A cash flow projection is a forecast of the difference, over periods of time, between cash coming in the business and cash going out of the business. The estimation or projection of cash flow is a powerful management tool. If you were to choose one financial management tool to use on a routine basis, cash flow projection and analysis would be the one. By knowing your cash position now and in the future, you can:

• Make sure you have enough cash to purchase sufficient inventory for seasonal cycles;

• Take advantage of discounts and special purchases;

• Properly plan equipment purchases for replacement or expansion;

• Prepare for adequate future financing needs.

Cash is the lifeblood of your business. Only cash pays the bills – profit does not. Know where your cash is going, from where it is coming, and what the future holds. Cash flow projection is the tool. The ability to predict and plan cash outlays means that you won’t be forced to resort to unexpected and costly borrowing (such as credit cards) to meet your cash needs.

How to Prepare A Cash Flow Projection

Preparing a cash flow projection is something like preparing your budget and balancing your checkbook at the same time. Unlike the income statement, a cash flow statement deals only with actual cash transactions. Depreciation, a non-cash transaction, does not appear on a cash flow statement. Loan principal and interest payments will both appear on your cash flow statement, as they both require the outlay of cash.

Cash is generated primarily by sales. But in most businesses, not all sales are cash sales. Even if you have a retail business and a large percentage of your sales are cash, it is likely that you offer credit (charge accounts, term payments, lay-a-way, trade credit) to your customers. Thus, you need to have a means of estimating when those credit sales will turn into cold hard cash.

Cash flow projections should be prepared for short-term (weekly, monthly) and longer-term planning purposes.

Purpose of Short-Term Cash Flow Projection (Weekly and Monthly)

• To determine short term cash position.

• To plan the amount of cash not needed in the short-term and, therefore, can be put in short-term investments or used to take early-pay discounts from vendors.

• To estimate cash needed for due obligations and working capital requirements.

Purpose of Intermediate Term Cash Flow Projections (12 months)

• To show how much cash will be needed to run the business in the coming year.

• To determine where the cash will come from.

• To determine seasonal variations in cash flow.

• To estimate annual borrowing requirements and ability to make repayments.

• Supporting information for loan application.

Purpose of Long-Term Cash Flow Projections (3 to 7 years)

• To support strategic planning

• To determine equity needs

• Substantiation and support of long term debt or equity raising efforts

The level of detail needed in your cash flow projection will vary depending on the complexity of your business.

Business owners and entrepreneurs plan their business to make it the best. The decisions they take now can affect the running of the business in the times to come. But, what seems important out here is that simply wearing the robe of a successful business owner would not do anything good or great. Neither would it seem enough to build the business that has huge profits pouring in. All what you need out here is smart exit strategy.

Having a smart exit strategy helps in overcoming the potential threats to your business in any kind of unfavorable conditions. Speaking in the present sensitive business environment, exit strategies play an indispensable role for all kinds of businesses.

It is very true that more or less a business owner should have an effective business plan. It is similar in manner where you eat only when you feel the urge. And if you have the urge you’d also feel the taste of the food you eat. Now, at some point in time you intend to sell your business, and venture into a new one. It is here that you need to make a calculative move to clearly define your exit strategy that would work for you. Likewise, your business operations should always remain in conjunction with your business plans.

So, you have got the real track how exit strategies are important for you. It is the reality to see that the business you own or run today might not provide you with strong assets and cash tomorrow, or it may happen that over a period of time you get bored with the type of the business you are presently running. Anticipation is need of the hour to adapt your exit strategy. Rightly speaking, you have to think about your retirement plan, how to sell your business, and how to ensure business continuity.

Just think for a second… who’d run your business if you are absent from the scene. What value would your business hold, or plainly speaking; will it hold any value at all?

Exit Strategies for Your Business

There are traditional and contemporary exit strategies that can really prove helpful for your business motive.

Traditional Exit Strategies

• Transferring the business to next generation. This would save your business from moving on to outsiders.

• Every business owner should have a buy-sell agreement, which allows smooth selling of business to the partner or an executive in case of owner’s uncalled death. In case of sole proprietorship or where the business is run by one-man or one-woman corporation, the business passes on directly to family member or any other close relative.

• Selling the business in the event where business profits have moved down.

Contemporary Exit Strategies

These are alternative and viable contemporary exit strategies that provide more leverage and are conducive for the business owners’ interests:

• Developing a business which is specifically aimed for sale to another business entity such as a competitor.

• Hiring management above the in-house management, and which runs under the guidance of the business owner. This would allow many flexible exit strategies vis-à-vis selling the business to any third party, passing the business prospects to next generation or directly selling your business to the management.

• Mergers are also an optional exit strategy. Here two companies merge together in order to enhance the growth, development and diversification of the business.

Now that you have a fair idea about some available exit strategies, it is important that you be aware about the risks involved in implementing any exit strategy. The risks need to be carefully studied in the current market scenario. Remember that you should also be extremely wary about mistakes too.

Major Problems Associated with Exit Strategies

There are two elementary problems that are associated with the exit strategy. These include:

• It is not possible every time to have a smart and a working exit strategy that would work well with other goals, objectives, and operations of the business.

• Exit strategies go wrong if you have wrong people associated with you. These wrong people can be in the form of wrong management, wrong employees, wrong employers and wrong co-owners, and wrong buyers.

Therefore, while planning exit strategies, you should have a concrete and a professionally documented business plan in right order. When needed, the plan can be reviewed by the financial advisors, management consultants financial planning advisors etc. to get a fair idea about the working of the business processes.

How Can you Avoid Mistakes in Exit Strategies

Listed below are some of the don’ts that you need to be very careful of while going for any exit strategy.

• Don’t persuade any employee of your organization to own a part or full business, unless, you are not sure about his financial stability, and that he’s genuinely interested in buying your business. Ultimately it is you who have to bear the consequences if the co-owner fails to make the commitment, or breaks it for that matter.

• It would not be a good exit strategy to consider merging your business entity with another business, unless you are confident that the management of the other company is willing to enter into a firm commitment.

• There are tax consequences of selling your business to the acquirer. It is because a business sale is usually connected with huge amounts of money.

Wronged on Exit Strategies: The Mistakes Made by Management

Here are some of the management mistakes that can really affect the exit strategy. These mistakes include:

• Maintaining no records, books, and other principle material necessary for the review and evaluation purposes.

• Lack of any proper management structure that can prove helpful to the co owner who can even run the business even in your absence.

• You are considering exit strategies as the half hearted ways to sell off your business.

Remember! As the part of exit strategies, there are also plenty of both short- and long-term insurance and financial instruments available in the market. Theses include, Fee-Based Financial Planning, Securities Brokerage, Money Manager Referral Programs, Mutual Funds, REITs and many more. Look for the qualitative professional exit strategy solutions streamlined at Khanstellation Group, Inc. (KGI). Being a full service organization, you have intelligently designed exit strategies for your business, right here!

At KGI, we offer working plans which provide you with executive compensation planning, business continuation planning, and employee benefits.

In the last fifteen years, organizational structure has undergone a shift from the individual climb up the corporate ladder to an increasing emphasis on work teams and groups. The shift to work teams is largely due to factors such as globalization, downsizing and the need for technological efficiency. As companies expand and tasks become more complex, more and more specialists are needed within organizations. These specialists must learn to work together so that colleagues have an understanding of the role and responsibility of those whose skill sets differ from their own. In addition, the convergence of products, services and technology from around the world has forced companies to work in a cross functional environment for which the best organizational design is often working in teams.

There are other reasons for the emergence of work teams as well. Stiff competition, particularly in technology-driven fields, requires teamwork with a concerted effort to keep the company as a whole on the cutting edge. Because technology-driven tasks have become far too complex for one person to handle alone, many organizations create work teams to accomplish collective goals. In addition, organizations are all but eliminating middle management as a result of downsizing efforts. Shifting authority down to members of a work team allows management to capitalize on a positive synergy that results in significant increases in productivity. When teams operate in such a way that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, productivity invariably increases.

A well-functioning team can bring out the best in its members because problem solving skills and creativity increase with mutual support that builds morale. The characteristics that make a team effective include complementary skill sets, a sense of accountability among the team as a whole, and a synergistic approach to problem solving. Most importantly, the team must have a desire to work together to implement solutions. A team that functions efficiently learns to benefit from the diversity of skills among its members, and the result is much more than can be accomplished by each member of that team working alone. It follows that the single most important factor in determining whether a team will work well and be productive is a sense of teamwork. This foundation should be in place before the team’s tasks are even defined. With a sense of teamwork and the right mix of skills, teams will have the basis for functioning autonomously and the commitment to accomplish their goals.

Work teams are usually self-managed, which is very different from the traditional management approach of holding individuals responsible for the whole group. Though they function collaboratively, most teams have a member who can function in a leadership role. When teams develop, natural leaders should be allowed to emerge. Team leaders have a role that is very different from traditional managers. The leader may facilitate group activities, such as brainstorming sessions in which no idea is a bad idea. With a free expression of ideas in an environment that encourages people to think actively, team members are more likely to proactively seek solutions in a way that allows every member of the team to participate according to his or her strengths and level of skill. When every member of the team is engaged, the group as a whole is productive.

While at best work teams operate to increase productivity, there are many challenges that can affect their efficiency and lead frustrated human resource managers to abandon the effort entirely. For example, members of a team can suffer from “groupthink,” the belief that every member already knows what the others will propose as solutions. When this happens, teams can become paralyzed by inaction. Issues related to globalization create what are perhaps the most daunting challenges to teams. As national borders become transparent and economies intertwine, there is an increased risk of choosing solutions that isolate or marginalize some team members because the solutions are based on preconceived notions that do not apply across international borders.

Other problems faced by struggling work teams are due to interpersonal clashes in personality or work style. For example, employees who feel they should not have to make decisions may balk at the idea of working in self-directed teams. Virtual teams have a special challenge as a result of their dependence on communications technology to do their jobs and the fact that technology may be their only vehicle for establishing trust and working relationships.

While many managers and executives view teams as the most effective design for involving all employees in the success of a company, they may not be skilled in the group dynamics needed to run teams effectively. This, along with the fact that many people are initially more comfortable working alone, may cause executives to be skeptical about the value of work teams and hesitant to take the necessary steps to create them. With some basic planning and preparation, however, most organizations can implement a system of work teams that thrive.

Human resources managers can do a variety of things to support team efforts. To begin with, management should communicate clear expectations for a team’s performance, as well as a rationale for why the team was created. Messages to various departments should be tailored to individual needs for information with the awareness that everyone has different perceptions about what goes on in an organization. Multiple channels should be used to convey messages as well. Letters, phone calls, meetings and memos are all ways to communicate with team members. All communication should involve empathy with others, and managers should be aware that face-to-face communication is sometimes more valuable and effective than less personal methods. For a message to be conveyed most effectively, words and actions should always match. Relevant feedback and active listening are other strategies that skilled communicators use as well.

In addition to communication efforts, sufficient resources (people, time and money) must be allocated to a team and its tasks. Performance evaluations and reward systems that reflect team contributions are also part of the effective leadership that motivates teams. An organization’s human resources policy and its practice are important forces in shaping the behavior and attitudes of employees. Policies should address the selection process, training and development, performance evaluation, and, when applicable, union management.

Another way for human resource managers to support teams is by offering workshops and training sessions to improve the communication skills needed to function effectively as a unit. Competent employees do not stay competent indefinitely. Skills sets deteriorate and can become obsolete, so ongoing training in everything from literacy and interpersonal skills to problem solving and technical skills is critical.

Finally, managers can bring in external facilitators and mediators to help resolve conflicts when necessary. Unresolved or excessive conflict can hinder the effectiveness of a group or organization, resulting in reduced productivity and lowered morale. A skilled, impartial third party is an invaluable resource, particularly when conflicts become personal. Consultants can improve relationships between parties in conflict and help to facilitate resolution to interpersonal problems.

Licensing is a method of leveraging an organization’s process, trademark, patent, or other intellectual property for a fee or royalty. The licensed property can then be associated with a product or used in conjunction with a service or other effort produced by the licensee. The arrangement benefits both parties. The licensee gains a familiar association with a product or a tested method of doing things, and the licensor gains additional revenue and, in the case of trademarks or brand names, exposure for the trademark or brand being licensed. In the latter case, for example, a company that does not have a recognizable brand can obtain a license from a known brand to enter into a market that would otherwise be too expensive to cater to. In this way, the licensee capitalizes on an image that is already known and respected.

Companies grant licenses for several reasons. Though licensing does generate income for the licensor, licensing is often not an end in itself. Rather, licensing allows the owner of a property to gain entrance into new markets that would otherwise remain untapped due to lack of marketing expertise or ways to distribute their existing products in a new market. In some cases, licensing can also expand a company’s customer base by offering goods to those who cannot afford its main line products.

The growing trend toward globalization of businesses is a significant factor in the licensing arena as well. About one third of the revenue from licensed products that originate in the U.S. comes from international territories. In addition, international licensors are increasingly entering the U.S. market, a situation that was extremely rare a decade ago. Licensing properties overseas has significant advantages to companies that want to introduce products to international markets without investing in expansion or exporting activities. Of course, before licensing in other countries, several factors must be considered. A licensing campaign that is effective in one country may not work as well in another for a variety of reasons. Differences in laws with respect to intellectual property, taxes, antitrust issues and customs may have a significant effect on overseas licensing contracts. Knowledge of the economy in the foreign market is essential when planning an international licensing effort, as are language and cultural issues.

When a licensed brand or trademark is already known, licensees often have little additional marketing to do because they are able to capitalize on attracting an existing customer base. However, in some cases, licensees are required to contribute to marketing efforts, often by investing a percentage of sales for marketing efforts. Such an agreement can benefit both sides. Since both the licensor and licensee have in interest in sales of the product, the best marketing strategy is often the result of the combined efforts of both. This is especially true when art and design are central to the development of the licensed product.

Companies entering into a licensing agreement to increase brand awareness and recognition in new markets must select licensees carefully. This is important to ensure that pitfalls that could damage the licensor’s reputation are avoided. One of the more common mistakes licensors make in this regard is inadequate monitoring of the product. If a licensed product is of inferior quality or is sold in discount stores, for example, the reputation of the brand can be jeopardized. To ensure consistency in quality, licensors develop a style guide that must be used by licensees in designing the final product. Licensors will want to examine the quality of the licensee’s product to ensure that the guidelines are set forth in the style guide are followed. In addition, the licensee’s capacity to produce the volume of sales necessary to maintain the relationship is an important consideration. The licensee’s experience, breadth and depth of distribution channels, the size of its sales force, and its total marketing capabilities are all issues here. The licensee’s willingness to guarantee a certain amount in royalty payments is another prime consideration for licensors.

Before a property can be licensed, it must be cleared and protected legally by the owner. The way a property is protected depends on the kind of property it is. Trademarks, copyrights and patents are examples of how a property can be legally protected for licensing. Trademarks are applied to words and phrases, brand names, characters, symbols and designs that identify a company’s goods and distinguish it from another. Trademarks are registered with the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) of the United States Department of Commerce. In contrast to trademarks, copyrights exist automatically with the creation of original material and are owned by the author of the material. Graphics, music and written work are automatically copyrighted material. The symbol © indicates a copyright, but the use of the symbol is optional since the copyright always rests with the author automatically unless the work is considered “work for hire.” Patents can be filed for designs, technologies and other inventions that provide a unique way of accomplishing something. Regardless of its reputation, a licensable patent can provide revenue from companies that can use the patented method or design to improve their own products or services.

In terms of finances, most licensing agreements involve royalty payments to the licensor by the licensee. Typically, an amount of sales of the licensed product, a minimum guarantee and an advance are included in the contract. Graduated royalties and royalties that are tied to performance benchmarks may also be negotiated. Royalties are typically between 5 and 14% but can range from 1-20%. The rate depends, of course, on the popularity and demand of the property to be licensed. In competitive sectors, where there are many similar properties available for licensing, royalty rates are lower than for unique properties with well-established markets. Royalty rates are typically applied to the manufacturer’s selling price, not the retail price.

The guarantee included in most royalty agreements is a minimum amount that the licensee must pay the licensor even if sales are not great enough to generate that amount in straight royalties. Including a guarantee minimizes the risk to the licensor and also encourages the licensee to be proactive in generating sales. Often the guarantee or a percentage of it is required in an advance upfront. In certain cases, the advance may be waived or lowered, for example, when the licensor wants the licensee to initially invest funds in marketing or developing the product.

The business of licensing can pose many challenges. For many licensors, retaining a licensing agent is the most cost effective and efficient way to manage licensing ventures. Especially for those new to licensing, agents offer expertise and contacts that can prove invaluable to the licensor. This may be particularly important when licensing is done internationally. Agents handle the business of licensing, from selecting licensees and contract negotiations to creating stylebooks and collecting fees. Most agents work by charging a percentage of royalty income, while others are hired on retainers and collect fees upfront. Commissions paid to agents can range from as low as 15% to as much as 55%, but generally fall in the 35 to 40% range. Retainers may range from $3,000 to $20,000 for a basic agreement, with fees for consulting or additional duties added to that amount.

While agents assist licensors with business matters, manufacturers often turn to licensing consultants to guide them through the process of obtaining the license to a property. Consultants can represent manufacturers who do not have in-house staff with experience in licensing. Consultants advise manufacturers in evaluating whether a property is appropriate for the manufacturer, and they can help develop licensing strategies as well. Though terms vary widely, most consultants, like agents, either work on commission or charge a retainer.

Change is good. It signifies forward motion. As you may have noticed, we’re sporting a bit of a new look here at KGI with our recently redesigned website. Which got me to thinking…have you ever stopped and thought about the value of redefinition?

No, it’s not a new television system. “Re-definition” is something many of us are afraid of. We start out doing X, but X becomes X and Y. Then we start offering Z to the mix. Now we’re no longer The X Company. We’re The XYZ Company. But our X clients may be drifting away while we’re adding new Z clients. Then suddenly, we wake up one morning and realize we’re The Z Company, doing something similar to what we started…but slightly different.

The good news is EVERY business travels this road. Remember, Bill Gates was once not a fan of Internet development. (Makes us laugh now, doesn’t it?) But when he woke up one morning with a queasy stomach, it was because he had an epiphany. He quickly realized that if he stuck to his guns, he would lose his competitive edge—and the world would leave him behind! What did he do? He spun on his heels and started running with the crowd. If he hadn’t, would Microsoft have ever become the powerhouse it is today? (Not if we were all still typing in DOS commands, that’s for sure!)

So, stop for a moment. Think about your business. Ask yourself, what roads have I traveled? What’s different about what I do now as opposed to back when I started? What do I do better now and what do I no longer offer?

For example, KGI’s method of consultation has evolved over time. We do many more things now than when we first started. Our clients have steered us in the directions of the problems they need solved—and that has led us to “redefine” ourselves in terms of what we offer. Why? Because our clients demanded it. And it’s always the strongest company who adapts to clients’ needs.

As many wise people have said, experience is the best teacher. As time passes, we must all adapt to rapid change. It’s the only way to stay competitive in an ever-changing marketplace.

Have you answered the questions for yourself yet? Look deep inside and see if it’s time to “redefine”. Maybe you don’t need to. If you started out as a financial operations consultant for mid-cap investment firms and you still do that, fine. But maybe you’ve branched out into operations or production. Maybe expertise you didn’t think was important (such as an operational background or production experience) is now your main bread-and-butter. If so, maybe it’s time to re-do your own website, write a new tagline, or even rename your company.

Change is good. Don’t fear it—embrace it and move forward!

If you’d like a laser-sharp analysis of your organization to see how a good “redefinition” might invigorate your team, give us a call at (888) 582-1118 or e-mail us at info@khanstellationgroup.com. We’ll pinpoint exactly how you may be losing marketplace edge by NOT redefining yourself. Are you willing to take the risk of not knowing? Call us today. It’s free to talk.

Here are 5 helpful ideas on finding customers, appointing agents, and delivering your products to export markets:

Tip No 1 – Small can be good.

• It is the dream of most exporters to move into a new market and work with the biggest players in that market in a specific industry. But the big players usually have a multitude of brands, are aggressive in negotiating price and demand support incentives that eat further into your profits. Now if you can get on board with a mega company, and negotiate a profitable price structure – GREAT! But a small company can often be hungrier for brands, and can offer focus that is fantastic. I appointed a small company to distribute some electronic products in Norway. It was almost a start-up company but the owner and his team were well funded and needed a break to grow. The first six months were tough, but after that, this small company exceeded all our expectations. So, when looking for a partner in an export market – don’t dismiss the little guys.

Tip No 2 – Beware of local costs.

• Getting your goods into a market can be a minefield. Electronic approvals, Food and Drug approvals, multi lingual owners’ manuals, costs of landing and warehousing goods and bribes to get your goods to your customer can all be major headaches, if you are not aware of the problems that you may encounter. One customer in Brazil advised me that he had to pay US$4,000 per container in bribes to land the goods. If he did not pay, all goods would be put in a holding pattern, including new shipments. This can go on for months or even years. Electrical approvals vary from country to country, and now even China is insisting on electrical approvals that are costly and time consuming. Get all the local knowledge you need before you do a deal.

Tip No 3 – Go there!

• Many companies often want to use the trade shows, phone, email, fax and letters to negotiate business in distant markets, but there is no substitute for getting on a plane and going to see your prospects in world markets. The travel is expensive and time consuming, but a visit to your new customer can be invaluable in understanding their business and seeing the wider opportunities in that market. You have the most experience with your product or service. Take the time to be with your customer, shake his or her hand and build a partnership that has depth, while seeing and hearing things for yourself.

Tip No 4 – Close the deal.

• Closing the deal in export is not just about getting the opening orders. It is about setting agreed targets, taking firm forward orders, agreeing on marketing and advertising that your customer will undertake, agreeing on warranty and service responsibilities and so much more. It is vital that you have a legal agreement between yourself and your export customer so that all issues are clear from day one. If things are not up to your expectations, you have a document to refer back to so you can ensure your product or service is represented in the best possible light, KGI can help you in this area with a sample agreement. A tight agreement also gives you the opportunity to move on if you wish to appoint a different distributor. In Europe, in countries like Belgium & France as an example, it can be difficult and VERY expensive to terminate a relationship unless you have a rock solid agreement that gives you detailed exit clauses.

Tip No 5 – Export packing.

• Don’t be cheap on the way your goods are packed and shipped to the customer. If you ship in full containers, there is less chance of damage, but we have seen containers where goods have been seriously damaged because the container was packed badly. If you use smaller sea freight shipments or air freight shipments – in excess of 20 different people can handle the goods between your manufacturing plant and the end user. And these freight industry people seem to like to THROW things! Pack it well – inner and outer cartons – shrink wrap on pallets and if necessary make sure all fumigation laws have been satisfied for the country where you will ship to.

What clearly and simply explains the term metrics!

This is essential before you actually go into the details of your business and marketing potential. Metrics is correctly defined as a measurement tool in judging performance and quality of a process. In addition, it also involves identifying the problems that occur in the process. A good metric is also synonymous with generating a Quality Lead.

There are separate uniquely classified metrics for businesses and specifically sales. A business metric would allow you to gauge the company’s performance, revenues, Return on Investment (ROI), and employee or customer performance. On the other hand, a critical sales metric would include, identifying best salesperson and checking out which product lines have more sales. Most importantly, sales metrics also helps in evaluating a true figure for your Return on Investment (ROI).

When you create something for marketing purposes, you should delineate a set of goals that will help you increase sales and business profits. You know that even the most innovative marketing metrics fail when you get out there with an undefined market for a product or a service. Have you ever thought why it happens, or why it should happen at all!

There are some basic principles that go with marketing. It’s similar to making curry. If you ad the right ingredients in the right proportion, it’s a pleasurable experience, or else you’d be throwing it in the trash. Keep these three essential principles in mind and make a calculated move forward.

Principle -1 – Remain CONNECTED! While developing a marketing strategy keep your focus on the things that are essential to fulfilling your goals and objectives.

Principle -2 – Do the ACTION – Procrastination is something that makes the salesperson fall behind in achieving sales targets. A good salesperson is the one who remains focused, and learns from mistakes. Boost your inner self and get into action!

Principle -3 – Be PREDICTABLE – Yes! When you launch any product/service in the market; study the cause and effect relationships under prevailing market conditions to understand what factors drive sales.

Now, that you have got these three principles in your mind, it is important to set goals straight forward. You don’t need to carry forward in haste.

The Five Sales Metrics

• Lead Generation – A lead is generated on the basis of the awareness of the product/service and how much interest the product/service can meet the demands in the market with requests for information.

• Query Generation – Here, customers upon seeing the product/service would come to inquire about your product and/or services. A query generation metric clearly showcases that the customer is interested in the product, and would like to know more about the product.

• Churn Rate – This shows the amount of customers going buying your product or service. Any change in market conditions can also increase or decrease the churn rate where sales might increase or decrease accordingly.

• Customer Life Cycle – Here it is to be seen what a customer does as he or she progresses through the stages of considering, purchasing, using and finally maintaining the loyalty to the product. If a maximum number of customers have finally developed a high sense of loyalty equating to consistent sales revenues, it means that marketing efforts were successful.

• RFM or Recency, Frequency, Monetary – This makes a firm analysis on the amount of customers who would purchase product, based on the Recency factor. The analysis essentially counts on the popular maxim – “80% of your business comes from 20% of your customers.”

The very importance of metrics cannot be undermined in relation to marketing strategies and evaluating multi-channel marketing activities. Whether it is an online marketing campaign or any offline marketing strategy, you need to analyze and examine the key metrics, which can help you develop and put into action the relevant corrective marketing initiatives to promote and sell your products and services.

Therefore, the role of marketing metrics is sensible for producing the blue print of a commercially viable cost effective marketing campaign, while providing an effective means to measure expense versus returns.

But, metrics themselves cannot yield good results unless you have your goals and objectives correctly aligned with your marketing activities. You need to think thoroughly through the questions that need to be measureme and with what tools will help influence your business and marketing goals and objectives in a positive manner.

Remember! You have to set your goals and objectives separately and it is here the success of a meticulous metric system lies.

Therefore, while summing the power of metrics for making calculated business strategies, you should have the following points running in through your mind:

• Metrics help in obtaining potent business results.

• Metrics help in gaining good business results.

• Metrics is a worthy process that helps in calibrating any kind of marketing strategy accurately, consistently and most importantly, cost effectively.

For marketing personnel, it is extremely important to write down and conform strictly to some diagnostic methods for fine tuning their business and marketing strategies successfully, even in the most competitive of environments. Metrics measure the different stages in marketing. There are different metric tools designed for infant early stages of marketing, adolescent stages of marketing development, and finally maturation of marketing development.

The Overall crux about the use of marketing metrics is that you need to make it more target oriented after assessing your business, organizational, and marketing goals associated with your defined objectives. What’s more, there are several other factors that are worth considering while establishing the purpose of marketing metrics. These include:

• How do you make the balance between offline and online marketing campaigns?

• Do you have a niche marketing objective designed for yourself?

• Are you ready to accept the markets challenges?

• Do you know primary and secondary competitive advantages in your business?

• Are you aware about the ongoing internal and external market forces?

• What are the industry benchmarks for the products that you intend to market?

Whether it is business metrics, sales metrics, or marketing metrics, you need to follow metrics stringently. Khanstellation Group, Inc. (KGI) has the ability and the intellect to design metrics useful for sales, marketing or business motives. At KGI, we undertake risk free management decisions, and mission-critical development processes to give our clients ideally the best business solutions.

Matching individuals to organizations is a crucial part of success for any company. The match between people and the companies for which they work is determined by the kind of organizational culture that exists. The degree to which an organization’s values match the values of an individual who works for the company determines whether a person is a good match for a particular organization.

The collective rules by which an organization operates define its culture. These rules are formed by shared behaviors, values and beliefs. Culture forms the basis for how individuals operate within the context of the organization. The way a group or individual behaves, defines what is “normal” and sanctions what is not normal is determined by his or her culture. Culture can be defined either by a set of observable behaviors or by the underlying values that drive behavior. In large organizations, vision statements, mission statements and statements of values are often formalized to describe the company’s culture.

On the most basic level, culture is observable as a set of behaviors. Examples of culture at this level include the degree of formality with which employees conduct themselves, the organization’s dress code, and the type of technology used. Beneath the level of observable behaviors are the values that underlie behavior. Though these values determine behavior, they cannot be directly observed. At an even deeper level are the assumptions and beliefs that determine values. While an organization or individual’s values may remain within awareness and can be stated, assumptions and beliefs often exist beneath the surface and out of conscious awareness.

Being aware of an organization’s culture at all levels is important because the culture defines appropriate and inappropriate behavior. In some cultures, for example, creativity is stressed. In others, the status quo is valued. Some cultures are more socially oriented, while others are task-oriented, “business only” environments. In some company’s teamwork is key. In others, individual achievement is encouraged and valued. An organization’s culture also determines the way in which employees are rewarded. Management tends to focus on a dominant source of motivation, such as pay, status, or opportunity for personal growth and achievement. The accessibility of management and the ways in which decisions are made are reflections of an organization’s culture as well.

It is important for individual values to match organizational culture because a culture of “shared meaning or purpose” results in actions that help the organization achieve a common or collective goal. An organization will operate more productively as a whole when key values are shared among the majority of its members. To that end, employees need to be comfortable with the behaviors encouraged by the organization so that individual motivation and group productivity remain high. High functioning organizations are comprised of individuals whose overt behaviors are consistent with their covert values.

All of this is of crucial importance to managers. Senior executives usually set the tone by exerting core values that form the overall dominant culture shared by the majority of an organization’s members. So, if management does not take the time to understand the culture that motivates an organization, problems are inevitable. New procedures and activities will be very difficult to implement if they do not mesh with the organization’s culture.

Steps to ensure that individual are responsive to the goals and operating procedure of the organization start with the hiring process. Managers can foster the development of a positive culture by employing people who share the same values and vision that the organization represents. To do this, employers can spend time with prospects before they enter the organization as new employees. Once new hires are indoctrinated with the organization’s values, they will form an objective perception of the environment that will solidify the organization’s personality or culture.

In addition to hiring people who fit the organization, managers need to have a solid understanding of the dynamics of culture and how to transform it so that they can direct activities in a manner that gets results. Some ways to continually transmit the culture of an organization in a productive way include telling stories, having corporate “rituals,” and using symbolic language when referring to the organization’s mission. Firm-sponsored social events and mentorship programs may be effective as well.

Having a positive and aligned culture benefits the organization in many ways. One important benefit is a high level of productivity. The destructive influence of hiring someone who does not share the same set of values, goals and commitment espoused by the organization will weaken a strong chain of links and bonds. An employee’s performance depends on what is and what is not proper among his or her peers, which in turn affects that individual’s behavior and motivation to participate and contribute within the organizational framework.

An effective means of keeping employees aligned with the values and goals of an organization is by developing a culture that encourages employees to focus on a higher purpose for their work. Values that support this kind of cohesive operation include the idea that people are basically, good, rational and interested in achievement. Leaders that unify an organization believe that everyone has something to contribute to the organization and decision-making should involve people at all levels within the organization.

Creating an environment where people enjoy and value their work is key. To do this effectively, leaders must be sure to communicate clear expectations for every member of the organization. These expectations should be supported by the words and actions of managers who regularly let people know how their work is important to the organization. Individuals should be given assignments that are consistent with their strengths and interests, and opportunities for continued learning and growth should be provided as well.

The importance of understanding organizational culture cannot be overlooked. The bottom line for managers who want to create a culture of success is to start with creating a positive environment. Bring in people whose values are in line with the organization’s culture, and continue to acknowledge success and involve the whole organization in maintaining an environment that allows people to enjoy working hard to meet the company’s goals.

People often thinking of a brand as the symbol, name or logo associated with a product. In reality, branding involves far more. Branding is basically the process of creating a strong identity for an organization, and it applies to both product manufacturers and companies that provide a service. An organization’s brand identity drives the company as a whole by providing a framework through which the members of the organization can establish a memorable, active relationship with consumers. When a company brands itself successfully, people remember that organization and what it stands for, and they come to know exactly what to expect from interacting with its members or using its products.

In recent years, as marketing has shifted and become more about establishing a relationship with customers and less about bombarding them with names and logos, the role of branding has increased in scope and significance. Branding appeals to people’s memory of an experience with an organization. Clear and consistent messages about a company’s products or services, the experience of interacting with that company, and its appeal to the values and self-concept of consumers make for a successful branding campaign. A brand is, in effect, a company’s way of doing business, which develops as a result of its identity and its reputation. It is also the association that consumer’s have with its products or services. Customer service, or the way a company operates in relation to those it serves, is the action by which a brand is established and imprinted in the memory of a targeted market. Another way to say this is that a company’s brand is its way of standing out and separating itself from its competitors.

Though successful branding is often paramount to a company’s success, there are pitfalls and challenges that must be faced. A variety of common problems can stand in the way of a company’s efforts to brand itself effectively. One such barrier is not having a clear set of values with which to identify the brand. Without a clearly defined mission and vision that all employees share, a brand identity cannot be effectively established. An organization’s own members must connect to a brand identity before that identity can be communicated to consumers. Staff must be motivated to work together and act as representatives of the brand outside the walls of the organization. Management must be willing to make the changes necessary to accomplish this. Resources, processes and tools must exist to automate presentation of the brand to the marketplace, and the organization must stay connected to its customers and be willing to make adjustments dictated by feedback from them.

A brand name and logo are simply an association or way to identify the experience of the brand in its entirety, much like a person’s name or photograph evokes everything you know about who that person is, what he or she stands for, and how he or she behaves. Since all names and images carry associations, brand names and logos must be chosen with care. A good name is a positive influence on the way members of the organization identify themselves as well as how consumers view the product or service that carries that name. This is particularly relevant in cyberspace, where domain names need to be memorable on a global scale. Names that resonate across cultures and languages are crucial to branding success.

In addition to having a good name, a successful brand must be well positioned. The brand’s position is the place it has in the minds of those it aims to serve. A brand must be positioned in such a way that it’s uniqueness and value to the consumer is apparent. Since customers must feel connected to a brand, it not enough for the brand or logo to simply be recognized. Companies and consumers form an interactive relationship that involves an exchange between the organization’s offerings and the consumer’s needs and expectations. In this sense, brands are a form of communication, and a brand that communicates well in a way that is consistent with its actions gives consumers a deeper and more meaningful experience with the brand.

Companies can use any one of five strategies for branding, each with its own shortcomings and advantages. First, a company can develop line extensions, which new items are introduced within a product category, such as “all natural” or “organic” versions of a food product. While the brand may be in danger of losing its specific meaning in the minds of consumers, this strategy can also work well to attract new customers. Another strategy is brand extension. In this case, an existing brand name is used for a completely new kind of product. Using this strategy, a well-known apparel manufacturer may launch a line of perfumes or beauty products. As long as the new product is well received and the brand’s reputation is upheld, this strategy can help a company expand into new markets. A third strategy is multi-branding, which occurs when a company creates a variety of brands within a product category, each designed to appeal to a different audience. The danger here is that the brands may each compete with each other for small shares of the market with none of them doing particularly well on its own. Some companies create entirely new brands to launch products in new categories when existing brands and brand names do not fit the new product at all. There is also an emerging practice known as co-branding in which two well-known brands merge to create a new product that boasts both previously accepted brands.

For product manufactures, packaging is another key feature that affects how consumers view the brand. People often identify a brand by its packaging. Several elements are important here, including the “packaging concept,” which defines what the package should accomplish for the product. The package should be carefully designed with attention to size, shape, color, font and logo, as well as the type of material that should be used. Decisions about pricing, marketing and advertising are often dependent upon the type of packaging developed for the product, which may affect how it can be handled, distributed or displayed. The association that consumers make with a particular kind of packaging is as important as other features of the brand. For example, the Planters Lifesavers Company introduced vacuum-packed peanuts in 1992 to capitalize on the association that consumers already made between fresh coffee and vacuum packaging. Growing concerns about the environment make recycled packaging materials attractive to many people, and safety concerns have highlighted the importance of using “tamper-proof” packaging.

Companies that are successful at branding are able to develop a “story” around a product or service that will create an affinity with customers. Since most businesses today are difficult to distinguish from one another, an intermediary is often called upon to help envision a fresh perspective that can be developed into a lucrative branding campaign. An intermediary with experience in branding can leverage a company’s uniqueness and help launch, build, evolve and grow a business. Branding is more than selecting the right language and packaging, and it requires dedicated personnel and budgets, as well as time and expertise. With already overburdened staff members who may lack the experience, skills and resources specific to branding, it often makes sense to hire an intermediary to manage the venture. In some cases, intermediaries can be brought in as temporary consultants to give specialized, expert attention to developing or improving a communications strategy.

Hiring an intermediary to develop brands can benefit two distinct types of client companies. In one case, a firm that has been victimized in the past by legal or linguistic issues can alleviate fears of future mistakes by bringing in an intermediary. In other cases, firms for which branding is more than an afterthought can become truly excited by the expanded possibilities inherent in bringing in experts in the branding arena. Though the two groups overlap, the decision to hire an intermediary often comes down to a combination of uncertainty and hope that exists for most companies considering brand development.

If you have the right product or service, you might want to consider exporting, or in fact make a serious attempt to export. Exporting can be both a challenging task and a rewarding opportunity. If carried out with foresightedness, exporting can really be an activity worth following that’d deliberately yield you increased profits, and greater market share.

8-Impactive Ways of Exporting to Success

Here are the ways that can help you achieve success in exporting:

• Define your goals and objectives, and focus on them. Make a deliberate commitment that would otherwise give you confidence to compete internationally, and transcend national borders. Keep in mind that exporting is an activity that takes time and energy, and if you have no long term and short term goals, you are bound to fail. Ideally speaking, your long term goals would be the ones which you wish to achieve a year from now, or most probably in future. On the other hand, your short term goals would be the ones which you wish to fulfill in 5 to 10 days or within the period of one month. You as an exporter need to carefully identify your priorities.

• Do a SWOT Analysis. The acronym SWOT expands to Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats, which are helpful in determining the strong and the weak points in your export strategy. Moreover, as a successful exporter, doing meticulous SWOT analysis is also instrumental when indicating the future opportunities or threats perceptible in the markets chosen, and what strategy should be formulated in dicey market conditions.

• Develop an Export Plan. A well researched and a detailed export plan is the secret to exporting success. A structured export plan would be your guiding light, when you make the move towards exploring foreign markets. An export plan would ideally help you to act effectively, rather than reacting to the international market challenges and risks. A well structured export plan would comprise: Company’s Description, the target market and its industry; analysis of the target market and its industry; Individual Business Objectives of your company; financial requirements and forecasts; SWOT Analysis of the competitive market and in contrast to your own etc. A workable export strategy planned by you would also help you in aligning support from financial institutions, freight forwarders, consultants, and various other strategic partners. Furthermore, in order to achieve success as a legitimate exporter, you need to think along the lines of customer profiling, sales and distribution channels; financial requirements and forecasts; and many other potential factors.

• Conduct Market Research. This would help you in taking a firm stand while you make an export marketing decision based entirely on the socio-economic, political and cultural factors. Moreover, market research saves you time, money and energy. It provides you with a holistic view about the export market you want to penetrate. There are two types of market research, such as, Secondary market research and Primary market research. Secondary market research would help you collect information from various published resources such as books, newspapers, market reports, studies, periodicals; and the Internet. Secondary market research is a cost effective and readily available means to refine your export information requirements. Primary market research on the other hand aims to make a direct link with the industry experts, customers, and other potential sources of information. Primary market research involves one-to-one interviews and consultations. An exporter should make an attempt to reach primary market, after he has become familiar with the potential markets.

• How to enter the foreign market? Now that you have done plenty of market research and developed a workable marketing strategy, it is important to see how and what market strategies would work potentially well for your target market. There are basically three go-to-market strategies. These include Direct Exporting, Indirect Exporting and Exporting through strategic partnerships. Under the direct exporting method, there’s direct marketing and selling to the client. In the Indirect exporting method, an agreement is done with an agent, distributor or a trading house for the purpose of selling the products in the target market. The third go-to-market strategy, it may be feasible to forge strategic partnerships with other companies or individuals that would harmonize your export business.

• How to get your product or service exported to the foreign market? Exporting is a dynamic activity, and every market where you intend to export, have different market regulations, which cover health, safety, security, customs and duties, packaging and labeling. It is also important that you establish an affable relationship with the freight forwarding company and a customs broker. This would help overcome the hurdles in compliance and shipping documentation.

• How to arrange the finances in exporting? Business returns are only evident if you invest your time and money. Moreover, it is also important to see that you have financial stability and secure cash flow. Therefore, as a professional exporter you should develop your financial plan so as to address the imminent cost requirements involved in exporting. The plan should also address to the immediate as well as long term budgetary needs.

• Search financing options for your Exporting Success. A good exporter is the one who materializes a workable financial plan so as to take care of the hidden costs involved in exporting. The plan would include at least a two- to three-year cash budget that would cover overhead expenses, as well as the capital budget. A capital budget is the one that helps the exporter to rightly assess the cost-benefits of the export objectives, and is also considered as an effective operating plan to make precise assessment of the expenditures involved therein.

Exporting is as professional as any other business activity. Therefore, you need to plan out things well in advance. With export professionals working round the clock at Khanstellation Group, Inc. you have the right export team and strategy working in place. Our exporting solutions also help the exporter save you money, and increase returns on investment.