In order to clear your record of a negative rating, you must first check the credit report for any inaccuracy or see if it has been verified by the credit company. You may be surprised how often information in your credit report has not passed through careful scrutiny and how much of it is erroneous. Only when proven inaccurate or unverifiable can you remove a negative credit rating from your report.how to vanish a perverse assign judgement from your assign inform

This is just one of the ways on how to remove a negative credit rating. You could also try sending debt validation letters to debt collectors or pay for delete letters to creditors. The best method though, is to send the dispute letter. Although most credit bureaus do not investigate credit accounts since they just check their e-Oscar system, if no action has been done after 30 days of receipt of your letter, just keep sending those dispute letters until they do take notice and you get your desired results.

The credit bureaus that do the credit reports are companies that collect information about consumers, and provide the report to people who are willing to pay for the information. All consumers are entitled to 1 free report yearly, but must pay for any additional reports that they may require.

According to a study conducted by the U.S Public Interest Research Group in June 2004, 79% of the consumer credit reports that they have surveyed had some kind of error or mistake. Up to 25% were serious enough to warrant rejection of credit application or increased interest rates.how to vanish a perverse assign judgement from your assign inform

Fortunately, the Fair Credit Reporting Act gives consumers a chance to correct any information about their account that might be inaccurate. It is up to the creditor or the credit bureaus to prove otherwise. A dispute letter has to be sent to the credit bureau. Upon receipt of the dispute letter, the credit bureau is given 30 days to verify that their information is 100% correct. If not, they must correct or update their data. Otherwise, they must remove it from their file. In so doing, the consumer is cleared of the negative credit rating.

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For the ladies a beautiful coin purse in a variety of colors might be just the special touch you need to let those special female customers know how much you value their business. Let’s face it what woman wouldn’t love a beautiful, personalized fine leather coin purse to show off to her friends? This is a great way to get your promotional leather products into the hands of a perspective customer by giving beautiful personalized gifts such as leather products to your already valued customers.leather products crapper be enthusiastic promotional items

All of these beautiful leather products can be branded with your company logo which will not only give you a great promotional item to give out to your valued customers and employees but also will get the job done of promoting your business all at the same time.

Any business owner knows that in order to strike up new business contact or strengthen older business relationship you need to do a little bit of promoting your business every now and then. As your business grows so should your promotional items. It is common to find a new business using pens and sticky notes as their promotional items. Why? This is because these are some of the cheapest promotional items and when a new business starts out their budget for promotional items is small so therefore they need the most bang for their buck. As a business grows their budget for promotional items grows too.

One of the great promotional leather products is a personalized wallet. These wallets come in several different colors to choose from. With a promotional personalized wallet you can have your company logo branded on the outside of the wallet. These are great items to give to your loyal customers when they come in to visit your store. You can also start a birthday list that will allow you to send out a special promotional leather product like a fabulous wallet. Having a special gift show up from your favorite company on your birthday would make your customers feel very special and of course seal the deal for even more business from them.leather products crapper be enthusiastic promotional items

One of the best promotional items for a profitable and growing business is promotional leather products. There are so many different promotional leather products to choose from that are in an array of different styles, colors and prices for you to choose from. You are sure to find the best promotional leather products to fit your needs.

Are you looking for extra special leather products to give to valued employees? Maybe you have a faithful employee that has been with your company for several years. Why not give them a gift of a leather covered diary? You can have your company logo branded on to the cover of the leather diary along with their name and start date with the company. Other employees who have not been there as long will gladly accept smaller tokens of promotional leather products such as a credit card organizer that is done in beautiful leather or a passport holder.

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• Not explaining the benefits of the product or service that you sell in your advertising.marketing mistakes to be avoided by diminutive playing owners

Marketing is a very important aspect that can determine the success or failure of any venture. There are instances where businesses selling good, quality products have failed on the account of bad marketing techniques and lack of good advertising.

Some Common Marketing Mistakes to Avoid For Small Business Owners:

• Do inexpensive market research by talking with customers and asking them to participate in surveys on your Web site. This will help you gain valuable, inexpensive insight. Not doing enough market research is another marketing mistake to be avoided.

These are some common marketing mistakes to avoid for small business owners.

• Be realistic enough to know that marketing is just a means of selling your product or service; if your product is not of good quality no matter how many marketing strategies you use your business may not flourish.

• Advertising not focusing enough on the products or service that you are selling.

• Do not spend more than your business can afford on marketing strategies. If your product or service is good, eventually you will succeed, as nothing beats word of mouth advertising. Yet do not hesitate to spend what is necessary to effectively market your products.

• Some businesses just advertise once and do not realize that frequent small ads work much better than just one large infrequent ad.

• If you are using a Web site to promote your business make sure it is easy to navigate, well organized, gives the latest details about your products or services, and has security features that allow people to use credit cards and buy your products online. Make sure you follow up on any customer who signs up for a newsletter. Following up on leads and turning browsers into customers is a great marketing technique that many businesses do not follow.

• Ineffective and vague marketing messages that leave people wondering what the advertising was about. You can include an incentive like a discount if they bring a clip of the ad. This motivates customers to visit your store or buy your services or products.marketing mistakes to be avoided by diminutive playing owners

Advertising is an essential part of a marketing strategy and should be developed and implemented after a lot of thought. Advertising has to be short, unique and yet capable of effectively getting across the message you want to convey to your target market. Advertising has to be carefully planned as it may make or break your business.

• Periodically analyze the effect of your advertising by asking customers how they heard of you and record the answers as it may give you a clear idea of which advertising media is the most effective, allowing you to focus more on that area.

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Now, for every hour on the horizontal axis (which represents the current hour in your day), put a mark next to the number from 0 to 10 that represents your energy level for that hour. At the end of the day, draw a curve by connecting the points you marked. This curve will show you your energy level throughout the day. Repeat this process every day so that you can recognize the pattern of your average energy curve. This way you will know your general active hours and lazy hours.the pharaohs info to increasing your fecundity and power

You may ask, “What is the purpose of knowing my energy level curve?” Simply by scheduling your most important tasks of the day- those that need a lot of effort and concentration-during your most active hours, you will become ultra-productive. Save the easy or unimportant tasks for the lazy hours when your energy and concentration are low. Do you see how this can make you ultra-productive? How often have you spent your most active moments doing routine or easy tasks, essentially wasting those productive hours on activities that require minimum effort and concentration? And then, when the time comes to do heavy tasks, you find yourself exhausted. That’s when you start to procrastinate and perform low-quality work.

Statistics are not as complex as you might think. In this context, I use the word simply to mean keeping records and monitoring the trends of your daily activities to see how you spend your most valuable resources.

Do you see how statistics can be turned into massive success?

The scribes were meticulous record keepers who wrote down every possible transaction. The precision with which they calculated quantities is impressive even by today’s standards. Scribes had to be good mathematicians, and their calculations of the labor and materials needed for major construction and building projects display a considerable degree of algebraic skill.

Although you may have limited resources of time, money, and energy, you can still use them in the best way possible to achieve what is most important to you in your life. What you might be missing is the awareness of your daily habits and behaviors that would help you determine how you currently spend these resources. If you start calculating and keeping records of how you spend your time, money, and energy, you will be shocked by the huge amount of those resources being wasted on activities that are not important at all.the pharaohs info to increasing your fecundity and power

So what is the lesson here? The secret of productivity and effectiveness is to know your numbers! Studying your statistics is an important element for improving your results in life and business.

Scribes also worked for the government, recording numerous statistics about food production, harvests, and taxes for analysis and planning. Government officials were usually scribes who had worked their way up into higher government positions. By giving senior officials an overview of the country’s total stocks, the scribes helped make possible their orderly distribution, the creation of reserves, and the planning for special projects.

I have a friend who works in stationery distribution. Every year he used to purchase a huge stock of stationery and keep it in his inventory. His yearly profits were low, but he settled for them because at least his business was profitable. One day he decided to hire an accounting firm to record his finances and cash flow and provide a report of his financial position at the end of the year-and that’s when he got quite a shock! The accounting firm confirmed that the year had been very profitable. “Oh, that’s good!” my friend said. But wait-it wasn’t that good. The accounting firm told my friend that he has an excess of money held hostage in the form of unused inventory. Almost 50% of his inventory stock is not used at all! So, for the next year, they advised him to buy only 50-60% of the amount of stock he used to buy every year. And guess what the result was? That’s right-50% of his wasted money in unused inventory will go directly into his profits for the new year!

For your personal finances, keep a log of your income and expenses for one month. Record every monetary transaction and, at the end of the month, study the results. You will be surprised. I am sure you’ll find some expenses and credit card usage that weren’t necessary at all. You’ll have a better view on how to use your money more effectively. You’ll have more control over your finances and will be able to save money for what you really want and need. This awareness of where your money goes and where it comes from is essential for better money management and wealth creation. Warren Buffett says that the very first rule of investing is “Don’t lose money.”

Starting today, keep logs of your time, money, and energy. The information you learn will allow you to have more control over the way you use your resources. You’ll achieve better results and you’ll experience a dramatic acceleration of success.

These examples can be applied to business as well, especially the money log. You should monitor your profits, income, and expenses. You should study your accounting figures and your balance sheets. I have a story for you that will illustrate how knowing your numbers and recording your statistics can result in a profit boost without acquiring more customers or selling more products!

Can you see how knowing your numbers and recording your stats can result in dramatic improvements in your life and business?

The pharaohs realized this secret thousands of years ago, and they made sure to dedicate their most intellectual human resources to doing their record keeping and statistical analysis. Now it’s time for you to follow the pharaohs’ code to maximize your productivity and effectiveness and turn your statistics into massive success.

Most people walk through life without properly analyzing how they spend their time, money, and energy. That would be fine if they kept quiet and accepted their positions in life! But instead they complain that there just isn’t enough time to accomplish everything they want. Or they complain of not having enough money to buy the things they desire. Or they claim that they have limited energy and get exhausted quickly, and as a result they can’t spend leisure time with their family or friends.

For your energy, keep a one-week log of your energy levels! This concept might be new to you, so let me explain. Every day, keep a log of the hours in which you were fully alert and active and those in which you were lazy or tired. Draw two lines on a sheet of paper, one vertical and one horizontal. On the horizontal axis, write the hours of the day from the moment you wake up in the morning until you go to sleep at night. On the vertical axis, write the numbers from 0 to 10. These numbers represent your energy level, with 10 meaning fully active and 0 meaning fully exhausted.

Practically speaking, I strongly advise you to keep LOGS of all your resources. The first should be a time log. For a period of one week, record every single activity you do. It might be difficult at the beginning, but keep it up. Come on, it’s just one week of commitment-and as a result you will experience a dramatic improvement in your productivity and effectiveness. You’ll learn a lot about yourself and your behavior. You’ll know where your hours go, when they are wasted, and when they are well spent. Once you have this awareness, it will be possible to allocate and plan your time to perform your most important activities and focus more time on your goals. You’ll know exactly how to take control of your time and how to save it for your desired outcomes.

The scribes were the intellectuals of Ancient Egypt. They occupied the upper rungs of the social ladder and enjoyed recognition and respect accordingly.

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People will not pay money until they understand that what they are receiving is worth more than it costs, unless they are stupid. And you will not be able to make a living selling your services to stupid people.amend your goodness statement, inscribe a cadre of fans to encourage you

What we need is an “elevator” speech – a benefit statement we can blurt out in 15 seconds that will cause them to pause. When they pause we have their attention, which is all we want at this point, so we can take whatever is the next logical step in the process for us.

When you describe your offer speak their language, not yours!

Fine tuning your target audience has other marketing benefits as well. For instance you can fine tune the places where you want your marketing message to show up.

After we have tightly identified our target audience we still face a huge marketing challenge. How can we quickly articulate the value we offer these targeted folks when we find ourselves in front of one?amend your goodness statement, inscribe a cadre of fans to encourage you

You can see how this formula can be used for whatever challenge your target audience has. If you have defined your target audience and spent the time to understand their challenges.

It is 100% your responsibility to describe your value, answer their “what’s in it for me?” questions, whether stated or implied.

By now I hope you have invested time and energy considering precisely what your ideal clients look like.

For example if your target is beauty shop owners, helping them through their many challenges – and you have just me such a person, perhaps at an exhibit of salon equipment at their annual meeting.

There are more than enough high probability prospects out there to keep you busy in your niche. Don’t waste time and everyone the others.

No matter what you do and who you do it for, “You know what it’s like when _____________?” “Well, that’s what I do.” Will get their attention.

After you have determined the true nature of the people you want to work with, check it out. You will find an association of them closer to you than you think. And the member just down the street nay hold the key to getting your message in front of them.

By the way, how many new clients do you want in the next 12 months? How many prospects does it take to get them, if they are in your target niche and they understand your value proposition?

I have never seen anyone who has narrowed their niche too much. If you live in a small town and there are only a handful of people who represent your niche – that will do it. Each one of them knows other people just like them who live 20, 50, or 100 miles away. And we all know the credibility that automatically attaches to us when we are a specialist from afar.

At the end of the week they have all the new prospects they need for the next 12 months – people they had never met before, people who were not ready for their services when they met them at an earlier event, and people they have been given a personal prestige laden introduction to by one of their existing clients.

Now your elevator speech will effectively get the attention of the people who are important to you, people you are uniquely positioned to serve. Perhaps more importantly it will just a clearly and quickly disqualifies everyone else.

When you know them so well that your spouse can wake you up in the middle of the night from a sound sleep, and ask you – “What do you do?” and you answer them before you open your eyes, you’re ready for prime time!

I can not over emphasis the importance of that process. Nor can I over emphasize the importance of not trying to see beyond who they are, to how much money you can make from them.

When creating your elevator talk, your 15 second description of your value proposition, remember it is all about them – what’s in it for them?

Before you spend another minute marketing yourself – determine exactly who you want to do business with. Will Rogers is quoted as saying that, “it doesn’t matter that you are making good time, when you are heading in the wrong direction” – so check your map (picture of your ideal client type) before you go speeding off toward oblivion.

In fact that is the key of an effective elevator speech. You want to disqualify everyone that does not fit your picture of your ideal client. No more wasted time with one-off clients, Every client leads you to the next and the next and the next, so it is critical that they all are taking you in the right direction.

I know coaches and other professional solution providers who focus 100% of their marketing efforts in this single way. They attend the annual association meeting of their target market. They “work the room” by being at the awards banquet, the breakout sessions, and they practically live in the exhibit hall during the event.

Your homework, create elevator speeches – 45 words or less, for every situation you are likely to come up against, and integrate them into your persona.

For example a trade show appearance where each and every attendee is in your market. Everyone is a prospect and everyone knows you or they know somebody who knows you or they just might be standing beside somebody who knows you.

The salon owner is interested in that!

Your elevator speech can be your most powerful weapon, if you’ve done your homework – created the clear identity of your target audience so your statement of benefits will resonate with the people who are important to you!

The number one mistake we all make is not fine-tuning our niche tightly enough. It’s possible that if there are 100 of your ideal target prospects in your normal marketing area – you will be able to make achieve your goals for a lifetime of endless new business.

You might say, “You know what it’s like when you find you are paying more for shampoo than it costs your customers at the mall?” Well, that’s what I do. I help salon owners locate sources of products at below wholesale, turning a net cost into a profit center.”

According to the Columbia Books Directory of State and Regional Associations and Professional Societies there are 7,500 local chapters of organizations whose members share common interests.

To help you do that I offer a formula that has worked for many people like you and me for years. I did not come up with it and neither did anyone who claims to have done so. I first heard it on a very old record by Earl Nightingale – one he created in the ’50s, and he gave credit to someone before him.

If you are like most emerging professionals I meet, you suffer from the inability to provide your prospects with a description of what you do that offers them tangible, understandable, and specific benefits.

If we can not describe our benefit in specific, tangible, and results oriented fashion – we won’t be around long enough to prove our uniqueness and value.

And those people have more friends just like them.

Use this formula to create as many specific elevator speeches as you need, in order to address the wants and desires of your niche and its subsidiaries. It goes like this.

“You know what it’s like when _____________?” “Well, that’s what I do.”

The money will take care of itself if you have faith in the process and belief in yourself and the value you bring to the equation.

The more efficient you get at disqualifying the wrong people, the better you will get at uncovering the right ones. Actually they will begin to identify themselves. And those people you meet that you disqualify, well some of them will become your greatest recruiters, going out of their way to tell the people they come across that you specialize in people like them and would it be ok if they gave you their name.

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It is important to mention that this article was written before the federal government intervention to stem the tide of bearish trend in the Nigerian capital market. However, as long as the capital market exists bearish and bullish trends shall never cease. Positive intervention is good but let it be clearly stated that it is not targeted at you as an individual investor per se although beneficial, but ultimately it is your knowledge of investments in general and by extension of the capital market that determines your financial report card.making money in a assume mart

To the contrary, the bearish trend in the market is not a loss of monetary value as we all have been made to believe. Money has just exchanged hands. Velocity of money states that; Money flows from the point of least knowledge to the point of higher knowledge thereby creating opportunities. The truth is; money is never lost in the capital market, it could only be transferred from one person to another. While some people are dejected and panicking because money is being transferred from them, others are excited because money is being transferred to them.

The US stock market has experienced market crash or bearish trend more than any stock market in the world. The severity and duration of the bear market of 1907, 1929/1932 1973/1974, 1961/1962, 1969/1970, in the US capital market are to buttress this fact. In addition, after a prolonged bullish trend of 1990’s “dot com boom” the US capital market has been bearish since the year 2000 yet people are making billions of dollars daily in the market. It is noteworthy to point out that Warren Buffett, William O’ Neil, Jesse Livermore, Benjamin Graham, Charlie Munger, Philip Fisher and Walter Schloss have made so much money in this same market bear or bull. In 2007 alone, Buffett made over $10 billion in a bear market! and is still making more money. He made his wealth substantially by investing in shares of companies in the US stock market.

The legend, Warren Buffett, the richest person in the world by Forbes Magazine 2008 List of world richest persons and their net worth, put the asset value of Buffett at about $68 billion. Interestingly this man turned on an investment of $105,000 into a $20billion plus investment fortune by investing in the stock market. It may further interest you to know that he made the chunk of his money in a bear market that started in the year 2000 and since then Warren Buffett the Oracle of Omaha has never looked back. His net worth has continued to increase in multiple folds whether in a bull or bear. Therefore it could be deduced from the investment life of Buffett that, money is made in the market at all times, Bull or Bear and that bear markets actually presents a life time investment opportunity. If Warren Buffett could achieve this feat then it is much easier to achieve the same feat by simply looking at what he and others in his league did and do the same. That is exactly what I intend to achieve during the course of this write-up. Having established the fact that Bear or Bull, money is made and that bear market is actually a life time opportunity.

For the first group of people their prayer is “let this cup pass over us Oh Lord!” However, it is “thank you Lord!” for the second group what an irony of life. The same market the same country, the same economy and the same rule but different results from different players.making money in a assume mart

The fact is that you can always stay ahead of the market in the aggregate yearly no matter how ravaging the bearish trend may be. Bull or Bear is a win-win situation and you could advance more on your winning streak in a bear market.

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Low cost drilling and fast organic production growth. Current quarter yearly organic production growth is 11%. This is one of highest in the industry.lubricator stocks chk wll - what is their worth?

CHK NAV value per share has been growing at 20% – 25% per year rate or $3 per share currently. Even if energy stocks continue to trade at current low valuation to its true earnings, CHK stock price is likely to increase 20% – 25% return per year just due to its NAV increase. If Wall Street finally accept high energy price as norm in the future, then CHK can reward shareholders even more.

I continue to like WLL and CHK. I continue to hold WLL CHK in Blast Investor Real-time Plus model portfolio.

$5.50 $23.11

(1) CHK stock price $16.74, NAV $32.5

Wall Street analysts have been predicting significantly lower N. gas price or oil price in 2-3 years ahead. Therefore, CHK or the whole oil and gas stocks are trading as if N. gas price between $4 – $5 range or oil price between $20 – $30 range.

For the 1st half of 2004 WLL generated 18% of annualized return after replacing all the reserve depletion. The recent acquisition of $44 million acquisition is accretive at $1.11 Mcfe per reserve cost. It is accretive in either reserve , cashflow or revenue basis. With more accretive deals like this, WLL NAV growth can be 20% per year or more instead.

(2) WLL stock price $31, NAV $63

(3) Conclusion

First of all, I disagree that oil or natural gas will go down much from here. Inflation, weak dollar, China and US strong economy justifies the current high energy price. Energy price will stay high for quite long term. Wall Street analysts are still living in past memory of low oil price in 1990’s world. In fact, current oil price is still at half of price of 1970’s peak if we adjust inflation from then.

* Margin of Safety – CHK

CHK is my favorite oil or natural gas stock. Here is updated Net Asset Value (NAV) table from CHK July 2004 earning release:

PE = 10 or 10% of earning yield is considered reasonable valuation for non-growing business. PV-10 Net Asset Value (NAV) is standard calculation for value of oil or natural gas reserve assuming current production cost and expenses. When N gas price = $4.5, CHK will make $1.611 per share per year true profit with current production/exploration expenses. CHK is worth $16.11 at $4.5 gas price in this case. We can imagine that as if CHK is a bank deposit account, the interest rate is 10%, if we deposit $16.11 principle there, each year we get 10% interest returns or $1.611 interest per year.

The recent 2 quarters reported yearly organic production of only 2%, much lower than expected 5% – 10% growth. However, production growth is over-rated performance measurement in Wall Street. Most importantly, WLL did not waste any money into over-spending. WLL simply did not spend extra expected drilling capex. WLL reserve replacement drilling cost was still low. From investor point of view, even if WLL production growth is not as good as CHK, WLL NAV can still grow at 18% to 20% per year with smart accretive acquisition and low cost drilling.

WLL reported $63 per share PV-10 NAV at latest quarterly earning report. Currently WLL is trading significantly below its PV-10 NAV value. In fact, WLL is trading at big discount to its peers too. WLL is trading at $1.32 per Mcfe reserve. The current average industry acquisition price was $1.5 per Mcfe reserve over past 1.5 years.

$6.00 $26.61

For the 1st half of 2004, natural gas price was between $5 and $7 averaging at $6.0. Natural gas price was as high as $9 in later half of 2004. CHK stock price is still below $17 recently and its reported quarterly net income severely under-estimated its true profitability.

CHK mainly achieved this excellent operation performance by following measures:

Neither CHK nor WLL pay dividend. They all reinvest their profit into acquiring or drilling for more oil or gas reserve. Therefore, reserve based NAV adjusted by cash or debt reflect true net asset value for the stock. Reserve based NAV increase per year reflect their true earning of business.

Third, the NAV value is a moving target. Specifically for CHK, NAV is growing at 20% to 25% per year recently.

* CHK – NAV growth 20% or $3 per share per year

$4.50 $16.11

N Gas price NAV per sharelubricator stocks chk wll - what is their worth?

$5.00 $19.60

Table CHK PV-10 per share NAV vs Natural gas price

$6.50 $32.5

Second of all, even if I am wrong and wall street analysts are right, and natural gas price crashing down to $4.5 or oil price crashing down below $30 in next 2-3 years, CHK current stock price has already factored in such low energy price (see above table).

WLL is trading at discount even to private acquisition price and very low multiples to its cashflow. WLL also has very experienced management team with long track record in oil gas business.

Excellent acquisition track record. Over past few years, CHK has been able to dramatically increase production of acquired property in short term so that CHK’s acquisitions have been accretive to current shareholders. Even though the latest acquisition is slightly dilutive in per reserve basis, it is expected to be accretive in cashflow or earning basis.

Successful out-performing hedging program. CHK has been able to obtain above industry hedging prices over past years. CHK is not locked into long term contract of low prices as many do. For the current quarter CHK realized a low gas price due to past hedging so that their earning per share is flat compared to last year. CHK hedging is light in 2005 or beyond so that higher price can be expected in 2005 or beyond.

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I had been in Nepal for a couple months. By this time, I had also learned a few thing about barter and could get the price down a bit with the old walk away technique. A Nepali seller in the bazar will never miss an opportunity for making some money from a customer. He will put on the most sad face, look depressed and say that he’s loosing money, but in the end if you walk away you will get your price. Generally about 10 convincing steps will do.buddhist move to marketing

Prasad Gifts distributed our Tibetan Healing Incense to about 2000 stores and it was very well received.

Be that as it may, I preferred to stay in the Durbar (Palace) Square area because of the old King’s palace and magnificent Pagota Temples. It is atmospheric beyond belief although a little funky with no real quality hotels or restaurants. I’m always willing to sacrifice comfort for culture, so it’s only Durbar Square for me.

Tibetan Incense is very different then Indian Incense. I’ve seen them make Indian Incense. You may be surprised to know that the main ingredient is cow dung on a wood stick. Yes, cow shit! It is used as a bace for Indian incense and then you dip it in a perfumed oil for the aroma. The oils are often derived from synthetic chemicals.

I went to see David the owner of Incense Works while I was on vacation. David is a laid back old hippie with a great business sense. He had developed the largest incense wholesale business in America and still lived in paradise on the island of Maui. You got to admire his style!

If you believe life is a struggle, then maybe fighting is your dharma, but I don’t think that’s true for most people. It’s just the world has conditioned us to struggle. We have an opportunity now to take it to a higher level.

As for our part, we redesigned the package of Dr. Arya’s Tibetan Healing Incense to make it a little more distinctive. The original pack was very plain with small block letters as if it came off a shelf in a pharmacy. We only made simple tasteful changes to the package design. We wanted to maintain the Tibetan Healing Incense original character and not glamorize it in a Western marketing style.

Prasad Gifts was a bit more reluctant to do the Tibetan Incense. They told me “no” initially and I have no idea what changed their minds. I accepted that “no” and that was the end of it for me, but I think I must have mentioned that Incense Works of Hawaii was doing well with it.

Dr. Arya sent me a cautious reply wanting to know more about me before consenting to tell me about his self. I didn’t bother with any business or marketing credentials to glorify our success with his Healing Incense. He was a Tibetan Doctor, so what does he care about business?

The answer was simple. It came from a intuition and a commitment to the Buddhist precept of ‘Right Livelihood’. I wanted to follow my Dharma (natural life direction) and do something that related to my life. I therefore decided to focus on exporting Tibetan Sacred and Ritual items which were attuned to my Spiritual practices. As a long time meditator involved in Eastern Spirituality, it felt good to focus on Buddhist oriented merchandise and nothing was more basic then Tibetan Incense.

Almost all the incense samples I choose from the Bazar had merit, so I ordered several dozen of each variety. In fact, I ordered so much that I had to employ a couple of porters to carry the incense back to my export agent for packing.

How many times has some one done something wrong and tried to explain that “It’s not personal, just business.” What kind of world have we created from that philosophy? It’s it time to reverse that idea and make all business personal, dharma oriented,….. and as Buddha prescribes in his Eight Fold Path to Enlightenment: “Right Livelihood”

In contrast, Tibetan Incense has no stick. It is pure herbs from the Himalayan mountains. When you burn it the scent is spicy, not sweet. The herbs are chosen for specific Spiritual Qualities that they invoke, rather then for aroma alone.

I wrote him details of my Spiritual credentials. I told him of the years of daily Meditation and Buddhist studies. I gave him the website to look over and told him that we contribute to many Tibetan relief organizations.

We visited his warehouse in the Kahalui industrial park on Maui. David was an amiable open minded person and we struck a deal. I think David is one of those people who bases his decisions on personal relationships. Stopping by to see him made it easy for us to connect personally. It made all the difference. We were very like minded people and happy to do business together.

Dr. Pasang Yonten Arya Tendi Sherpa was born in a village called Dolpo in Kyidong Valley of Tibet in 1955. He escaped to Nepal over the dangerous mountain pass of Rasuwa Ghiri when he was only 10 years old in 1965.

Dr. Arya went on to write books on Tibetan Medicine and founded The New Yuthok Institute of Tibetan Medicine in Milan, Italy in 1999, where he now resides and works. He is an amazing person and has instrumental in bringing the wisdom of Tibetan Culture to the world.

The great advantage that I had was Nepali’s are convinced that westerners can’t bargain, so when you walk away they really believe you are leaving. In truth, I’m sure I have never made a deal as good as a Nepali person could, but I do better then most westerners. Bargaining is an art and very enjoyable to most bazar sellers.

I placed a large incense order with Tsewang and had to explain convincingly to his father that I was ‘for real’. His father didn’t expect such good fortune and was refusing to believe that I was the person responsible for selling so much of there Tibetan Healing Incense. It was interesting for me to see how much a person can color there reality to not accept good fortune, even if the name of their shop is “Lucky Incense”.buddhist move to marketing

Up until now all of my business had been through the cargo agent who bought from the street bazar vendors. I never thought of looking for the source. Another oversite on my part, as I was now importing thousands of packs of incense on a regular basis.

I picked out a number of different incense varieties to try. All of them were Tibetan. A large portion of Nepal was Tibet historically and the cultures are well blended especially after the Chinese invasion of Tibet. Now large number of Tibetan refugees living in Kathmandu. There are also some major Buddhist pilgrimage sites in Nepal like Bodinath & Syambu Stupas that have been there for centuries.

Some of the herbs in Tibetan Incense are for clearing a space of negative influences. Other herbs are to create a calm feeling for meditation. The most popular one these days is the herbal Tibetan Healing Incense formula that was found in the ancient Tibetan Medical Scriptures.

Upon, my return to America my first business was to contact Dr. Arya. He had previously been in Dharamsala, India working & studying at the Tibetan Medical Institute of the Tibetan Government in Exile. Now, Dr. Arya was practicing Tibetan Medicine in Italy. I sent him an email to ask for his story.

It did not get that way through clever strategy or manipulative marketing. It got that way through following Dharma and practicing ‘Right Livelihood’. How short is life and how precious time. Consider using it in a new way.

Tsewang gave me the address and email of his famous uncle. I was thrilled to be able to contact Dr. Arya to find our more about how he discovered Tibetan Healing Incense.

A few years down the road, a Tibetan friend of mine named Sonam told me to visit Lucky Incense Store in the Thamel to buy Tibetan Incense directly. This small narrow space turned out to be the source of Tibetan Healing Incense.

Incense Works has sold the Tibetan Healing Incense & others ever since to around 3000 stores. David once told me he could get the incense directly and he has lots of other suppliers for similar product, but the reason he buys from us, is that we make it easy. On another occasion, one of Incense Works managers passed on a comment that David told him. He said, he likes us because were plain “Good People”. I think that’s an honorable reason to work with someone. I wish we all had the same motivation to put relationships ahead of pure hardcore business.

The incense sellers didn’t speak english, but that has never been a barrier to making a deal. There are many tribes in Nepal with different dress & languages. These groups regularly converge on Kathmandu to find things in the market bazaar to take back to their villages. Hense sign language is commonly used for bargaining in the bazar. I had become familiar with it.

Finally, as our quantities grew, I came up with the idea that they could deliver it to the cargo agent. Why didn’t I think of that sooner? I also started having the cargo agents pay the vendors, rather them me carry around loads of cash. People in Nepal do not use check or credit cards. Things were getting easier.

Buddhist non-attachment makes it easy to be very casual with no hard sell. I think that’s probably what opened the door for us at Prasad. We let existence happen and pretty soon got a call back with a big order for Tibetan Incense.

Sometime being a non-aggressive Buddhist businessman mays seem self defeating. It may not seem like the fastest road to success. It may even seem counter productive, but I guess that it depends on what kind of success your looking for. Letting go is not much of a marketing plan, but it works pretty good and was really stress free.

When we got to the cargo I paid the porters double, which strangely enough freaked them out and made them very uncomfortable. A cultural mistake on my part and confusing to them. Weird, but true. Don’t mess with people cultural reality. In Nepal, people know the value of a rupee and it’s not to be thrown around lightly. It was a lesson for me. These were hard working men and they didn’t expect a handout or tip. I think I insulted them.

I took the incense samples back to my humble room in the City View Hotel (which didn’t have a view) and burned them over the next few days.

As it is, Tibetans seem to be the producers of most of the incense and that what I wanted anyway. Here on my first trip to Nepal I had a cornucopia of crafts and exotic product to choose for export. How does one decide? What would I specialize in?

Tashi Delek (Good Luck in Tibetan)

Dr. Arya’s traditional Tibetan education and Buddhist Spiritual practices were under the Tutelage of the Enlightened Master Geshe Gowo Lopsang Tenzin. As he grew older and more accomplished his master sent him to study at the Tibetan Medical Institute in Dharamsala, India where the His Holiness The Tibetan Dalai Lama has his residence.

Westerners fail to realize that bargaining is a social institution, not just to make more money on a deal, but because they enjoy the game. It test your merit and resolve, not to mention acting skills. A good bargain will often attract a hundred or more spectators in the market place especially if it involves a westerner. We are a source of non-stop entertainment.

I ended up in the small incense bazar at Indra Chowk crossroads in Kathmandu, as I remembered a number of incense sellers from previous days of wandering around the city. The simple wooden booths were simple and functional with no frills. Western tourist generally never buy anything here, as it is a local bazaar for Nepali people and not in a tourist center. It has some proximity to Durbar Square which used to be the Hippie tourist center in the 60’s, but few tourist stay there now. The tourist center had moved some years ago to the Thamel neighborhood across town and Durbar square was being slowly abandoned.

Don’t worry, they never loose money. It took me the longest time to figure out that it was a bargaining tool for them to faint loss.

That satisfied Dr. Arya and a rich tapestry of his life unfolded through magic of cyberspace. Here is a brief summary:

Lucky Incense was run by a father and son team. The son would run the shop since his english was good. He was a cheerful and pleasant Tibetan boy about seventeen named Tsewang Norbu. His father was kind of a suspicious dour gentlemen with a weary looking face. I explained to his son that I was actually the biggest buyer of the Healing Incense and would like to go directly with him.

All the Sages, Saints, and Prophets say the same thing: You Create Your Own Reality. We all have an opportunity now to be successful and fulfill Dharma. We don’t have to sacrifice who we are to survive. Buddhism says that it is all inter-related. I have discovered this to be true in my own life and business success. All of existence is backing you when you work with natural law. The universe is just waiting for you to say “Yes” and then the doors will start opening.

Tsewang was happy to reveal that his uncle Pasang Yonten Arya Tendi Sherpa was the Tibetan Doctor who actually found the Healing Incense formula in the ancient Tibetan Medical Scriptures.

Tibetan Healing Incense is now the most popular Tibetan Incense in the world. It outsells every other type of Tibetan Incense two to one.

Our marketing program could be summed up as happenstance. I knew a couple of people in the Incense business. One was Incense Works in Hawaii and the other was Prasad Gifts in the Midwest.

As the incense business grew I was finding more creative ways to bring the incense to my cargo agent. The next time I hired an ox cart and rode a top the pile of incense like a Maharaja. It was fun, but a bit embarrassing.

In Dharamsala, Dr. Arya studied the Tibetan Healing Arts with his new masters: Prof. Barshee Phuntsog Wangyel, Dr. Jamyan Tashi and Lady Dr. Lopsang Dolma. By the age of 23 he attained a degree in Medicine and Astrology and then went to advanced studies in Tibetan Pharmacology. It was here that he discovered the formula for Tibetan Healing Incense while studying the ancient Tibetan Medical Scriptures. Tibetan Healing Incense was born.

It’s funny how it worked out. The first time, I hired a couple of old men with skinny legs to carry these big bundles. I bargained them to about 10 rupees (5 cents) to carry the bundles about a mile. No, I’m not a cheap skate, that was actually their normal rate.

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The Kindergarten Follow-up: Kennedy tells the story of how her daughter’s two kindergarten teachers created an effective method of follow-up communication: a weekly summary/update of the children’s lessons and activities.success move playing - follow-up techniques that impact

Damage control suggestions:

Pay attention to the post-sale follow-up process; develop and maintain a good relationship with customers and watch their visits repeat themselves over and over as well.

A good follow-up involves three basic elements:

***Cellular retailers can send customers coupons for store credit when they are due for an upgrade. This ensures customers will return to the store and seek the same service that previously impressed them.

A lot of these tips are common sense, but in a retail setting – where customers come and go and sales and service procedures repeat themselves over and over – it’s easy to take the “little” follow-up details for granted.

Try to handle your own follow-up work. “In today’s marketplace, the primary salesperson seems to be moving farther and farther away from direct contact with customers,” says Kennedy.

Ask satisfied customers for a testimonial letter. Get permission to use their quotes in your advertising.

The secret to obtaining repeat customers and building a solid referral system is following up in a way that has a positive effect on the customer, says sales and marketing expert Danielle Kennedy. She says that although closing a sale can be seen as the completion of servicing the customer’s needs, it’s really only the beginning of a relationship with the customer.

Post-sale Problem Solvers: “No matter how good your product is, complaints and problems will arise,” she adds. “How you handle those problems can make or break your chances for repeat business.”

Kennedy offers a few pointers for effective follow-up practices that have been successful throughout her career in retail.

The Felicitous Follow-up Recommendation: If you know from the start you won’t remember to send thank-you notes on a regular basis, use contact management software to automatically send birthday, anniversary or other appropriate cards to your customers.

CRM Ensures Wireless Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty: Study Happy Customers Stay Customers

Write loyal customers personalized, handwritten notes telling them about promotions or to catch up on past products/services sold. “You no longer have to prove yourself to these people. Just show up!”

In an article in Entrepreneur magazine, Kennedy quotes Ted Levitt, former editor of the Harvard Business Review: “The sale merely consummates the courtship. Then the marriage begins. How good the marriage is depends on how well the relationship is managed by the seller.”

*To read more about Improving Customer Loyalty, check out the following articles from iQmetrix News & Views Build Customer Loyalty through Improved Communication.

“When I read the report every Friday, I was reassured that these teachers were doing an outstanding job,” she says. “We need to spend more time communicating to our customers about what we are doing for them.”

Cards and Outrageous Gifts: “Under the category of advertising and promotions, never underestimate the power of gift-giving to ensure repeat business,” says Kennedy. “You don’t have to spend a fortune to show people you care. If you’re high on creativity but low on funds, you can still come up with some interesting gifts for your customers.”

Listen. Let customers vent their frustrations and encourage them to speak freely.

Be diplomatic. Never argue with a customer. Politely share your point of view.

Do not discredit the customer’s problem. Their grievances are always valid.

Don’t delay taking action to remedy the situation.

Empathize. Imagine you’re the one with the complaint. How would you want the situation handled?

Gratitude: Call or e-mail the customer to say thank you and find out if he/she is pleased with the product or service.

Accountability: Accept full responsibility for problems. Don’t pass the buck and say “such-and-such department should have known better.”

A commitment to further serve: Tell customers what you can do rather than what you cannot do for them.success move playing - follow-up techniques that impact

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