smash-mouth. This film hits on point of view such as diversity and acceptance and is mixed in with the humor and spunk of Viking teenage anguish. Hiccup does a fantastic job as voice talent for the adventurous character and his love interest, Astrid a tomboy out to be the best Viking girl displays comic relief throughout the film. Other than that the film ends in much the same way i t begun, but it has a more positive outlook and the perspective constantly changes as the scenes progress. I dont think it was a good enough way to resolve the issue. The story builds up this climax, but it felt more like a cop-out. Hiccup gets banished, losing his father, and then in an instant hes forgiven. The different views the audience see makes them feel like Hiccups personality and his interactions with the dragons and the different personalities of the Vikings are the basis for the humour in the story, versus humour that is more satire or topical. An animated like Zero to Hero, where the title character is a awkward misfit who, after accidentally wreaking chaos on his own village, must undergo training in order to attain his true potential, the same goes for this film. From the beginning to the end of the film, the viewers feel as if theres a camera room where one can walk around with a little monitor and see the set and the characters in virtual space. Viewer can change the lenses and do tracking shots through a virtual world. Its peculiar, but its instructive in terms of finding camera angles and lens lengths. Somehow walking around with a camera on a virtual set is like shooting live action on the fly. The close up shots and the wide ranges shots of the characters help both the voice actors all provide great performances that always keep pace with both the humor and the range of the characters emotions. Like most movies Its the kind of generational divide you can see repeated throughout history.   It is where the clash ha s been established by the older, its the younger generation who be trained that the only way to bring peace is to reexamine the nature of the conflict and then try to resolve it non-violently.   Violence perpetuates violence.   These lessons of courageous kindness and violence-begets violence may seem corny, but Dragon makes it work.   The lessons are subtext that kids will pick up on by seeing how the characters behave and that adults should appreciate because it makes the film more than the sugar cereal of most animated films. From the eye-catching, hillside Viking settlement to the peaceful mountain lake where Hiccup carefully nurtures his relationship with Toothless, the films design elements known as Point of View bring the viewers into the lives of these dragon-blighted people conjuring up vivid pictures of what that place in history might have looked like. The inhabitants may be modern and the situations a bit fantastical, but the realistic approach to perspectives makes for a more livable film.

Epicurus Essay -- Papers Philosophy Happniess

Epicurus Epicurus was a philosopher who was believed to be the one with all the answers to life. He encouraged the Ideal of Good Life, to live simple lives by seeking pleasure and avoiding pain. Epicurus views worries as unnecessary and unnatural desires. If these desires are avoided, he believes that all worries will be eliminated. Epicurus' metaphysical theory was based on Democritus's view of atoms. They were monists who believed all is matter, the soul is equivalent to the mind and comes apart at death. I feel that Epicurus' extravagance leads to pain, not pleasure; and, therefore, should be avoided. According to Epicurus, the purpose of life is happiness; and by happiness he means not that state of well being and perfection, but pleasure itself. The Epicurean goal to happiness was ataraxia, freedom from inner disturbance. Epicurus acknowledges the issue of pain caused by owning many material possessions. He believes that even though these possessions may make us happy, the long-term pleasure will not exist. Having many great possessions cause people to be happy, but then they want more and more, which means they will never reach happiness. I feel this point is true to some extent. Although quality of life is a very important point made by Epicurus, quantity also plays a big role. Epicurus takes this to the extreme level of never giving ones self any luxury at all. Everyone who lives on the earth has their good and bad days, when it is a bad day, as human beings we deserve to splurge every once in a while. We work hard here as humans and deserve some kind of replenishme nt for it, weather it is material, physical, emotional, or whatever else it is that one wants. Epicurus believes pleasure is the standar... ...o that is what we should have. Thirdly, unnecessary desires are vain and will not cause pain if absent. According to Epicurus, it is unnecessary to desire sex. I strongly disagree with this point because it is natural to have the urge for sexual interactions and necessary to fulfill them or else reproduction would not occur. It seems to me that Epicurus was the type of person who just wanted to live the life he was supposed to live so he could live life in the best possible way. Even though his beliefs were mostly unrealistic, his intent was to make it possible to live worry free. I feel that if Epicurus lived in today's society, he would have a completely different philosophy. Epicurus did not have enough information to back up all of his theories, and with our world today, he would have thought differently about his philosophy, ideal of the Good Life.

Challenges and Opportunities for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners Essay

Rick Suttle Rick Suttle has been writing professionally since 2009, publishing health and business articles on various websites. He has worked in corporate marketing research and as a copywriter. Suttle has a Bachelor of Science in marketing from Miami University and a Master of Business Administration from California Coast University. Business owners often face challenges with financing their companies. Business owners face many challenges when running companies. Competition can be stiff in any industry. Thus, you must find time to keep track of what key competitors are doing. Consumer preferences can also change over time, so you must fully understand what products and features your customers want. You also will face other key challenges with regard to capital, employees and planning. 1. Financing the Business * Owners are faced with the challenge of financing their businesses — both when starting out and during growth phases. Sole proprietors sometimes use savings or investment accounts to start businesses. However, financing your own business can be risky. Make sure you have money for your living expenses when financing your business, as it may take months to earn a profit. It is often difficult to get a bank loan. All banks will check your credit before giving you a loan, so get copies of your credit report and make sure it is accurate; errors can negatively impact your credit score. You also can apply for a loan through the SBA (Small Business Administration). However, the SBA often charges higher interest rates, the Microsoft Business website notes. 2. Building Profits * It can take time to build profits in a business, whether you are using direct sales or advertising to grow your business. You will need reinvest a large portion of your profits into additional advertising. Companies that use advertising build profits by gradually increasing advertising expenditures each month. For example, you may need to spend $500 to make $1,500, a 300 percent return on your advertising investment. Assuming you can average similar returns, you may decide to invest the entire $1,000 profit to make $3,000. Keep in contact with your customers. Try to get repeat sales as often as you can, which also will help you increase profits. 3. Finding Qualified Employees * Small business owners will have the challenge of finding qualified employees. Larger companies usually offer higher salaries and better health benefits than smaller ones, so you may need to find employees who recognize the inherent benefits of working for smaller companies. For example, employees can move up more quickly in a smaller organization. Another option is offering some type of profit sharing. With a solid product concept and business plan, some job applicants will recognize the monetary benefits of profit sharing. 4. Time Management * A smaller but still important challenge for business owners is time management. Small business owners often need to multitask as they have fewer employees to perform routine tasks. The key to mastering time management is prioritizing your tasks each day. Complete the tasks that are most crucial to building profits. For example, go to the meeting with a customer and work on your sales budget afterward. Challenges of Business Owners | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/info_7847252_challenges-business-owners.html#ixzz2HY0QNYtL Common Challenges Entrepreneurs Face and How to Overcome Them * 5 Most Common Challenges Entrepreneurs Face and How to Overcome Them * My Personal Challenges as an Entrepreneur and How I Overcame Them†¦ * Armed for Battle: An Army of Entrepreneurs Book Review * How Far Are You Willing to Go for Your Dreams? * Brenda Rivas: How She Used Her Unhappiness in Her Corporate America Job to Propel Her to Start Her Own Business 1. Negative Mindset The battle always starts in the mind! Our own fears, excuses, and just basically any thing that paralyzes us from moving forward to our destiny is cultivated in our mind. Feelings of inadequacy such as â€Å"I don’t know if I can do this† or â€Å"I am not qualified enough to start this happen† – these are often thoughts that entrepreneurs deal with. This can often come from our own low self-esteem, lack of support, or our upbringing. How to Overcome: a. Do not entertain the thoughts. Remember that whatever you focus on gets magnified. If you pay no attention to it, it will not linger. But for as long as you are nursing it, it will grow in your head and eventually overtake you! b. Surround yourself with positive people. Birds of same feathers flock together is a popular saying but it is true. If you hang with negative people who criticize other people and put them down and do pity party, then before long, you will find yourself like one. See why it’s important to surround yourself with positive people. c. Empower yourself by reading inspirational articles, success stories, great books, movies and anything that will encourage you and motivate you. Attend seminars and workshops if you can! 2. Overwhelming Feelings There is always a huge learning curve when you first start a business. Although you may have lots of experience in the corporate world in your field, it’s totally different when you’re the captain of your own ship. Now, you have to be the boss, the marketer, the secretary, the customer service person, the shipper, and the list goes on! But these overwhelming feelings surely do not only come to starting entrepreneurs. Some experienced and successful entrepreneurs tend to feel overwhelmed at times too so don’t be discouraged. How to Overcome: a. Take short breaks in between your tasks. I find that taking 2 or 3 minute break away from my computer helps. b. Pace yourself. Create a to-do list and make sure that you only put whatever you can handle within a realistic time frame on any given day. c. Outsource some of your tasks. If you’re growing too quick, hire a virtual assistant or a local person who doesn’t mind coming over to your home office to help you out with some tasks. d. Make sure to set aside two days off. A business is a business, however, this time it is yours and you have the flexibility to create your own hours and set your days off without any problem. It is ideal to have a couple of days off or more if you can afford it to avoid possible quick burn out. e. If you’re suffering from information overload, 3. Lack of Support Some entrepreneurs have been blessed to have supportive husbands, family, children, and friends. Some of this support group have the ability to help make the entrepreneur’s business grow but some could only offer moral support†¦which, hey, it’s more than you could ask for! While some of us are blessed like that, others lack both moral and business support. How to Overcome: a. Network with your local business organizations and find people that have the same vision and goal as you do. b. Find a virtual group of people in Social Media that support and promote each other. (Shameless Plugging: Yes, this is what The Entrepreneur Chic Social Club is all about! Details coming soon! *Wink wink*) c. Invest in a mentor or a business coach. 4. Growing a Business The challenge in growing a business mostly lies in the lack of financial resources. Let’s face it, money begets money. If you have the money, it’s easier to put your product out there in hundreds of thousands of people just like the bigger brands, the Fortune 500 companies. You see them on TV, radio, billboards, social media, and sometimes maybe in your inbox! Unfortunately, for most small business and starting entrepreneurs, this is not the case. You have to work hard to make money so you can use that to make more money! How ironic, isn’t it? But that’s where the challenge is! I really do believe that this area of having your own business teaches you a lot about persistence and creates such an experience for you that molds you as a business person. How to Overcome: a. Be patient. Growing a business takes time. The level of effort that you put in is directly equivalent to the level of result you’re going to get but do not expect an overnight result. It’s like planting a seed, it takes time to become a tree. b. Learn as much as you could about marketing (including social marketing) for as long as your brain can handle without overloading it! c. Research on ways you can acquire funding. Be creative! (perhaps you can do your own fundraising technique) See if you might be qualified for a small business loan. 5. Feelings of Wanting to Give Up Because a business takes time to grow and it usually takes a lot of effort to make it work, feelings of wanting to give up do come sometimes, especially when you’re not seeing the results that you want when you want it. Perhaps your funds are already starting to get depleted or you’re getting physically and mentally drained. How to Overcome: a. Do not entertain the thought. b. If you’re not seeing any results, evaluate your product, service, target market, and your marketing strategies. Perhaps your product isn’t the right one for the group of people that you’re presenting it to. Maybe it needs to have a lot of improvement in its presentation/packaging or price. c. Take some time off. Sometimes stepping away gives you a better perspective of where things are at and ideas flow better when your mind is rested. http://www.entrepreneurchic.com/5-most-common-challenges-entrepreneurs-face-and-how-to-overcome-them/ 5 Types of Business Opportunities for Entrepreneurs Are you a restless entrepreneur? Are you the type of person who wants to go into business to be your own boss and succeed through your own decision making? Many people feel the call to become an entrepreneur, but are not sure what type of business to start. There are many entrepreneur opportunities you could choose. Here is a brief look at different types of business opportunities available: Buy a Franchise Many entrepreneurs like to have a business going full speed right off the bat. Rather than spending time reinventing the proverbial wheel, an entrepreneur will buy a franchise opportunity. A franchise is an existing business with a solid business plan and process already in place. An entrepreneur can operate a new business under a recognized business name and receive support from the franchise headquarters with marketing, promotional materials, new business products or services, etc. Good examples of popular franchises are McDonalds and Subway restaurants, home cleaning businesses, Dollar Store, or fitness centers. Distributorship or Dealership Another place to find business opportunity leads is with distributorships and dealerships. A distributor is a person or business that has an agreement to sell products or services produced by another company. Think of an Amway distributor or Avon distributor as a good example. A dealer is much like a distributor, but more focused on one product. An auto dealership may sell only Hondas, or an insurance agent might be considered a ‘dealer’ in life insurance. Network Marketing While an Avon lady might be considered a ‘distributor,’ there is much more to this type of business opportunity. In addition to distributing the products or services offered by the parent company, a network marketer also strives to recruit other distributors. By creating a â€Å"network† of distributors, a person can earn considerable income through residual commissions made from the distributors working under them. This entrepreneur opportunity is also known as Multilevel Marketing. Licensing You might also find entrepreneur opportunities through licensing. Licensing is where you can be creative and invent products, but use the name brand, icon, or trademark of a widely recognized business. Think of Disney products. An inventor may come up with a great idea for a child’s toy that would become a big seller if the famous Mickey Mouse was associated with the product. By obtaining a license from Disney, the inventor could produce his product and profits would be shared by both parties. Filling a Niche While pre-made or other types of business opportunities can be lucrative through a parent or franchise company already enjoying great success, entrepreneur opportunities also exist for a person to simply find a consumer need and discover a way to solve it. Perhaps you are a new mother who finds a need for a baby product not on the market, and therefore, you create and distribute one of your own. Or you are a specialist who finds that other businesses will pay for your consultation and expertise in improving a business function. Any entrepreneur who wants to make a business of his or her own has many types of business opportunities to explore. Find the one right for you and enjoy the success you can build on your own. At the beginning of each year, there is always a little buzz about what will be the next new big ticket. The world is supposed to end in 2012, so I hope you’ll buy 50 pair of underwear, six months’ worth of food rations and about 500 gallons of water. I hope you will make those purchases, not because I think the world is going to end, but because I’m starting an underwear-manufacturing company, a food-rations-supply firm and a water-supply business. Each of these businesses will be hot in the new year as hysteria kicks into overdrive in 2012. Don’t believe me? Flash back to Y2K. Businesses spent around $500 billion to save themselves from impending doom. But nothing happened. Not even a little Y2K postmortem belch. Nothing happened, except that vendors in 1999 pulled in a cool half trillion! So if you’re looking for the next hot opportunity for entrepreneurs in 2012, keep these five areas in mind. 1. Elderly consumers Because people are living longer these days, a flood of products and services will be designed to cater to the older crowd. Businesses will introduce not-so-obvious services. New retirement villages will spring up and new services that cater to the elderly, such as chair lifts for getting into airplane seats. 2. Domestic purchasing With Europe on shaky financial ground, expect businesses to do more domestic purchasing. There is volatility ahead, so if you are based in the U.S. and have competitors overseas, you may have an advantage in 2012. It’s safer to purchase domestically, where buyers perceive more stability, even if it is more costly. 3. Mobile purchasing If you are familiar with Square, you know that this is just the beginning. In 2012, we will see a big surge in payments made with smartphones. Entrepreneurs who have not optimized their websites and their businesses for smartphone transactions are giving money away. In fact, the research firm Emarketer says that smartphone transactions are expected to exceed $6.5 billion by 2015. That’s a lot of coin. 4. Genetic DNA sequencing It’s not the sequencing itself that entrepreneurs need to jump on, but keeping it under $1,000. Technological advancements continue at mind-blowing speed. As Moore’s Law predicts, every 18 months technology doubles in performance and cuts the cost in half. In 2012, we should see genetic decoding available for $1,000 or less. That price point would make it available to the average person. Most people would have the means to determine their genetic propensity to problems, and to take immediate action to live longer and healthier. This will create a boom in DNA-sequencing services and related health care services. Jump on it now, before it becomes another Walmart offering, like flu shots are now. 5. World ending Not. My biggest, boldest prediction is that the world will not end in December 2012 (even though the Mayan calendar shows that it will). But that doesn’t mean there won’t be big opportunities to profit from the hype that will build. It could represent millions, or even billions, in revenue. People spent nearly $1 billion preparing for Y2K to hit, and nothing happened. We are creatures of habit and will likely do the same for 2012. So, if you believe the Mayan calendar may not be accurate about the world ending in 2012, consider ways to profit from these areas. They should be lucrative and provide plenty of opportunity. Besides, the Mayan calendar also predicted that the Kim Kardashian marriage would last more than 12 months, and it was wrong about that, too!

Dorothea Dix and the Dangers o essays

Dorothea Dix and the Dangers o essays The report I read was about Dorothea Dix, and her quest to help those who were mentally ill. This was during the Jacksonian period, 1820 through 1840, and the citizens were becoming unstable, and that it would cause a major problem for the future. The people of the Jacksonian period felt the need for housing and teaching though with this unstable disorder, insanity or mentally illness, and keep society from falling apart. Schools were emphasized more, to teach students to be orderly and obedient. New settings called asylums were created to provide order for those with disordered minds, but all these new ideas needed support and money to be accomplished, and many were ready for the challenge, like Dorothea Dix. Dorothea Dix would give hope to people in the Jacksonian period that if she could get the help from the states, then so could anyone else. She was born in Hampden, Maine, 1802, and didnt have a great youth, but it wouldnt stop her later on in life from accomplishing the goals of getting legislatures of the states to fund asylums. She didnt make a huge campaign for it, or have fundraisers, but personally went and talked to those she needed to talk to, to get the goal accomplished. Shed make trips around the states to gather information of how the mentally ill are being treated, and bring it to the legislatures, with explanations and ideas. Dixs work wouldnt go to waste, she wouldnt get the Presidents vote for the bill, but her dream wouldnt be forgotten because by the 20th century, her wish was granted, the Sheppard Towner Act of 1921 and the Social Security Act of 1921. I think the report about Dorothea Dixs determination is a great report because it shows that willpower will get you far, and if you dont accomplish your goal, you inspire others to go out and give their willpower. Shes a great role model for anyone to have. ...