Tips And Tricks For Finding A Conference Hotel

Writen by S Wander

If you have been given the job of finding a conference hotel, you'll know that this can seem to be a daunting task. Whether it's for a sales conference, a seminar you are holding or any other reason, you need to be sure that the your chosen conference hotel is up to the job.

Whenever possible, you should make arranIf you have been given the job of finding a conference hotel, you'll know that this can seem to be a daunting task. Whether it's for a sales conference, a seminar you are holding or any other reason, you need to be sure that the your chosen conference hotel is up to the job.

Whenever possible, you should make arrangements to visit the hotel before choosing it for your conference. Try to schedule several visits in the same day so that you don't spend too much time away from your main job. And don't be afraid to just call in to a hotel if it looks promising - you may have to wait a while to be seen, but it is highly unlikely that a hotel will turn you away if you are looking to run a conference there.

What to Look For in a Conference Hotel

Firstly, make sure that the conference room you are looking at is big enough for the conference you are holding. Your chosen hotel will tell you how many people the conference room will seat. There are several different ways of measuring the number of seats. The most common are:

Theatre style

Dining

Board room

Classroom

Reception

These names should be self explanatory, but if you are not sure then you should double check with your conference hotel before finalizing your booking.

If you need other facilities at your conference, you should check whether your hotel can supply them or if you need to bring your own.

Some of the things you need to check for when you are organizing a conference at a hotel include:

Flip charts and marker pens

Overhead projector

Slide projector

Sound system

Your chosen conference hotel will make a charge for using their conference room. If the conference is only to be held during the day, then there is no need for an overnight stay for your delegates. In this case, you will be charged a 'day rate'. Usually, the day rate will include tea and coffee for breaks and possibly a buffet style lunch. As with everything else, you need to be certain about what is included in the price you are quoted.

If your conference lasts longer than a day, you should negotiate a special deal with your hotel so that delegates can stay overnight, probably at a special reduced conference rate. After all, you will be booking a number of delegates for your conference in the hotel, so you should expect a discount on their normal rates.

Copyright 2005 Smooth Hound

S Wander http://www.s-h-systems.co.uk offers affordable hotel and guest house accommodation throughout the world.

Ceramic And Pottery Defects 3 Defects Generated During Forming Operations

Writen by John T Jones, Ph.D.

Forming methods of ceramics are sometimes classified as wet or dry. Dry forming refers to pressing operations from dry or perhaps damp powders. Wet forming includes slip casting and plastic forming methods. For a review of industrial forming methods see Ceramics: Industrial Processing and Testing by John T. Jones and M. F. Berard, Iowa State University Press.

Dry pressing requires that a shape be dimensionally stable after firing. That will occur if the pressing operations are in control and the firing is specified. If a pressed part is oversize after firing, it can be ground to size, but that is an extra operation usually not included in the costing of the part. If the part is undersize after firing, the part is scrap.

Important factors in pressing are the die size, the particle size distribution of the powder, the binder system, the pressing pressure and pressing cycle. Problems are powder sticking to the die, powder not flowing into the die freely, and incorrect fired shrinkage.

In isostatic pressing an additional problem can occur due to the incompressibility of air. This can sometimes be relieved by flooding the tooling cavity with propane which is compressible and on release will evaporate into the air slowly rather than expand instantly like air expands which can crack the part. In isostatic pressing the part usually must be machined after forming.

Laminations in pressed parts can be caused by the powder not flowing easily during die filling or during pressing. These laminations will not usually heal during firing and must be eliminated in the pressing operations.

Experiments with binders such as paraffin, gums, and starches, etc., must be conducted to determine the correct binder type and amount. Binders with lubricating properties can help.

Sometimes a lubricant or anti-sticking agent is needed to prevent sticking of parts to the die. See the reference for more information including spray drying of powders. Dow Chemical company and others supply a number of aids to pressing.

Plastic forming by machine such as plate rollers and jigger machines usually require the clay to be in the flocculated state. Small amounts of plaster added to the body when in slurry form before filter pressing and extrusion will provide the desired plastic properties.

Cast jiggering is an exception but even then the clay slip is placed on a plaster mold providing what is needed to flocculate the slip as it builds up on the mold before jiggering.

Clay for plastic forming must have the correct moisture content or the dimensions of the dried product before firing will be incorrect. Firing will not improve this situation.

Most other problems occurring during plastic forming can be resolved by keeping the clay flocculated.

Nepheline syenite and alumina tend to deflocculate plastic bodies before forming so it may be essential not to delay forming in these cases only.

Generally, aging of plastic clay improves forming operations especially for bodies with low inherent plasticity such as porcelain bodies.

Slip casting requires that the clay slurry be dispersed. The slip specific gravity and viscosity must be controlled. The particle size distribution is critical and must be controlled by formulation as well as processing. See the referenced text for details of testing and slip control.

Whether from plastic forming or slip casting, leather hard ware must be handled carefully during finishing operations. Clay has a memory and distortions in green ware can reappear during firing.

See the reference for other forming methods and problems.

John T. Jones, Ph.D. (tjbooks@hotmail.com, a retired VP of R&D for Lenox China, is author of detective & western novels, nonfiction (business, scientific, engineering, humor), poetry, etc. Former editor of Ceramic Industry Magazine, Jones is Executive Representative of International Wealth Success. He calls himself "Taylor Jones, the hack writer." More info: http://www.tjbooks.com Business web site: http://www.bookfindhelp.com (IWS wealth-success books and kits and business newsletters / TopFlight flagpoles)

Positioning In Small Business Marketing

Writen by J D Moore

Positioning is another one of those marketing jargon words that everybody throws around and is important to understand. It's also important to understand how positioning specifically applies to your small business marketing.

Basically a marketing position describes your unique place in the market. The key word here is unique. What makes you different from your competitors? What features and benefits do you offer your target market that the other players don't?

Here are a few things that may go into your positioning:

-Price Point - This doesn't necessarily mean you have the lowest price. You may be the most expensive in town, and that's OK if you convince your customers you're worth it.

-Service - Almost every business claims they have great service. If you can provide exceptional service compared to your competitors, your customers will remember you. I'll never forget calling a surly plumber to try to get him to my house for an emergency on a weekend. he acted like he didn't want my business and then told me it was going to be $200 for him just to show up, no thanks. I called roto-router who gave me amazing service, a guarantee, and the whole bill was less than $200. I now use them for all my plumbing.

-Features and Benefits - Positioning is not just about what makes you different, it's also about what you emphasize. Folgers announces to the world that it's "mountain grown coffee" ( a feature). Guess what? All coffee is mountain grown. Folgers just claimed this feature first. What's something that none of your competitors are talking about?

-Credibility - Legal Seafood's clam chowder is served at every presidential inauguration. Many products get celebrity endorsements. Many companies tout how long they've been in business. All of these things build trust in the mind of the consumer. What trust-building factors do you have that the competition does not?

-Negative Features - Is there something you don't have that annoys customers of your competitors? I'm not saying use negative advertising, but just mention the feature and tie it to a benefit. I'm annoyed when I have to pay for parking to go shopping at Mall. Instead of touting free parking, a mall that wants to speak to me might declare, "you'll never have to pay for parking". This drives home the pain of shopping with a competitor without going negative.

-Anything Else - Literally anything that differentiates you from your competitors can be part of your positioning strategy - your location, your hours of operation, the way your office smells. Small business owners need to think creatively here.

In a great article by John Jantsch he states that a positioning strategy must answer the question, "why should I buy from you?" This is brilliant in it's simplicity; it cuts through all the strategic junk that complicates marketing. If you can't answer this question, your customer is not going to do the work to figure out an answer on his own.

Does your small business marketing stink? Let's Fix it! J D Moore is a small business marketing coach. Read his blog at http://marketingcomet.typepad.com

Advances In Print Technology What About

Writen by Marlon D. Ludovice

A number of dramatic technological innovations have been added greatly to deal with the character of printing process. Linotype is a method of creating movable type by machine instead of by hand and was introduced in 1884 which marked a significant leap in production speed.

The typewriter made the production and "look" of standardized print much more widely accessible. The process of setting type continued to go through transformations with the development of photo-mechanical composition, cathode ray tubes and laser technologies. Also the Xerox machine made a means of broadcast print documents available to everyone. Wherein Word processing transformed editing and contributed dramatic new flexibility to the writing process. Computer printing has already moved through several stages of innovation, from the first daisy-wheel and dot matrix "impact" printers to common use of the non-impact printers: ink-jet, laser and thermal-transfer.

Now with the availability of internet in the world and interactive multimedia, providing ways of employing the printed word that add new possibilities to print's role in culture made it much easier. The printed word is now used for real-time social interaction and for individualized routing through interactive documents. It is difficult to gauge the social and cultural impact of new media without historical distance, but these innovations will most likely prove to signal another major transformation in the use, influence and character of human communication.

Indeed, far way the printing had been very much stable to give a better service to the people. The immediate effect of the printing press was to multiply the output and cut the costs of books. It thus made information available to a much larger segment of the population who were, of course, eager for information of any variety. Libraries could now store greater quantities of information at much lower cost. Printing also facilitated the dissemination and preservation of knowledge in standardized form -- this was most important in the advance of science, technology and scholarship. The printing press certainly initiated an "information revolution" on par with the Internet today. Printing could and did spread new ideas quickly and with greater impact. With the innovation and advancement in technology sure way printing press is on the go to serve us better!

About The Author Marlon is a graduate of BACHELOR OF ARTS, major in POLITICAL SCIENCE. Well actually i'm not fun of writing, i dont write at all. i am not expecting that i will be in this field. But i love to read books...almost everything interest me. reading is my passion! but now that i am in an article writer team, writing gives me an additional thrill in myself...Before i love to read books but now im also in a writing stuff. I can't say im a good writer but i am trying to be one. For additional information and comments about the article you may log on to http://www.aprintingpress.com

Staying Excited About Your Business

Writen by Leila Johnson

I had a blast at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta events.

When I told some Albuquerque natives and semi-natives how excited I was about attending, I usually got the same response: "Oh, you won't get that excited after you've been here awhile."

Who knows. Maybe that will be true. But, I hope not. I felt like a little kid. Watching several hundred balloons taking off during early morning Mass Ascension. Walking amongst the same balloons during the evening Balloon Glow. The number of balloons, the organization of the events, and the lack of chaos just amazed me.

The Fiesta is obviously second nature to some. But, it was brand new to me. Of course, this made me think about business. How many of us see our business as something that is "second nature"?

Let's say you've been in business for a few years. You have your products, services, and marketing strategies down to a science. You get customers through referrals and word of mouth. After awhile, you feel like you're running on automatic.

It's easy to get bored with your business and even let it become stale. To freshen things up, you might try:

*Updating your Web site, brochure or other marketing materials

*Giving a presentation to a new group of potential clients

*Getting a free consultation from a non-competing business consultant

I never want to lose that sense of wonder – for the Balloon Fiesta or for my business. Looking at your business from a new perspective can be a breath of fresh air.

Leila Johnson co-owns Data-Scribe(tm) along with her husband Brett Johnson. The New Mexico-based firm empowers Micro-Businesses through technology, the written word & training. To get more tips like this, visit their Micro-Business E-Library or sign up for their Micro-Business Gazette at http://www.datascribe.biz.

How To Sell A Website Fast

Writen by Manny Avedissian

Dear Website Owner,

If you have an existing website or domain name you no longer need and wish to sell it to an interested buyer for a one-time profit, or if you?re a speculator looking to build a steady source of revenue by buying and reselling valuable domain names, this helpful guide will explain the steps you need to take to ensure a quick,easy,profitable sale.

Step 1 - Establish a Reasonable Price for Your Site

How Much Can I Get?

Before you sell, it's a good idea to know how much the domain is worth. Market prices for domain names can run from a few dollars to thousands of dollars for premium names. The domain name "Loans.com", for example, sold for $3,000,000 just a few years ago.

The key to deciding whether or not to sell a domain name you own is to determine its worth to you if kept and, alternatively, how much a buyer is willing to pay. You may have heard -rags to riches- type stories of cheap domain names resold for hundreds of thousands of dollars. During the good old days of the Internet boom this was possible. However, things have slowed down considerably since then and there it is very rare to hear of a domain name sold for more than $10,000.

However, while big deal domain sales do occur less often in today?s domain market, selling domain names can still be very profitable. Short, catchy, top level domain names are selling for upwards of $5,000 on the domain aftermarket. Other longer, but still usable, names may be worth hundreds of dollars.

Pricing is relative. Relative to your desire to sell, the type and timeliness of bidder inquiries (individual or corporate) and how well the sale price is negotiated. Don't try to fit your domain name into some 'proprietary pricing model'. Every domain name is applicable to a different target market. Determine who your potential buyers are before determining your asking price so you don't over or under estimate that price. Most names (~85%) sell for between 15%-40% of the asking price. Exceptions to this trend:

Fantastic names - Truly great names can command what a seller requests, unless that amount is unreasonable.

High asking prices - Names that have ridiculous or greedy asking prices rarely sell. Important!

Poor names - Names littered with hyphens, adult names, "4"s for the number "four", "2"s for the number "two", "U"s for the word "you", etc. Don't waste your time listing names like these. They rarely sell.

How Do I Determine My Site's Worth?

Selling virtual real estate is a lot like selling physical real estate. Just like with the housing market, website ?homes? (also known as domain names) can be purchased for a low cost, remodeled and decorated to look very attractive to potential buyers, and sold for a considerable profit. To understand how this works, first consider that you were in fact selling an actual house built on land instead of an abstract entity on the web.

It would be impossible to price your home without doing extensive research to determine its worth. You'd need to take many factors into consideration, such as: size, landscape, curb appeal, the value of other properties in the area, the current buying market, and -perhaps the biggest factor- location, location, location! You'd never dream of arbitrarily assigning a sale price to your home without having some idea of its worth and what buyers might be willing to pay. If you underprice your home, you could be missing out on a substantial profit opportunity.

However, if you overprice your home, you might not be able to sell it at all. That's why it's so important to have all the facts before putting your home on the market - and the same holds true for selling your virtual home on the web.

When determining your site's value, you may need to do some research online. It is often a good idea to compare different websites on the Internet and to see which sites catch your eye. You can make a mental note of the methods used on websites that were appealing to you; then you can use those ideas when creating or updating your own website. The design of a website is very important when you are trying to sell an existing site online.

The design should be bold and colorful, but should not be too busy. You may want to use colors that relate to the theme of the site as well. For instance, if you are selling bottled water, it would be logical to use shades of blue on your website. However, no matter how brilliant the website design is, the purpose of the site must also be useful for the website to sell. A good website will revolve around an interesting idea or useful type of business. To reflect the purpose of your website, you should include clear, informative content that is easy to understand. A website with a clear and interesting purpose is very likely to sell on the Internet.

What Makes a Site Valuable to Buyers?

These days most websites are valued by the number of visitors they attract. One common yard stick is your domain name is valued at $10 to $30 per hit per day. If 1,000 people land on your front page each day, your domain could be worth $10,000 to $30,000. Another optimistic way of looking at domain values is each unique visitor you get over the course of a month is worth $250. If the visitor clicks to a second page on your site, her presence is worth $500.

By this measure, a site getting only 10 hits per day could go for $15,000. This strategy is a lot like the way traditional businesses have always been sold. The more customers a store has, the more it is worth to a buyer. That is a pretty solid way to value domains. It is a model that is likely to be around for a long time to come.

Here are some of the main questions a typical buyer will ask him or herself when considering whether or not a website is worth purchasing ? and at what price:

Is the site making any money? Is there proof?

What is the potential for future profits?

Does the site have traffic? Is there proof?

Is the site attractive/well designed? Is it functional and user friendly?

When was the domain name registered?

How is the site ranked with the major search engines?

What does is take to maintain the site? i.e. hosting fees, content addition, promotion, etc.

Why does the owner want to sell the website?

If you?ve purchased a unique domain name with a great deal of potential value, it may not be necessary for you to have an existing website in order for you to sell your domain name for a profit. Typically, domain names will sell based on its performance in four key categories:

1. Commercial Development Potential - The ability of your domain name to be used as a brand, redirect, campaign address, etc.

2. Recognition - The relevance of your name to the market and how easy it is to remember.

3. Length - In most cases, shorter is better. However, a longer more obvious name can sometimes be more valuable than a short classified-ad contraction style domain.

4. Extension Value - This refers to the .COM part of your domain name. Currently .COM names still command the highest values followed by .NET, some national domains (such as .UK) and .ORG names.

How Can I Guarantee I've Priced My Site Correctly?

Unless you are a true domain name expert, we strongly recommend having your site professionally appraised. In fact, this is probably one of the most important steps you can take towards ensuring a successful sale of your site. Appraisers are professionals and experts in their field, and they have the means and methods to conclude what your domain name is worth. As we mentioned earlier, if you place an exaggerated price on your name, potential buyers will be scared away from making a reasonable offer. If you undervalue your name, you may end up kicking yourself when your newly sold name rakes in millions - for someone else. Furthermore, an appraisal is a very handy thing to have when buyers want -proof- that your name is as special as you claim. In the end, it is an exceptionally valuable asset, available for a very small price.

For information on UK Website for Sale's professional appraisal services, visit: http://www.ukwebsiteforsale.co.uk/appraisal/. We offer a 20+ page Website Appraisal that can dramatically increase the value of your website. No one on the Internet offers a more complete or cost effective Website Appraisal, and certainly no one offers all the extras we do that are included for FREE!

Step 2 - Prepare your Business Information for the Sale

After you have decided to sell your business for whatever reason and chosen an asking price that you can support (hopefully with some advice from research or, even better, through a professional appraisal service), you are now ready to talk to some potential buyers. Or are you?

Much like the asking price, the art of preparing your business for sale is not that easy. So, what do you need to successfully prepare the business and information? The list and needs vary greatly over business types, revenue sizes, verticals, and so on. For any business, the basic requirements for what you will need are quite similar. At the very least, you should have the following items:

1. Business Summary -- what it is and why you are selling

2. Business Plan/Marketing Plan -- if you have them

3. Asset List -- both tangible and intangible

4. Search Engine Rankings

5. Website Traffic Reports

6. Any Technical details

7. Financials (previous years and Current YTD financials)

8. Most recent completed year's Profit & Loss or Income Statement report and Balance Sheet -- if you have it

9. Sales Forecasts

10. Supporting documents for the Financials -- Tax, Bank, and/or Merchant Statements

The previous items will give all potential buyers a good idea what is for sale and probably a good idea if they are interested in pursuing the sale or not. However, that is usually just the beginning, so be prepared for many, many, many more questions.

Also, please keep in mind that your materials, presentation, and responses will be graded as part of the business in a way. Why? Because, how can your business be successful if you are unorganized, not well presented, and not able to respond quickly and concisely? This is what the buyer will be thinking. And in my experience, this is pretty accurate.

Step 3 ? Market Your Website/Domain Name

There are various methods of putting your domain name up for sale. Decide whether you would like to sell your domain by owner or simplify the process and significantly increase your chances of receiving the best offer in the shortest amount of time by listing your domain name with a third party, such as http://www.ukwebsiteforsale.co.uk.

What if I Want to Market My Site On My Own?

There are 101 different ways to promote your domain name. One way we don't recommend is blanketing companies with unsolicited email. Writing mail to 200 banks asking if they want to buy -FasterInternetBanking.com- is not likely to win you many friends, nor make you any deals. Your time would be better employed using the methods listed below:

a) Update the domain name registration information

Many potential buyers will look at the information in the WHOIS database as a first step when investigating a name that they are considering buying. So make it perfectly clear that the name is for sale. Update the owner's name to include (This name is for sale) after your own name. Make sure all your contact information is current and accurate. Contact your domain name registrar to update your WHOIS listing.

b) Put a promotional website up

The other obvious way for a potential buyer to find out if a domain name is for sale is to visit the website. Don't disappoint them. If you don?t have an existing website, get some web space from a decent host provider and put a simple, one-page site up, showing that the name is for sale. Include a form or at least an email address so that interested parties can submit offers.

c) Get the Word Out

There are two different types of e-marketing strategies that may help increase your sales.

Direct Marketing: Identify and Address Your Audience. What types of businesses or individuals would be interested in your name? When you have identified your specific audience, you can take the next steps:

1. Visit newsgroups related to domain names and the nature of your name for sale. Post messages and begin discussions.

2. Subscribe to ezines related to the topic and find out where these people are on the web, and how you can contact them.

3. Once you have contacts, you can send out emails to potential customers.

Mass Marketing: Address Many. As opposed to direct marketing, mass marketing targets a large amount of people, hoping for a small response. Some ways to do this are:

4. Participate in domain forums, ask questions and seek out domain resellers or people who may be able to offer you more tips.

5. Use search engines. Although search engines differ in their methods of operation and website submission, you can often submit your site for no cost. To find out more information about different search engines and how they work, visit http://searchenginewatch.com/.

What are the Benefits to Registering My Site With a Third Party?

For a small fee, you can list your site with a reputable third party, such as http://www.ukwebsiteforsale.co.uk, and greatly enhance your site?s exposure to qualified buyers and ultimate profit potential. Among the many benefits you?ll receive by registering with ukwebsiteforsale are:

• High visibility ? Reach 1000s of qualified buyers every month

• FREE 3-Month Featured Listing with purchase of professional appraisal

• Professionally written ads

• FREE email newsletter

• A professional appraisal to accurately determine your sites worth and increase your chances of selling ? ready in three to five business days

• The security of working with a trusted, experienced and highly recommended company

• The opportunity to connect with a recommended site broker, who will further simplify the process by handling payment, escrow, and domain and registrar transfer.

Visit http://www.ukwebsiteforsale.co.uk/exchange/sell-a-website.htm to learn more.

Step #4 - Make The Deal

You could get lucky, and receive an offer just days after listing your name. Typically, though, names are listed for months before any offers arrive. The key here is to be patient. Think about it - a party needs to come along who believes that the name is right, even essential, for their new Web site. The only other offers you will get will be from domain resellers, who will typically offer you 20-25% of a name's potential value. Unless you really need the money, turn down these offers, but note them anyway, as they are external confirmation that your name has resale value.

Once you have agreed a deal with the buyer, then you will have to complete the deal. They send you payment, and you transfer the name to them. It's best to use an escrow service here. It protects both parties, but adds to the cost, so make sure you have agreed beforehand who will pay for it. Normally the buyer pays, but sometimes the cost is shared. Please note: to sell a domain name by owner, through a private transaction rather than a trusted third party, is risky business unless you completely trust the buyer.

There will be some wait time as money switches hands and the domain name ownership is transferred. Unless you are selling your domain to your mother or selling it for a very low price, we recommend using an escrow service to take care of the money transaction.

Copyright 2004

Good luck!

About The Author Manny Avedissian is the owner of UKWebsiteForSale.co.uk. He has operated and maintained various internet businesses. Mr. Avedissian has a business degree and has over 20 years of professional business expereince. manny@ukwebsiteforsale.co.uk

Will Retail Chains Lose Their Dominance

Writen by Vernon Stent

In most industrialised nations the the supply chain of goods from source to end user has changed little for many years. Firstly there are the producers. Then the wholesaler, then the retailer and then the customer and consumer.

In the U.S. the supply chain has always been pulled by downstream consumers. Europe had a different history where a mixture of world wars and interventionist governments led to supply chains that were pushed from the upstream end. Certainly, the rationing of the 1940's and beyond led to a culture of consumers who got what they were given and were thankful for small mercies.

As Europe has become more affluent, consumers have flexed their muscles and demanded an ever wider array of goods at a range of prices and standards. It has now joined the U.S. and most other industrialised nations with consumer-led supply chains.

A feature of this has been the trend towards large retail chains. Many of these chains have become so large that they have virtually dispensed with wholesalers, preferring instead to purchase goods directly from producers. They have also established the so called "own brand". This is where they have dictated the product specification to the producer and told them to brand it as their own product. And there is more: some of the largest chains have increasingly got themselves involved with all aspects of the supply chain from raw material sourcing, packaging procurement and design, all aspects of distribution and even their suppliers' recruitment policies.

This has resulted in a shift in the balance of power from upstream to downstream. Now that every aspect of the producer's business, including their all important costs, have been tied down by the ever inquisitive retail chain, has the pendulum swung as far as it could? We all know what happens to pendulums when they have gone as far as they can in one direction. Now, I cannot surely be the only person who has thought about this. I am sure that directors of some of the large producers out there must have thought to themselves "how did we let this happen?". Perhaps some of the smaller producers whose management can't even visit the washroom without permission from the retailer (it seems) are also thinking "enough is enough".

Just think of this: who has put the capital and risk into the very expensive plant that is needed in a production environment? Not the retailers. Who has the skilled staff including engineers and designers? Certainly not the retailers. Who has detailed product knowledge within their own spheres? Retail chains, by their very nature specialise in putting largely unskilled staff in large buildings with rows of shelving and a line of checkouts. They can only ever have a superficial knowledge stretching accross the vast product ranges they sell.

I know I have painted a picture of poor downtrodden producers that have been conquered by those nasty retailers. Firstly the retailers are not nasty at all - they are just doing their job - so let's not blame them. And there will be many producers out there who rather like the status quo and don't want to rock the boat. OK, so they don't get the kinds of profit margins they would like, but they do get volume. Though in my opinion, the reason why many producers want to leave things as they are is that they are slaves, even if they don't realise it.

It's a kind of drug dependancy, but with the drug being high volume sales and the drug pusher being the retail chain. It's a familiar pattern. The producer is forced to reduce costs by a retailer promising higher volume in return for a greater share of the margin, so the producer invests in larger production facilities, faster machinery and takes on more staff. This is fine until the producer realises that he is now dependent on the retailer. The producer is now in the position where he must be given volume orders in order to ammortise his costs. The retailer says: I can give you volume, but you must give us more margin. For some producers the moment of truth comes when they need to take a leap into a big new production facility in order to keep up with these demands. So, they take on a loan and expand the business. Now they need a constant fix of volume business, not only to keep the factory going, but in order for their business to avoid bankruptcy. Some producers who have converted to this high volume business have gone so far with it, and have partnered so closely with their master retailer that they simply see themselves as an extension to the retailer and will not contemplate change.

Others may feel differently. They may be run by more indpendently-minded bosses, or may have kept up sales to other outlets in order to keep some trade going that is outside the sphere of the retail chain. I am sure that some producers want to see that pendulum start to make its way back, even if it is just a little way. But what can they do? Well, things are changing out there, so opportunities may arise sooner than expected.

Firstly, there is safety in numbers. Just ask the unions, or a herd of wilderbeest. I can see alliances taking shape over the next few years between non-competing producers who, between them, can offer a full range of products to consumers. Why can't they open their own retail outlets? Remember, the billions made by today's retail chains will no longer need to be serviced, so prices will be very competitive and margin healthy.

Secondly, there is pressure on fuel supply and prices. There has been a recent blip that might fall off again, but most experts agree that the long term trend is that prices will rise. As fuel costs begin to impact margins and even product prices there will be pressure to retail goods as close to their source as possible. It may even make sense to sell goods directly from a producer's own shop. In the UK, local farmer's markets have taken a significant slice of business away from supermarkets. I am suggesting here that this principle could be extended to more local selling opportunities from producers and not just farmers.

Thirdly, there is an increasing trend - mainly driven by legislation - to re-use parts in products that are at the end of their life and to re-use packaging. This reverse distribution will benefit once again from having producers as close to consumers as possible and it may benefit further by cutting out the retailer altogether for the return of goods.

Finally of course, there is the internet - shopping on line. Not a cashier or a shopping trolley in sight. Yes, distribution infrastructure is still required, but remember that many bricks and mortar retailers have still not fully got to grips with the structures that are required to distribute internet sales. The internet gives producers a wonderful opportunity to change the order of things to their advantage and sell directly to end users.

What many large retail chains have done has been breathtaking and can only be admired. They took control of their supply chains and used their new influence and power to their advantage and therefore to the advantage of their shareholders. Just remember though, that retail chains consist of unremarkable buildings, staffed with unskilled labour and with low-tech plant. They do not produce goods (usually) and they do not own any brands apart from their own. Their main asset is customer goodwill with the large throughputs of customers visiting their sites. If this throughput is threatened by high fuel prices or because of alternative attractions, then these large buildings will become white elephants. If this ever happens, the decline could be swift and decisive, for those retailers are just as addicted to their customers as producers are to them.

There is a lot to be said for buying your products as closely as possible to their source. Arkay Hygiene sells fly killers. Yes they are stocked by retailers, but Arkay Hygiene sells most of them directly from their web site at www.eeeee.co.uk. Perhaps they are already ahead of the game.

By the way, you can get lots of information about the retail industry and the history of retailing at http://www.aboutretail.net. An example of the fly killers sold by Arkay Hygiene is the Stainless Steel IND61, the most powerful of their fly killers