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To discuss how we can help your organization with our solutions, call us at:
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Client Spotlight: Universal Circulation
May 15th, 2012 by Daniel.Ross
Client Spotlight: QuarterCompany
May 15th, 2012 by Daniel.Ross
Are you busy juggling responsibilities to look at quarterly performance or make realistic future projections? What part-time or temporaty staffing cannot provide the expertise? What are your options when full-time executives are not in the budget? As a business owner or an executive for a non-profit organization you are probably asking yourself many similar questions every week. |
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Guiding Organizations to Perform In the Zone.QuarterCompany is a unique, one-stop service company for administrative business activities such as accounting, business development, budgeting, HR, and financial planning. When an organization stretches a minimal internal staff to its limits, long-term objectives get put on the back burner. That’s where QuarterCompany steps in. |
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Get a piece of the e commerce action for less than you think
April 16th, 2012 by Jan HavmoellerInternet retail spending to increase by 62% by 2016, or from the current $226 billion dollars in 2012 to more than $327 billion dollars in 2016, according to Forrester Research.
Online shoppers in the United States will spend $327 billion in 2016, up 45% from $226 billion this year and 62% from $202 billion in 2011, according to a projection released today by Forrester Research Inc. In 2016, e-retail will account for 9% of total retail sales, up from 7% in both 2012 and 2011, according to the report, “U.S. Online Retail Forecast, 2011 to 2016,”by Forrester analyst Sucharita Mulpuru. That represents a compound annual growth rate of 10.1% over the five-year forecast period.
Forrester says it derives its estimates by analyzing trends in the monthly retail sales figures released by the U.S. Census Department; the Forrester estimates do not include sales of cars and trucks, gasoline, groceries and restaurant meals.
The report says that much of the growth in U.S. e-commerce sales comes from online retailers improving their web sites and services. “This is particularly true of categories such as apparel and jewelry, which have integrated rich selling tools such as zoom, color swatching, and configurators, as well as office supply stores, which have broader payment options (e.g., small business purchase orders online) and subscription plans for their buyers,” Mulpuru writes.
The steady growth in the number of web shoppers also is helping to boost e-commerce sales. Forrester says that 192 million U.S. consumers will shop online in 2016, up 15% from 167 million in 2012. But the bigger factor in driving e-commerce growth is that each shopper will spend more on average, the report says. U.S. consumers in 2016 will each spend an average of $1,738 online, up 44% from $1,207 in 2012.
Many consumers will prefer the web to bricks-and-mortar retailers in large part because of online deals, the report says—70% of holiday shoppers last year said they made purchases online rather than in stores because online retailers offered better deals.
Other factors contributing to the growth of e-commerce include:
• Aggressive merchandising and discounting from flash sale and daily deal retailers.
• More online loyalty programs, including shipping clubs such as Amazon Prime that offer free two-day shipping for a $79 annual fee. Forrester says that 12% of online shoppers belonged to such programs in 2011, up from 9% in 2010. Of those consumers who belonged to such a program last year, 61% said they bought from the retailer that operated the program.
• The increasing popularity of smartphones and tablet computers among consumers, which leads them to spend more time online, including for shopping. “The tablet shopping experience also likely encourages shoppers to purchase more products in an impulse fashion,” Mulpuru writes.
Registering a Trademark – A Step by Step Guide
February 17th, 2012 by Jan HavmoellerConsidering trademark registration for your brand name or logo? Here’s a simple, step-by-step guide of what to expect when seeking trademark registration before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
The Trademark Application
Once your comprehensive trademark search has been completed and shows that your proposed mark is available for use and registration, we begin by preparing the U.S. trademark application form. The application includes contact details for your company, a graphic illustration of the mark, a description of the goods and services for which your business wishes to obtain trademark registration, and proof of use of the mark, or a declaration that your company intends to use the trademark in the near future.
Once the application is completed and signed, we file the application with the USPTO and pay the applicable filing fees for the application.
At The Trademark Office
Once filed, your trademark application is assigned to an Examiner for formal review within 2-3 months. The trademark office examines the application to make sure that it complies with the administrative requirements or formalities (i.e., whether the application fee has been paid and the application form meets the minimum filing requirements).
The trademark Examiner also conducts a substantive review where he or she examines the application to verify whether it complies with all the substantive requirements (e.g., whether the trademark is in conflict with an existing mark in the relevant class(es), whether the description of goods or services is too broad or vague, whether the application specimen properly shows the trademark in use). If the application meets the basic and substantive review requirements, the Examiner will allow the application to be published for public notice.
Publication and Opposition
Once the application passes the Examiner’s review, the trademark is published in the USPTO journal for a period of 30 days for third parties to oppose its registration. During the publication period, any party (whether they own a registered trademark or not) may oppose the application on the grounds of their own prior use of the mark, a likelihood of confusion with their trademark, or any other basis. If an opposition is filed, the registration process is effectively paused pending the outcome of the opposition proceedings.
Registration
If the USPTO finds that there are no grounds for refusal and the application is not opposed, the trademark will be registered, and a registration certificate is issued which is generally valid for 10 years. The entire process, from application to registration takes between 8-12 months, but you establish your priority in line, so to speak, by filing your application with the USPTO as early as possible.
Renewal
While your trademark registration is good for 10 years, it may be renewed indefinitely by paying the required renewal fees. This usually occurs in the 6th year of your registration. However, your registration may be canceled if the trademark is not used for a certain period of time or if another party files a petition to cancel your mark based on non-use.
How to take control of your to-do list
December 13th, 2011 by Jan HavmoellerHaving an unruly to-do list can be overwhelming. If you find yourself rushing around, but not actually getting anything done, try the following process:
- Write it all down. Put everything on one list. Determine which tasks are easy and which are more difficult.
- Do some easy things. Spend 15 minutes doing the easy tasks. Focus on speed: make the quick phone calls, shoot off the brief emails. Cross as many tasks off the list as you can.
- Turn to a bigger task. Turn off your phone, close all the open windows on your computer, and focus on one of the more challenging tasks. Do this for 35 minutes without distraction.
- Take a break. After 35 minutes, take a 10-minute break. Then return to step two.
14 indicators of success for Internet Startups
July 6th, 2011 by jayne.alexanderGenerally speaking, the odds are stacked heavily against the average startup. The rate of failure among entrepreneurs and startups is startlingly high — it comes with the territory. Otherwise, entrepreneurs wouldn’t be pirates.
But, what if there were a way to reduce that failure rate by cracking the formula of startup success? No easy feat to map the double helix of startups, but entrepreneurs are risk-takers by nature, so four of these risk-loving international entrepreneurs came together to found the Startup Genome Report, a report that is part of a larger project that dives into the very anatomy of what makes Silicon Valley startups successful — or not.
The entrepreneurs who founded the Startup Genome report (Bjoern Herrmann, Max Marmer, Fadi Bishara, Aleksandra Markova), have also created a business accelerator called Blackbox, which will be leveraging the data they have collected (and will collect) from their ambitious R&D enterprise.
The Startup Genome Report, as it is today, is a 67 page analysis on data collected from 650+ web startups.The entrepreneurs recruited both UC Berkeley and Stanford faculty members, like Steve Blank, the Sandbox Network team, the Startup Bootcamp team, and the Pollenizer team, to help coauthor and contribute to the study.
The goal of the report is to lay the foundation for a new framework for assessing startups more effectively by measuring the thresholds and milestones of development that Internet startups move through.Blackbox, which was co-founded by techVenture and other organizations that have a track record of working with 100+ startups, including 15 exits (such as Bebo, Tapulous & Lala), hopes to use the Startup Genome Report as a cipher to help crack the innovation code, and give fledgling entrepreneurs and startups from around the world access to the characteristics and qualities that make Silicon Valley companies successful.
Here are 14 of the most interesting trends identified by the Startup Genome Report, some of which are intuitive and some of which may come as a surprise. Among them? Investors may be less help than they think. Take a look:
- Founders that learn are more successful: Startups that have helpful mentors, track metrics effectively, and learn from startup thought leaders raise 7x more money and have 3.5x better user growth.
- Startups that pivot once or twice times raise 2.5x more money, have 3.6x better user growth, and are 52% less likely to scale prematurely than startups that pivot more than 2 times or not at all.
- Many investors invest 2-3x more capital than necessary in startups that haven’t reached problem solution fit yet. They also over-invest in solo founders and founding teams without technical cofounders despite indicators that show that these teams have a much lower probability of success.
- Investors who provide hands-on help have little or no effect on the company’s operational performance. But the right mentors significantly influence a company’s performance and ability to raise money. (However, this does not mean that investors don’t have a significant effect on valuations and M&A)
- Solo founders take 3.6x longer to reach scale stage compared to a founding team of 2 and they are 2.3x less likely to pivot.
- Business-heavy founding teams are 6.2x more likely to successfully scale with sales driven startups than with product centric startups.
- Technical-heavy founding teams are 3.3x more likely to successfully scale with product-centric startups with no network effects than with product-centric startups that have network effects.
- Balanced teams with one technical founder and one business founder raise 30% more money, have 2.9x more user growth and are 19% less likely to scale prematurely than technical or business-heavy founding teams.
- Most successful founders are driven by impact rather than experience or money.
- Founders overestimate the value of IP before product market fit by 255%.
- Startups need 2-3 times longer to validate their market than most founders expect.This underestimation creates the pressure to scale prematurely.
- Startups that haven’t raised money over-estimate their market size by 100x and often misinterpret their market as new.
- Premature scaling is the most common reason for startups to perform worse. They tend to lose the battle early on by getting ahead of themselves.
- B2C vs. B2B is not a meaningful segmentation of Internet startups anymore because the Internet has changed the rules of business. We found 4 different major groups of startups that all have very different behavior regarding customer acquisition, time, product, market and team.
By Rip Empson for Techcrunch.com
Click here for the full article
Call (786) 594-0435 to contact Kompani Group and learn how we can help your business succeed.
Why every growing company needs one word associated with their brand
July 6th, 2011 by jayne.alexanderWhat is word ownership, and what can it do for your business? One of the main focuses in business is exposure; the more prospects you have access to, the higher your chances of making a sale. But what if you could get these prospects to do some advertising for you, for free? By creating a single word that you want to have people attribute to your business, you not only create brand recognition but also word of mouth advertising.
A brand is a perception. The company owns the physical brand, but the value of that brand is what it means to the consumer. Take Mercedes Benz whose single word they chose for us to identify their cars with is “prestige,” or Volvos identifying word “safety.” With enough repetition, these words are meant to conjure up images of their products in our minds.
This works with politics too. Hillary Clinton launched her campaign by focusing on “experience,” while Obama focused on the word “change,” a word that matched the mood of the majority of the American public desperately wanting change after 2 terms of Republican rule. Word ownership is more powerful when it is a verb.
Verbs are action words that people can replace your company name or product with. Think of millions of people “Xeroxing,” instead of copying, and have you noticed how you no longer “search” for information on the Internet, you “Google” it? Facebook was never going to become a successful verb, so they cleverly created the “Like” button.
In “The 22 immutable laws of Branding,” Al and Laura Ries tell us that to differentiate your business, you should create a new category and then own it in the mind of the customer. Don’t let the market throw you in a heap with everyone else, and instead define a category and stand out above your competition.
There is a game played around the table at dinner parties, where each person is asked to identify a single word that best describes who they are, heart and soul. This word must be truthful and all-encompassing and create an image for the other people at the table to identify the person with. If you attempt to create a false image of yourself, or one that is unidentifiable, you risk being laughed at and napkins tossed at you from across the table.
This is the same as word ownership in business. How do you want people to react and feel when they hear or see your company’s name or product? What is a truthful and accurate image you would like to portray? Remember, if you are successful then this could be a word you live with in your business for a long time, so make it count.
Call (786) 594-0435 to contact Kompani Group and learn how we can help your business succeed.
Road America Teams up with AT&T
May 31st, 2011 by jayne.alexanderWe Introduce Exclusive LocateMe Technology!
April 27th, 2011
ROAD AMERICA ANNOUNCES SUCCESSFUL LAUNCH OF LOCATEME® UPGRADE TO ROADSIDE ASSISTANCE TECHNOLOGY
MIAMI – APRIL 21, 2011 In an exclusive partnership with researchers at AT&T, Miami, Florida-based Road America has developed, tested and now successfully launched a GPS technology solution for pinpointing breakdown locations in seconds. This development dramatically improves the speed, accuracy and efficiency of locating the customer’s disabled vehicle through the very same telecommunications device they are using to contact the Road America 24-hour Response Centers.
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Simone I. Smith Teams up with The American Cancer Society
May 31st, 2011 by jayne.alexanderSimone I. Smith teamed up with the American Cancer Society to introduce “a sweet touch of hope.” Simone designed a stylish lollipop charm to help raise funds and awareness to help save more lives from cancer, a disease that affects everyone in some way. In 2004, Simone was diagnosed with stage III Chondorosarcoma-a rare form of cancer. Her treatment required invasive surgery that altered the appearance of her lollipop tattoo. ”It literally looked like someone took a bite out of it,” says Simone. Insprired by her experience, the lollipop now represents Simone’s journey to getting well and staying well, and has sparked a desire to help other cancer survivors. Ten percent of the purchase price is donated to the American Cancer Society.
05:15:2012: Client Spotlight: Universal Circulation
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