Role Of Social Entrepreneur In Society

Role of Social Entrepreneur in Society

by Kanchi.org

A social entrepreneur is someone who identifies a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to create, organise, and manage a venture to make social change. A social entrepreneur measures success based on the impact on the society. While social entrepreneurs are often non-profit groups, the aim is to advance the social and environmental goals.

Often social entrepreneurs present new ideas that are user friendly and ethical, social and environmental problems. They typically get people support to implement and make a positive impact on the society.

Role of social entrepreneurs
Social entrepreneurs recognises the parts of society having difficulties, solves the problem by changing the system, spreading the solution, and persuading societies. Social entrepreneurs drive to produce measurable impact to address social and environmental problems that are often deep-seated.

• To make a positive impact on society:
Social entrepreneurs are similar to business entrepreneur in the society with a purpose for a social cause. Often, social entrepreneur need profit but emphasis is on the development of the society and in solving the problems in it. Finding the effects of social or environmental problem, finding root cause, and solving them becomes obvious to social entrepreneur.
• With focus on positive change:
Social entrepreneur focus on daunting social problems to make a positive change, further motivating common people to persuade the same. Corporate social entrepreneur can reap strategic benefits with a combination of commercial aims and social objectives.
• Rev up the social team:
While social entrepreneurs often work through nonprofits and citizen groups, many work in the private and governmental sectors. Social entrepreneurs work with local groups motivate them to pursue, and develop good solutions for their local communities as well as globally.
• In innovative and effective community building:
Distinct from business entrepreneurs who seek value in the creation of new markets, social entrepreneurs aim for value in the form of transformational change that will benefit underprivileged group of people and eventually society at large.

Social entrepreneur identifies fundamental social and environmental problems in the ever-changing society. They guide society through these turbulent times, to help the society.

Pioneers in social entrepreneurship, Kanchi utilises key tools for social change - business and media - to drive disability up the global agenda, raise disability awareness and to encourage society to think differently about disability. Kanchi launched the highly successful O2 ability awards in 2004 as a vehicle for engaging business leadership around the disability business case.

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Starting & Building A Successful Dropshipping Business

Starting & Building a Successful Dropshipping Business

by Thomas Griffin


Starting & Building a Successful Dropshipping Business

Thomas Griffin

Dropshipping is like any business and the most important thing when starting out on any venture is to do your market research FIRST...

When you open a store in your town, you wouldn't open it without doing your market research first. The same thing applies if you are going to sell something on the internet as a dropshipper. Not only are there billions of web pages out there that could be selling competitive products, the net changes so fast that you are obsolete as soon as you have gotten started.

If you are going to set up a dropshipping business you want make sure that the product that you choose can be easily sold. And you want to know how many competitors you have. And you want to stay as up to date as possible. Selling products on the Internet is easy. Hundreds of thousands of people do it every day online on auction sites such as eBay. The most difficult part of internet sales is getting the products delivered to the customer, otherwise known as order fulfilment.

You must have an efficient fulfilment system. One of the reasons that brick-and-mortar stores are so slow on the uptake when it comes to online business, is that supplying retail stores is done with pallet-sized orders usually. But internet sales requires an entirely different kind of fulfilment system. Selling on the internet is essentially mail order, with shipments going out in small parcels to end users.

Few brick-and-mortar retailers have a thriving mail order business to draw from. An inefficient fulfilment system can lose for you the advantages in good customer service that holding the inventory gained for you. And running a fulfilment system is a full time and trying job.

One of the simplest order fulfilment models to use is the drop ship model. Drop shipping does have its advantages and disadvantages. The most important being you don't have to pay for anything until after you sell it.

You also don't have inventory costs. Having to purchase inventory to ship to your customers can be expensive not to mention risky. In addition to the out-of-pocket costs, you need a place to store the inventory.

Finally you have to pick, pull, pack, and ship the products once the order is placed. Having the distributor or manufacturer take all these costs and responsibilities lifts a real burden off your shoulders.

Ideally a drop-shipper should be transparent. With most of your drop shippers, especially those with whom you do a regular business, you can send them labels and forms so their package looks like it is from you. Your customer probably won't know that your hands never touched the product. The customer will think that you have a warehouse.

You can sell many more products than you could if you had to buy and store them yourself. Drop shippers give you a wide choice of products so you can sell a lot more.On the Internet some categories of products are very price-sensitive. If you are selling computer hardware, for example, and using the drop shipping model, you may find it hard to be competitive price-wise and still make a profit. The difference between making money and losing it may be only a few percent. So be sure to pick a product that makes sense to drop ship.

You will be using third party customer service so you will not have full control. Drop shipping is really outsourcing your order fulfilment services to a third party. You will be dependent on your drop shipper to have the products in stock, to deliver on time, and to properly pack and ship your products. So pick your drop shipper carefully.

At the end of the day, however, drop shipping exists because it works. And the largest catalog companies and web sites use it. And savvy small web sites and auction site sellers use it. Drop shipping is simply an arrangement between you and the manufacturer or distributor of the product you sell whereby the manufacturer or distributor -- NOT YOU -- ships the product to your customers.

There are a few huge advantages to this model. First, it SAVES YOU THE COST of building your own inventory. If you're like most people starting a small business, you don't have much capital with which to play with. The last thing you want to do is tie up your cash in inventory that you may or may not be able to sell.

Not having inventory also means no leftovers. If the product you sell suddenly becomes outdated, obsolete, or just plain un-trendy, you aren't the one with a house full of stock that nobody will buy. Many online retailers find themselves having to offer deep discounts -- and taking huge losses -- on old products just to get them out of their homes to make room for more inventory!

You'll also don't have to deal with shipping your products. Unless you've already set up a shipping account with someone like FedEx or UPS, you'll be heading down to the post office every day to buy stamps and mail out your products. And you'll be able to ADD NEW PRODUCTS ALMOST INSTANTLY. Since you don't have to worry about ordering inventory, you can add products to your web site within a few hours.

If you find that your customers are eager to buy a certain product, you can have that item up on your site in almost no time. Finally spend time researching different kinds of products that you might want to sell. The products you choose should be in demand but not widely available online. As usual, I highly recommend targeting a niche market rather than trying to find a product that EVERYONE wants to buy.

Once you've found a product that you think may be the right one for your business, you'll need to do a little "competitive analysis." This simply means finding out what potential competitors are charging for the products you want to sell and calculating how much of a profit you'll be able to make. When it comes down to it...its all about 'Testing, Testing, Testing!'

Good luck!

Thomas Griffin is the founder of Urbanload.com - The #1 eBay Dropshipper. Over 2000 resellers can't be wrong. Make money on eBay with (http://www.urbanload.com/reg.aspx'reseller=1) Dropshippers. Choose only eBay certified (http://www.urbanload.com/DropShipping.aspx's=2) Drop Shipping Companies.

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WHAT'S THE SHELF LIFE OF YOUR MARKETING?

WHAT'S THE SHELF LIFE OF YOUR MARKETING?

By Charlie Cook | Date Submitted: 10/03/05

Keywords: marketing, sales, small business, clients


More Details about marketing coach here.



Summary: Discover how to keep your marketing fresh in your prospect's minds so they think of you when they're ready to make a purchase.

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Your marketing information is perishable like a loaf of bread. Leave it on the shelf for longer than 7-10 days and it's stale as far as the majority of your prospects are concerned.

I was talking with David, a client from Arizona who owns four physical therapy clinics in the Tucson area. I asked him how business has been since we talked two weeks ago. He said three of his clinics were booked solid but the fourth was suffering from a lack of clients.

When I asked him what he thought was the problem, he acknowledged that his sales representatives for that clinic hadn't been in touch recently with the doctors who refer patients to them. In contrast, the pharmaceutical companies have three reps assigned to visit each of the same doctors' offices every week.

Even though doctors in the area had used David’s firm's services in the past, and their patients have a continuing need for these services, without recent contact the doctors had started referring their patients elsewhere. As David had quickly learned, just because someone knows about your services doesn't mean they will remember you when they are ready to make a referral or a purchase, even if they were a satisfied customer.

According to a study by e-consultancy.com, prospects cool quickly, at an estimated rate of 10% per day. In other words the shelf life of your marketing on average is about the same as a loaf of bread, 7-10 days.

Grocery store managers know that people won't buy stale produce or moldy bread, so they continually replace their stock. The same thing happens in marketing. Your prospects will lose track or discard your previous marketing information, even if they need your products and services. To keep your marketing information fresh in their minds, you need to expose them to it on a regular basis.

Obviously, your marketing shelf life will vary depending on the type of information you want prospects to retain and the type of communication. When people visit my web site they can fill in a contact form requesting a call. On occasion I get these and respond within 10-15 minutes. The majority of people I talk to remember filling in the form, the content of my site, but can't remember the URL for the site.

If people can't remember the URL of your web site, even if it provides an essential service they want to pay for, they won't be able to find your site and buy from you.

Estimated Average Shelf Life of Your Marketing: - Visiting your web site to forgetting your web site: 2 minutes - Reading a page or more of your marketing materials to forgetting your products or services: 5 to 7 days - Talking with you to forgetting you; 2 to 3 weeks - Buying from you to forgetting your company; 1 to 3 months

It's not that you don't provide essential products and services and people don’t want them; the problem is that your marketing information regularly gets buried in your prospect’s minds.

We have the same struggle with my teenage son. Much as we’d like him to sort his laundry and put clothes neatly away in his bureau, gravity takes over and the clothes end up on the floor. He sees and wears the clothes at the top of the pile. In short order, he's run out of shorts. Where are they? Buried at the bottom of the pile.

If a prospect has just been to your website, read your marketing materials, talked with you or made a purchase from you, your information is at the top of the pile in their mind. Each day that goes by they take in more information that gets added to the top of the pile, and your marketing information gets pushed further and further down until they no longer remember it.

How can you avoid having your marketing go stale in prospects' minds or get buried by all the other information they process?

1. If you have a web site, focus on getting prospects to give you their contact information so you have a means of getting in touch with them.

3. Whether it is by email, snail mail, over the phone or in print, stay in touch with your prospects so they don’t forget you.

3. Track your contacts with your prospects so you know how frequently you've approached them and by what means, and keep your objectives clearly in mind.

4. When a prospect becomes a client or a customer, don't assume that they'll remember to come back for the next purchase. Follow up immediately and tempt them with a special offer. This tactic alone can boost your sales by 30 to 40%.

It's hard to believe, but most of the people who need and want your products and services will forget you after they've read your marketing materials. Don't let your marketing shelf life expire and get discarded by your prospects.

Develop and implement a system for contacting your prospects so they remember you. You'll get permanent shelf space in their minds and you’ll get their business.

2005 © In Mind Communications, LLC. All rights reserved

ccook@marketingforsuccess.com





Author's URL: http://www.marketingforsuccess.com

The author, Marketing Coach, Charlie Cook, helps independent professionals and small business owners attract more clients and be more successful. Sign up for the Free Marketing eBook, '7 Steps to get more clients and grow your business', full of practical marketing tips you can use at: <a href="http://www.marketingforsuccess.com">Marketing Plans for Small Business</a>