Pros and Cons of Partnership Firm Registration

Should you get Partnership Registration in India? This blog details the pros and cons of partnership firm registration. Give it a read, and find the answer.

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It is no news that the chance of you succeeding in your business venture will increase by ten-folds when you have someone to help you. Therefore, those who have a common goal to start an enterprise and earn profit form a partnership firm. However, like other business entities, a Partnership Firm Registration has advantages and disadvantages.

If you want to succeed in business, you must first realize that you can’t do it yourself. You require someone to stand by your side — a person that can give weight to your business decisions; someone who has the expertise to row the boat of your business venture beside you.

Therefore, you need to get a partnership registration. But what is a Partnership firm?

It is a business entity that doesn’t require government oversight – an aspect that has advantages and disadvantages.

Let us discuss them both.

Pros of Partnership Firm Registration

Let us begin with why you should set up your business as a partnership:

You have someone to help you: It is ambitious to run your own business on your own terms. However, when you have a singular approach to your operations, you lose the ability to diversify. You require another set of eyes – someone who can join their voice with yours as you take the business decisions. Starting your business like that gives you confidence.
You can have additional knowledge: No enterprise in this world has earned success without more information. When you have a partner by your side, you gain more knowledge. You can leverage that understanding to take business decisions that will lead to sustainable success.
You will have less financial burden: Running the business yourself burdens you with its losses. However, sharing this cargo with another partner will boost your confidence. It will eventually lead to being less afraid of business risks. And when you take risky decisions, you might gain more rewards.
You will have to deal with less paperwork: You don’t like paperwork? Then, registering a partnership is right up your alley. With this, you will spend more time focusing on your business and less on dealing with the compliances.
However, all is not green when it comes to partnership registrations. There are some disadvantages of it too.

Cons of Registering a Partnership firm

Here are the cons of registering a partnership

There is no online process: No online procedure exists to set up a partnership firm in India. You must fill the application form by hand, go to the state department, and then submit it with the attachments. It increases the time of registration that, in turn, can delay your business operations.
Disagreements are a common occurrence: There is a reason why there are no favoured partnership firms in India. Even though there is partnership deed registration that establishes the role of partners, disagreements between them are common.
It is not a separate business entity: You register a partnership with full knowledge that you and the entity aren’t different. Its loss would be your loss, and its profits would be yours as well. It creates a factor of unlimited liability – causing your assets to be at stake if your partnership firm suffers a loss.
Your partners will have to pay individual taxes: Because you are not a separate legal entity from your partnership, you’ll have to bear the burden of individual taxes. It increases the taxes you must pay to the government.

Conclusion

A Partnership firm is a non-registered business entity with its pros and cons. What you want to focus on when you start your business depends on you. However, make sure that you keep both of them in mind so that your business turns out to be a successful one.

What Is The Definition Of Place Branding?

Place branding is one way to attract talented people by developing a positive image that will lead to an increase in economic growth. Place branding enhances the city’s reputation by building a brand across the world and telling stories that are relevant for target audiences about cities.

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Place branding is a process of developing and promoting place identity that will promote positive feelings about the place and create images, associations, and feelings in targeted place audiences. The place brand should stand out from place brands of other places. Good place branding enhances the place’s reputation which results in good business performance.

Tourism is one of the major types of businesses that are influenced by place branding. Place branding is also known as “reputation management” which revolves around creating perceptions about a certain place, managing these perceptions to determine how they develop over time, and finally determining how to translate these into positive outcomes for the people or product associated with it. It can be said that the whole idea of place branding is to create or enhance the identity of a certain place or product.

Place branding is used by marketers, public relations experts, and commercial developers to convey useful information about a given location while also creating positive feelings about it. This strategy can be very effective in terms of promoting destinations for tourism purposes as well as encouraging business investments.

Place branding is about creating positive images in minds of the audience so that they would perceive the place positively. The main goal is to convey the right image of the place, which also includes differentiating it from others. Branding should be high on the strategic agenda for countries and places because it helps in developing economies through investment attraction, tourism promotion, and employment creation. Countries and places can use place branding for communication purposes to create the right perception in the minds of people.

Place branding is also about the promotion of a specific place, including tourism. The focus should be on how to attract tourists and to convince them that they should spend their vacations in that particular place or country.

How does Soft Power affect the development of Place Brands?

Soft power is the ability to influence others through attraction rather than coercion or payments. Soft power resources are the assets that produce such attraction-a country’s culture, political values, and foreign policies. Soft power can help to develop place brands. Soft power is a prime factor in determining the ‘external’ agenda of any nation.

What does place branding do?

Place branding has the following objectives:

To establish or enhance the identity of a city or region
It provides information about the city’s culture, talent, lifestyles, etc.
It helps in producing quality streetscape and cityscape images to attract people.
To build a city’s reputation, city stories are created which are being told to target audiences.
It enhances the city’s reputation by developing the city’s image broadly across the world.

What are the benefits of place branding?

Evaluators have shown that place brands can be used to improve cities’ competitiveness in attracting talent, international students, and investments. The quality of talent attracted by a city is directly linked with company attractiveness. A talent-attractive city provides talent attraction which is relevant for talent attraction expenditure.
Place branding is also seen as an important tool for talent attraction. A talent-attractive city attracts talent which enhances company attractiveness and economic growth. Some evaluators found that talent-attractiveness was the most significant predictor of talent attraction expenditure. This indicates the importance of talent attraction for attracting foreign investors to a city.
City branding can also help in talent attraction. Talented workers prefer to work and live in talent-attractive cities with high quality of life. The talent-attraction equation consists of talent attractiveness and talent retention which is directly linked with talent attraction.
A talent-attractive city attracts talent which enhances company attractiveness and economic growth. A talent-attractiveness was the most significant predictor of talent attraction expenditure.
Places that have a strong brand and identity stand a better chance at attracting talented people.
Elevating a city’s image requires raising awareness about what makes a particular place attractive to talent. This also means understanding the skills, abilities, and interests specific to talented people.
Talent attraction is an extremely expensive talent management choice. Attracting talent takes time and money, talent attraction expenditure is increasing around the world because talent attraction is becoming more significant for economic growth.
Companies are struggling to find talent in this hyper-competitive talent market which makes talent attraction even more important.
Companies look for talent-attractive cities which can attract talented people. Cities have to invest in improving the quality of life and living conditions as well as becoming more open, multicultural, and tolerant.
Taking all these facts into account, it is obvious that city branding plays a significant role in attracting talented people by becoming more open, multiethnic, and attractive for innovation.

Cities offer a huge potential for innovation and growth. However, developing innovative ideas requires talent which is attracted by the city’s image and reputation. Therefore, building attractive places requires investing in the quality of life, city image projects are one way to attract talented people. City branding is about creating place brands that are considered to be attractive by its potential users. City branding is an effective tool for talent attraction because it can help in building a positive image of cities, regions, or places to attract talented people.

Five Features That Will Transform Your Home

Add window treatments to your home

Window treatments can really add style and elegance to your home. Whether you want to cover your windows or highlight them; window treatments should be first on the list of things to do. Window treatments can help with privacy and decorating, so it is important to think about this for each room in your home. From panelling to shutters, there are many options that will suit any style at any price point, and these coverings can be matched to your existing interior and colour theme as well.

Some beautiful window treatments that can really transform your home’s design and look include:

Honeycomb Blinds – Honeycomb blinds in Sydney are very popular among home owners due to their style and design. These blinds are great for insulating the home and they come in a variety of colours and textures.
Pinch Pleat Drapes – Drapes and curtains in Sydney homes are another popular choice because they come in a variety of fabrics and styles. Pinch pleat drapes are very versatile because they can be hung with many different curtain rods such as traverse rods, pole pockets or even the back tab option. Drapes add an elegant touch to any home decorating scheme.
Roman Shades – Roman shades provide superior light control compared to other window coverings like blinds and curtains. These shades also offer incredible insulating properties making them perfect for keeping your rooms warm during winter months and cool in summer time when temperatures start rising outside. They are easily installed into most windows without having to worry about custom fitting since there is no need.
Plantation Shutters – Timber or PVC plantation shutters in Sydney homes can really add elegance to your home decorating. These shutters are perfect for adding privacy to your rooms while still allowing you to enjoy the natural light outside in the summer. They also provide superior insulation properties making them great for keeping everyone warm during winter months.
Faux Wood Blinds – Faux wood blinds can really add elegance and class to any room they adorn, no matter how big or small. A large opening like a bay window will look even more grand with faux wood blinds installed into it that feature beautiful fabrics like silk or linen shades inside of them. Not only do faux wood blinds give off an air of sophistication but they are easy to clean which is something people love about these types of window treatments.

Add a fireplace to create ambience and warmth in the winter

A fireplace can add a lot of elegant charm to a room, especially when it is winter time. Adding a fireplace will help to create ambience and warmth in the home but it can also be used as an accent piece for your decorating scheme by using items such as vases or statues on top of the mantle. People love adding fireplaces into their homes because they are not only aesthetically pleasing but they add function too which is always something that people want out of features like this one.

Replace your outdated kitchen cabinets for an updated look

Old kitchen cabinets can make your home look outdated so it is good to consider replacing them with new ones. You can change the doors of your cabinets if you want a different look in the kitchen, but there are many other cabinet styles that may work better with your decorating style in general. New cabinets will also increase functionality in your home because they will give additional storage space which might be very useful when hosting parties or nights at home for family members and friends.

Upgrade your flooring

Flooring is another aspect that can truly transform a home. Consider beautiful hardwood floors in your living room or dining area, especially if you have an open floor plan. Carpet is another option that can be used in bedrooms and bathrooms, but should typically not be used in high traffic areas like the kitchen.

Upgrade your light fixtures

You may also want to consider updating lighting fixtures for a more updated look inside of your home. Lighting has become very creative with many different styles to choose from so definitely take some time when looking at options at your local store. In addition, you can also switch over to more energy-efficient lighting like LED bulbs, which will also help you to save money at the same time.

All these things, from blinds and shutters to lighting options, can make your home look new and stylish, and create its own special ambience.

10 Reasons to Hire a Search Engine Marketing Company to Market Your Website

The marketing opportunity presented by search engine marketing and the internet far exceeds the marketing potential offered by traditional mediums such as print, television and radio.The wide availability of broadband and internet on mobile phones has had a big impact on usage of internet for our day to day information needs.

With 85% of businesses being found online through search engines a company cannot afford to ignore the internet as a marketing channel and not have an online marketing strategy for their website.

Why Hire a Professional for Search Engine Marketing?

1) Search engine marketing is a highly specialised field that requires expertise and experience.

2) It is a time consuming task and requires time and dedication. Tasks need to be performed on a daily basis.

3) Online marketing is highly competitive with hundreds of thousands of businesses competing for the traffic. Having experts to manage your search engine marketing campaign will certainly improve your chances of ranking higher.

4) If it is not done using proper techniques it can result in search engines like Google penalising or black listing your website. Such risks are minimised as professional search engine experts are aware of the correct methods and techniques.

5) Search engine marketing experts can help you to identify the right keywords for your website, optimise your website for the keywords, measure performance and take necessary action. This is an on going process better managed by experts.

6) Experts understand the way the search engines work and index your website. They can ensure that all the pages are indexed correctly and that multiple pages on you website appear on searches for the right keywords and not just your homepage. More the pages that are indexed by search engines, higher the chances of receiving traffic to your website.

7) Search engine marketing has evolved with time and includes much wider coverage than only search engines. Experts will not only market your websites on major search engine like Google and Yahoo but will also focus on other areas in order to get the maximum coverage for your website. This will often include promotion of your website on major social media and networking websites such as My space, Digg.

8) Experts will often use additional methods to improve your website’s authority and visibility online such as professionally written press releases and articles. These are all proven techniques to improve your websites visibility online and will result in quality back links and traffic to your website.

9)The results of the campaign can be measured easily via real time website statistics software such as Google analytics. As such you will be bale to track and measure the performance of your search engine marketing experts with ease.

10) The benefits of hiring a professional company far outweigh the costs involved. The cost of professional search engine marketing service is in most case far lower than other forms of advertising and it offer a quick return on investment.

A full discussion on search engine marketing and web design strategies can be found on web design company blog

Search Engine Marketing and Your Site

Search marketing is now widely recognised as a highly effective way of reaching customers online. Last year, over £2 Billion was spent globally in online marketing and the figures are set to soar. More companies with an online presence are turning to search marketing to reach prospective customers, generate traffic to their site and convert them into sales. So, how does it all work? If you’re considering investing a percentage of your hard earned marketing budget on search marketing you should have a basic understanding of where it’s going and how it works. Most search marketing companies talk about improved web site and page ranking but what exactly does that mean? What you want is to increase traffic to your site, improve sales and raise the brand. How does that happen?

SEM or SM?

Search marketing which has now dropped the less glamorous “engine” from its previous industry name of Search Engine Marketing really consists of two disciplines – paid search and organic or natural search. Paid search is of course what keeps Google in hyper-growth or more specifically Google Adwords. In the UK we must not forget Yahoo Search Marketing (Overture), Miva and Mirago. These engines all enable advertisers to Pay-for-Position (PfP) or Pay-per-Click (PPC). It’s important to note that such marketing is a form of advertising and such adverts wherever they appear should be announced as “sponsored” or labelled as advertising.

Paid Search

The PfP networks mentioned above are referred to as networks because, in nearly all cases, their adverts are shown across a network of sites. The sites in the network depend on the relationship that the main ad technology provider has with search portals. For example, if you search for something on Google and look at the Google AdWords shown, you will see the same ads on Aol.co.uk. You may see some differences due to advertisers’ budgets causing fluctuations in impressions, but they are same.

Organic Search?

Organic search or natural search results are provided by crawling search engines – more on those later. The important thing to remember is that paid search is advertising and organic search is editorial. Well, that’s the analogy the search marketing industry uses to describe in Newspaper-like terminology the complex world of search. It’s a rather good analogy because it allows us search people to explain Search Engine Optimisation.

Organic Search and PR

So if you wanted to advertise in a national newspaper you could book it directly, use a media buyer, engage a creative agency and possibly a media planner. Well you can do all of that too with paid search. The management of paid search is big business. But what about editorial or those crawled results? Well to influence editorial, you might engage a PR agency. Of course a PR agency’s not going to guarantee front page news but it will devise a strategy and execute on it to get results. Well in the world of search, to try and influence crawling search engines and their organic results, you should consider Search Engine Optimisation and you might consider a Search Engine Optimisation agency. Another point for clarity, Search Engine Optimisation is a really bad term. You don’t and can’t optimise search engines you actually optimise the website you want to perform well in search engines. Unfortunately, we’re stuck with SEO and not a more logical name like “website search optimisation”.

The find, crawl, read, index and rank

At ivantage.co.uk we always think of “ranking” on crawling search engines as just one of four steps in generating traffic and conversions in the process of successful Search Engine Optimisation. Your site, like every other site, needs not only to be ranked by search engines but found, crawled, read, indexed and then ranked by crawling search engines.

The UK’s leading crawling search engines, spiders and robots

Notice I talk about crawling search engines. What on earth are these? Actually you’ll have heard of most of them, there really aren’t that many and certainly the only ones you need to worry about, as far as traffic is concerned, are Google, Yahoo, MSN, (Ask Jeeves) Teoma and Mirago. Each search engine generally has a portal component which is the bit consumers visit to conduct their searches and a crawling component called the robot or spider. So each of the search engines I mentioned above has its own robot, each uniquely named Googlebot, Slurp, MSNbot, Teoma and Henry respectively.

So how does your site get found?

Well, robots work by following links. So getting a link from an established site to your site is vital. You can also see if search engines know about your site already by using the command site:www.yoursite.co.uk in the search box at Google for example. This asks the search engine to retrieve all the pages it has in its database (or index) from your domain. This allows you to see which pages the search engines know about. If you are not listed you need to establish links – ask friends, colleagues and business associates and submit your site at DMOZ and the Yahoo directories (note this is different to the Yahoo search engine) . You can also submit your site for crawling at most search engines, but be aware; submitting for crawling is not as good and being found for crawling!

So, how about being crawled, read and indexed?

Well, again the command site:www.mysite.co.uk on Google and on other search engines can really serve you well. Have a look at what text the search engines are indexing and the see if the links work. This can tell you a lot about how well read and understood your site is. One of the most important things you can do to improve your search engine readability is to use a unique, descriptive HTML Title on every page of your website. Also use a Description and Abstract Meta Tag (information inserted into the “head” area of your web pages) and remember that Title and Meta tags have two purposes. The first purpose is to compel users to click through from a search page to your website. Such Titles and Meta Tags are often displayed to users using search engines and so using promotional text such as “Free Delivery” or real unique selling points entice users to click through. The second purpose is ranking – so use keywords in the Title and Meta tags that have potential to generate the right kind of traffic to your site, but match the content of each page.

So what’s the key to good ranking?

The key to ranking is a great site with great content and an enviable back linking structure that has been established organically because other site owners have felt it important and useful to link to your site. Search engines really look for sites that are part of a thematic community and sites that rank the best are those that demonstrate authority over their subject matter with important, fresh, content, referenced by other websites active in the same community.

Benefits of a Multi-Vendor Ecommerce Store

The ecommerce industry has made a remarkable progress by helping the customers in fulfilling their needs efficiently. However, with the increasing number of ecommerce retailers, the competition in the market has increased. Thanks to the development of technology, starting an ecommerce store becomes an easy task for the entrepreneurs who wish to enter the online retailing world.

But how to start your own online store?

You can either choose to build an online store for featuring limited products or choose to create a multi-vendor ecommerce store for higher ROI with the help of a huge variety of products.

The second option sounds more appealing which offers a better product choice to the target audience easily.

Let’s start with how a marketplace works.

A multi-vendor ecommerce store allows the vendors to manage their orders using a separate dashboard provided for them. All they need to do is list their products and start selling instantly. All the integrations and customizations are provided by the marketplace which saves extra efforts and time.

Now let’s see how building a multi-vendor ecommerce store is better than having an individual online store. Here is a list of the top benefits of having a marketplace

1. Better ROI- Generating a higher return on investment with the help of a specific set of products is always difficult as compared to doing so using a multi-vendor marketplace. Multi-vendor ecommerce stores have great potential of generating high ROI because of the variety of products and competitive pricing offered by several registered vendors. This is helpful for attracting customers who are looking for certain products and hence making a purchase.

2. No trouble with inventory management- Inventory management can be considered as one of the biggest pain for an ecommerce retailer. With a marketplace setup the owner need not maintain an inventory. Multiple warehouses are maintained by individual sellers in multi-vendor ecommerce stores scenario. Along with this, there is a number of delivery partners involved in the supply chain. Hence delivering products to customers can be done in a quick manner as it is not depended on a single warehouse.

3. Winning formula for owners, vendors, and customers- Marketplaces help the business owner in earning profits from the commission applied on products listed by the vendors. On the other hand, the vendors can directly earn a profit by selling their products at a multi-vendor ecommerce store which needs the least management from their end. At the end when it comes to customers, a huge range of products convince them to shop more and return to the store.

With all the plus points mentioned, choosing a marketplace can always be a wise option.

Ecommerce Solutions – Why Many Entrepreneurs Are Not Embracing It

I subscribed to my first ecommerce solution just over a decade ago. Yes, I am that old. Since then, I have subscribed to a few other ecommerce solutions. Some were good and some were not so good. I have even tried free ones but since I was running multiple stores, I decided to use a paid services for the convenience they provided.

Ecommerce solutions were not as easy or as feature packed back then as they are now. On the other hand, getting ranked on Google was way easier than it is today. During the late 90s, all it took was a little optimization and you would find your site ranked on the first page of Google within a couple of days. There was hardly any competition as many were under the impression that people took to the internet for research and not to make purchases.

Fast forward 12 years and things have changed so much. People are now using phones to make purchases. You would end up in a sanitarium for making such a suggestion all those years ago.

However, many entrepreneurs are still skeptical about ecommerce solutions. And they have valid reasons.

User Friendliness

With ecommerce software providers adding more and more features to their software, they face the challenge of making their software easy to use. Many first-time users find themselves overwhelmed by the multitude of features available and a large portion never recover from the shock.

To address this, software providers now take new subscribers or trial users through a series of introductory steps. Only after the basics have been covered are new users introduced to more features. This easing-in technique has garnered positive results so far.

Transaction Charges

Another obstacle which is a bane for many ecommerce entrepreneurs are transaction charges. Many entrepreneurs are put-off by transaction charges because they do not see the reason why they should share their profits as they are already paying a subscription fee.

Fortunately, just like with setup fees, many ecommerce software providers are slowly getting rid of transaction fees. Hopefully this will encourage more entrepreneurs to take to ecommerce.

Features Versus Benefits

When you are not familiar with the concept of ecommerce and online marketing, it is hard to see the merits of the features available in ecommerce solutions. Therefore, many entrepreneurs are unable to justify paying top dollar for software features which they see no benefit in. To some entrepreneurs, numerous features with unfamiliar names are just there to justify a higher price on the list of ecommerce plans.

Providers of ecommerce solutions have been aggressively trying to alter this perception for a few years now by providing information on the benefits of this features. Information relating to ecommerce features can be found on proprietary blogs, Facebook pages and Video sharing sites.

With all this information in place in various formats, entrepreneurs can not only learn about new features but more importantly, how to utilize them too their benefit.

8 Simple Steps To Improve User Experience On Your Website

When your users come to your website, you want them to feel as if everything works great, it’s intuitive, and as if you can read their mind. The first thing to do is research your audience and then test out different ideas based on the research.

Improve Your Load Speed

If your site takes less than a couple seconds to load, you’re golden. If it takes longer than a couple of seconds, people will not stick around to find out what is on your website. Likewise, if you’ve created software or other things for your audience it needs to work, and it should work fast if you want them to enjoy their user experience.

Optimize Your Menu Options

Too many choices will confuse visitors and probably make them not want to come back. Instead, lower your menu options on your homepage and use landing pages you’ve created especially for a particular audience to share with your audience in bios and elsewhere.

Use Leading Imagery

If you want your audience to look at something, lead their eyes toward it with visuals and directional imagery like arrows – or even a winding road that seems to point toward where you want them to go.

Don’t Forget Internal Linking

After every blog post or article your audience reads, they should be led via internal linking under the blog post, or even within the last paragraph of the post. Tell them that if they loved this information, they’ll love this other information too.

Check Your Sign-Up Process

Periodically review your sign-up process and the technology that exists to see if you can make the sign-up process simpler. For example, you can deliver a freebie to your audience without the double opt-in process, even though they’re going to be added to your list by adding the request for permission on the sign-up form.

Double Check Your Checkout Process

Go through checkout as if you’re a customer so that you can ensure that it runs smoothly, doesn’t ask for too much information, and puts the customer’s needs before your needs. The smoother the process is, the more likely it is that your customer will finish the transaction – and you’ll cut down on abandoned carts.

The Fewer Steps the Better

Remember that the fewer steps your viewer and potential customer needs to take, the better. If something can be accomplished in one click, that’s how it needs to be done.

Ask for Feedback

If you already have an audience, set up an autoresponder to poll your customers within a few days of purchase about how they felt about the website, the process, and so forth. Incentivize them with a coupon or a free product.

Understanding the GCC Market Structure

What is a financial market?

A financial market is a spectrum term which means a marketplace where buyers and sellers trade in assets in the form of stock, currencies and derivatives. The demand and supply forces determine the price of these assets.

Depending on what is traded, there are mainly two types of financial markets:

1. Capital market – where securities like bonds, stock, etc. are traded. They are for long-term investment.

2. Money market – where high-liquidity items like US Treasury bills, currencies, etc. are traded. They are for short-term investment with equal chances of big gains and big losses.

Why is financial market important?

The financial markets mobilize domestic savings and foreign capital for productive investments. The economic growth of any country depends on the efficiency of its financial markets. An ineffective financial market would mean that you are not exploiting all opportunities and an inefficient one will cripple you and not let you compete on a global scale.

Its level of sophistication:

• Encourages Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)

• Allows domestic corporations to raise funds for growth and expansion

GCC Market Structure Overview

Developing their financial markets has been a priority for GCC since 2002. Their vision has mainly been to promote the development of local marketplaces like UAE market structure and Kuwait market structure, and to make the GCC countries a financial hub in the region. With the oil prices dropping and the depletion of the oil reserves, the GCC region has no choice but to diversify its economy for a sustainable growth.

Current GCC Market Structure

The Saudi Arabia market structure, though solid (none of the banks collapsed in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis in 2008-09), still lacks sophistication. Most domestic companies even now use their retained earnings or traditional bank loans to finance their growth activities. When compared to their Asian and Latin America counterparts, the region forms only 0.8% of the global capital volume says a Deutsch Bank report.

The share of GCC countries is even lower with only 1% says an IMF report. The weak share of the UAE market structure is due to the government’s heavy engagement in the economic activities and the weak private sector.

In order to measure the financial marketplace development, the ratio of financial assets to the GDP is used. The GCC’s 0.8% share of the global financial market to its 1.7% share in the global GDP shows a skewed size of the financial sector.

The Kuwait market structure, however, shows that the financial sector plays a significantly higher role, 14% to be precise, in its share of GDP. For GCC, on a whole, finance chips in only 6% of GDP.

The current GCC capital structure shows that not only are the countries behind in terms of economic potential internationally, but also relative to the development in the region.

Identified problems with the GCC Market Structure

• High banking concentration, especially in the Saudi Arabian market structure, due to limited access for private players. Domestic and public monopoly has led to poor investment environment and restrictive policies. Gradually though, the policies are being revoked to encourage liberalization.

• The weak competition which has led to high prices, fewer varieties of financial instruments, poor services, etc.

• Stock markets in GCC have been far behind in terms of international standards with a concentration on the largest sector in Saudi Arabia. The stockmarket plays a major role in Saudi Arabia capital structure, contributing to 61% of the total domestic financial asset.

• Since it is easy to earn money from government projects, individual entrepreneurship is not supported and financial institutions do not play their part in allocating venture capital and risk.

Final word

Though the liberalization and privatization of the GCC market structure are already under way, the GCC region still has to go a long way. Based on an IMF report, they should focus on the following financial sector reforms:

• Strengthen demand and supply
• Reduce government participation and open up to foreign competition
• Enhance the bank regulatory and supervisory framework
• Develop efficient and effective capital instruments for financing

Digital Marketing Lessons From Yoda, Luke, Princess Leia & Han Solo

Marketing inspiration can be gleaned from many sources, and in this case, we look to the famed characters of Star Wars to help us on our way. Let’s review a few pithy quotes from likes of Han Solo, Princess Leia and the great and wise Yoda, and see how they might apply to digital marketing.

LESSONS FROM HAN SOLO

“Punch it.” Take your content to the next level, make it relevant and continually review and refine. In other words, punch up your content!

“Look, I ain’t in this for your revolution, and I’m not in it for you, princess. I expect to be well paid. I’m in it for the money.” Though most organizations are in it for the profit, the goal of many digital marketing campaigns is to establish credibility and to build an online rapport. This is especially true for considered purchase items. So… focus on educating and helping first, and selling second.

“Great, kid. Don’t get cocky.” If your business is growing nicely, now is the time to invest in new ideas, technologies and resources to continue that growth. Don’t get cocky and think that you can continue to sell and market the same way you did a few years ago (or more).

“Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.” Old school thinking may not appeal to your progressively younger buyers. Innovate and stay ahead of the curve. That said, we never want to use an email “blaster” mentality. Always follow email marketing opt-in best practices.

“Traveling through hyperspace ain’t like dusting crops, farm boy.” Email marketing to thousands of prospects list is a giant leap from a modest list of a few hundred. Keep this in mind when creating new, aggressive email marketing initiatives.

“Great shot kid, that was one in a million.” Any given campaign can prove to be a home run, but consistent, educational campaigns should be the goal for every business.

“Laugh it up, Fuzz ball.” It’s great to have fun with your marketing initiatives, but many B2B businesses should err on the side of professionalism with educational and relevant content. Explaining the origin of Foosball, or the best recipe for New England clam chowder in your business blog is unlikely the best way to engage your audience.

LESSONS FROM YODA

“Patience you must have, my young Padawan.” Marketing, including digital marketing, takes time and patience. Execute, Measure, Refine. Execute, Measure, Refine. There is no substitute for an experienced digital marketing professional. Don’t trust your digital marketing to a novice or treat it as a part time job to be completed by a salesperson, producer or account manager when and if they have time.

“Mmm. Lost a planet, Master Obi-Wan has. How embarrassing.” Though it must be very embarrassing to lose a planet, forgetting to include a working call to action link can be embarrassing too! Double check all your links before launching campaigns.

“You must unlearn what you have learned.” Just because something has worked in the past doesn’t mean you should continuing doing it in the future. Sometimes you need to step back and assess marketing initiatives, even if they’ve been successful in prior years and for many years.

LESSONS FROM LUKE SKYWALKER

“It’s not impossible. I used to shoot womprats with my T16 back home.” Laser like focus can be invaluable for marketing campaigns. Defining a target market, determining a buyer persona, creating a prospect scorecard and ensuring that your company has a robust prospect list are all crucial to effective and efficient marketing. Whether you’re targeting womprats or trucking executives, make sure you have the data and methodology in place when embarking on your next campaign.

I’m Luke Skywalker. I’m here to rescue you.” Are some of your marketing initiatives going so poorly they need to be rescued? How are you determining which plans need to be rescues versus those that need to be jettisoned? Marketing initiatives need to be reviewed on a regular basis, and culled when they are beyond rescue.

“I am a Jedi, like my father before me.” My father founded this company, so I’m going to run it the way he did. As companies transition from fathers to sons and daughters, there are important elements to keep, and many to throw away. When it comes to marketing, look at what has produced recent ROI, and look at innovative approaches for future ROI. A simple example might be the website your father (Jedi or otherwise) created ten years ago. It might have been great then, but the time has come and gone to create a new, mobile responsive website.

LESSONS FROM LUKE DARTH VADER

The force is strong with this one.” Once you earn a positive digital reputation, the force will be strong with your company, and can remain strong with high quality content and consistent communication.

“It is your destiny. Join me, and together we can rule the galaxy as father and son.” Though ruling the galaxy may be beyond the scope of your business, you can dramatically increase your book of business with innovative marketing initiatives, leading edge tools and the talent to execute them. Considering outsourcing certain marketing initiatives to compliment any missing in house staffing or skills. Outsourcing can be a more effective solution than internal staffing for many organizations, especially smaller businesses.

LESSONS FROM PRINCESS LEIA

“Help me Obi-wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope.” Though marketing can often be daunting for many companies, particularly small businesses, it’s not as hopeless as it might initially seem. And there usually isn’t just one silver bullet that will solve a problem(s), but rather many options which can provide successful outcomes. When initiatives are going poorly, start with the basics such as market, profile, persona, delivery options, etc. Use A/B split testing (or multivariate split testing) to better optimize messaging and calls to action.

“Aren’t you a little short for a storm trooper?” Just because your budget is small doesn’t mean it can’t be effective. For example, leverage less expensive tools and platforms to expand reach. Use LinkedIn long form publishing as opposed to paid press releases. Cross pollinate your digital content by using free or inexpensive social media platforms. Small businesses and startups can use sweat equity when they have insufficient capital available.

“I have a bad feeling about this.” Well this one seemed quite obvious. If you don’t have a good feeling about your marketing campaign or initiative, think out of the box (or “poke the box”) and try something new. How about whiteboard videos, or a social media based referral program, infographics for digital content, on demand webinars, a new app, or pod casts. There are so many tools and technologies available today, there is something for companies both small and large.

LESSONS FROM OBI-WAN

Strike me down, and I will become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.” If at first you don’t succeed, measure, refine (or overhaul), and execute. Repeat!

Marketing inspiration can be gleaned from both traditional and innovative sources. Businesses need to embrace innovative marketing ideas and new technologies. And if your business is looking to “punch it” when it comes to marketing, you may wish to consider outsourcing some or all digital marketing to a professional and proficient marketing agency.

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