Web Profits Blog

Archive for December, 2009

Are you thinking of losing weight? Are you desperate to return to the weight of your teens? It is essential that you do not be discouraged as there are some great ways that are available so as to help you lose weight. I am not even speaking about the drastic diets but of a modification in lifestyle. The aim of this text is to offer you more information on this topic to assist you take the best potential decision.

The first thing that you would think of controlling is your eating habit. Individuals sometime do not care about what they eat and they are amazed afterwards about the excess pounds. I know individuals that rush to work in the morning without taking time to consume their breakfast. You will never be capable of losing weight if you continue skipping meals. Truly you should in any event jump your breakfast if you desire to lose weight. You should adhere to a balanced diet for all your daily meals. For those that want something that is a bit more radical then you might consider the Atkins diet. You can discover a lot of resources on this diet such as atkins weight loss online and should be interesting for you to check out.

It is also important that you get a lot of physical exercises. I am sure that you have all heard of the necessity of having physical exercises but really how many of us actually put this into practice. It will not be sufficient for you to monitor what you consume as you will be required to ameliorate the burning of calories also. This is where exercising may come in handy. There are several articles on the net that proposes info on exercises and should be worth taking a look. You can follow us at our French web site on exercises (maigrir tres vite ) if you wish to find more on this.

Do you know that treatments such as thalassotherapy can also be useful or weight loss? There are in truth some people that claim that thalassotherapy can be helpful for weight loss. In theory such treatment can ameliorate the metabolic effect thus assisting your body lose weight. Moreover thalassotherapy can assist your body eliminate all the toxins thus making you feel better. French readers that want to read more on the location of thalassotherapy centers can take a look at this article on thalassotherapy (thalassotherapie maroc ) as it holds some fascinating information.

To the opposite of what many individuals consider weight loss should not always be a painful experience. Indeed many individuals think that to lose weight you will have to go through all the drastic diet plans that exist but this is not constantly the case. What you will require is some dose of perseverance and some motivation. This is the only effective way that exists so as to lose weight.

An economic recession is normal because it is part of the business cycle. This usually happens after the economy recovers, expands and then slows down again which usually last for 2 to 4 consecutive quarters.

Unlike the four seasons we experience every year namely spring, summer winter and fall, this does not happen annually. The last time we had to deal with this was 8 years ago and during the early 1980′s.

The indicators which the economic experts look at to tell if something is wrong include consumer spending, the unemployment rate, industrial production, real income and wholesale trade. To help stimulate the economy, the Federal Reserve lowers the interest rate.

Unfortunately, this does improve the situation overnight and since it takes months before we are able to see any improvement, we have to do our share to cope with the current situation.

People will have to tighten their belts, which means buying items only when it is necessary. A good example is food since we need this on a daily basis. If there are other companies that offer similar services at a lower rate, it will be a good idea to switch as well.

Another thing most people will need to do is trade in their large vehicles for those that are more fuel efficient. This is not surprising because many have already done so even before the economic slowdown because of the increase in price per barrel of oil.

Businesses on their part have no other recourse but to slash jobs in other to stay in afloat. The bad news is that you just increased the number of people who are unemployed.

So should companies slash jobs? Not really because if the company focuses more on customer service, lowering their price points and making reductions elsewhere, customers will still patronize their business. When the current situation improves, the price of these goods and commodities can go back to where they were before.

Is an economic recession all bad? The good news is no because it opens a lot of opportunities for people who have money. For instance, investors will be able to borrow money at a low interest rate from the bank and people will be able to bonds, properties as well as stocks at very affordable prices.

But this is something that not everybody will be able to do. Instead of saving money, some can make money on the side by offering their skills to others.

An economic recession comes and goes. It does not happen only in the US but in Europe and Asia as well. Many experts believe that the current economic recession happening now will have an impact elsewhere and they are right because the European Union has finally admitted that they are currently experiencing a slowdown.

Since you are not sure if an economic recession will affect you or not, it is best to be prepared by paying close attention to your personal finances. You should learn to save up by putting your money in the back, investing in things that will have good returns in the future and not buying items which you know you can’t afford. If you need help, hire a financial planner to help you out so you are sure that if the inevitable does occur, you are safe.

We write tips on how to help you save money. Synthetic Oil Reviews is one site that does that.Please take a look at that website to help save yourself a few bucks

With frightening increase in amounts of pollution and diminution of forest resources, people are increasingly becoming eco-friendly with great zeal. Making use of green office furniture is one of the newest steps in this regard and it can go a long way in building an environment friendly business.

Establishment of modular offices can go a long way in conservation of environment. As these offices have lesser material needs, they don’t result in several trees being cut down . Less material not only implies less trees felled, but also means lesser costs borne by companies to set up these offices. Modular offices are quite cost effective, and their rents are lower as they cover lesser floor area.

An office that uses reusable or used furniture makes an excellent contribution towards ecological conservation. This kind of furniture normally requires only small alterations and suits the needs of most offices perfectly. Because of the present economic recession, many organizations are out of business and are auctioning their furniture at very low rates, which presents an excellent chance to save office expenditure. The non-renewable resources of the earth are preserved by use of such furniture, without sacrificing on quality and comfort.

Even new furniture can be as eco friendly as second hand one if you are aware of some key considerations before making a purchase. The new furniture must be manufactured from reusable materials and must be manufactured close to the office location so that long-distance transportation is not necessary, which otherwise can cause potentially harmful emissions.

Never buy furniture with foams whose production has released poisonous chemicals like CFCs into the air, which are notorious for depleting the ozone layer. The wood for the products that you purchase must not have come from delicate forest ecosystems. Finally, you must keep in mind that you should not use more furniture than you require, as being wasteful is one of the worst things that you can do to the environment.

Discover more about the best Interior Designer providing an entire spectrum of Interior Design services.

Finding the appropriate dentist for you is very important . A great dentist hears your concerns eagerly and explains the best choices for you. It will be very important if you select a dentist who has the same point of view as yours.

Find a dentist that can intelligibly explain your problem and available options to you. A dentist should establish a good communication between him and his patient. The dentist should lay down all the advantages and disadvantages of the alternatives he is showing to you. If the options for you has some problems, a dentist should give you supplemental treatments.

Look for a dentist that has knowledge to new developments in dental field. The dentist should go to seminars and conferences about new techniques and technologies in his field in order for him to become conscious on the drawbacks and benefits of the changes in the dental world.

You should also look at the equipments, techniques, and materials used by the dentist. See if the dentist uses latest equipments and most updated techniques in his dental services. Have a look inside his clinic. A good dentist should maintain a clean environment and uses safety materials such as mask, gloves, and sterilized instruments.

Choose a dentist that maintains a complete dental and medical record of his patients. He should know whether you are taking medications and what it is for. He should be conscious of his patient’s general health condition because dental works can trigger certain health conditions.

You should also ask the dentist’s expertise. Most dentists do not execute specialisation processes such as root canal or oral surgery. Many dentists practice basic oral cleaning, dental restoration, and crown works. If your dentist does not perform specialisation dental services, ask him for a recommendation.

Learn more about the qualities of a good Dentist and discover more about dental Braces for a beautiful smile.

Economic times are tough for most businesses and individuals these days. The world’s current economic climate has made it more difficult than ever to succeed. Most small businesses go through difficult stages of development, particularly during their first three years of operations, but these days, nearly every potential customer has a tighter budget due to the current economic crisis. That means that in order to thrive, a business must have an edge to succeed in the marketplace.

Small businesses require a guiding hand to ensure that they are making sound business decisions based on strong strategy. A specialized small business coaching program will keep you motivated, focused, and poised for success in this difficult time. Your company can succeed in this crisis, or it can fail, based on your management decisions — a small business coach can make all the difference in helping your business survive!

Perhaps surprisingly, only approximately 30% of intended business strategy emerges into reality. If you do not utilize the proper goal setting and motivational techniques, and achieve real focus on your intended strategy, you may be among the 70% of businesses that do not achieve their objectives.

However, if you learn how to implement sound business strategy to achieve operational efficiency, your chances of success increase dramatically.

An experienced business coach will teach you to create a strong strategy and implement it with success. A small business coach will teach you to utilize strategies such as proper goal setting, mission creation, motivational tactics, and strong human resource techniques. In short, a small business coaching service will help you get the most out of yourself, and your staff.

The first thing that you need to consider is the mission of your business. In order to create a strong strategy with your business coach, a mission is required to begin to create some clarity.

If your company does currently have a mission, re-examine it and make sure it fits with your current business ideas. A small business coach will help you ensure congruence between your mission, strategy, and management techniques.

Make sure that you remain focused during the current economic crisis. Small business coaching techniques will help you create a plan based on proven strategic models, ensuring that your intended strategy emerges into a reality.

If you know there is more you need to do to help your company reach it’s fullest potential, a small business coach will work for you to get the results you need! If you are an entrepreneur or business manager needing to get a leg up of your competition, use a certified executive coach to get move your business to the next level!

While in a lot of other areas legal intervention is needed only after disputes crop up, a patent lawyer is useful from the time you start thinking about applying for a patent. The primary duties of a patent lawyer are to assist clients obtain patents, recommend measures to secure the patents and if required, defend the right of the patentee in case of an infringement.

The patent application and registration process is generally a very time consuming and tedious one. Hence, the necessity for an expert and knowledgeable lawyer is felt keenly. However, before you actually select and engage a lawyer, you should assess his experience in dealing with patents, and if he’ll be able to understand the creative work that you are patenting. For instance, a lawyer who hails from a field like software, may not be very knowledgeable about the patenting needs for medical products.

A second point that you must think about is the success rate of the lawyer you wish to employ for patent application submission and related processing. If you can review information about how many patents that have been given to clients of the lawyer then you will have a sufficient idea of his capabilities. By doing this, you can determine how effective the lawyer is and if you have a high likelihood of success in your patent application because only a competent patent lawyer can make sure that your application does not have any errors.

Of the number of upcoming lawyers in the industry who deal with patents, it should be an easy task to identify one who is competent enough to deal with your needs and whose charges are not too expensive.

Moreover, you should also try to stick with the same lawyer right from the filing stage to licensing and promotion of your product or idea, as this lawyer would be aware of the intricacies of your patent, and he or she will be much more successful in handling any legal problems that might arise at a future date.

Discover more about Trademarks and learn how does an Patents protection increase the net worth of your business very fast.

When we talk about property, it is not only the tangible things such as homes, structures, land, currency etc that are protected by law. Other kinds of property which are non- material in form also exist. They are termed intellectual property and these are also protected by the law. The three main types of intellectual property rights are patents, trademarks and copyrights.

Copyrights are intellectual property pertaining to rights of the creator over his or her original creation. This right may be awarded for songs, films, videos and other types of creative expressions and not only the literary or published material. The copyright accords the sole right of ownership over the piece in question besides rights to get financial advantages resulting from the work.

Trademarks afford intellectual property privileges which aim at preventing duplication and violation of graphical representations registered by someone for his own products, and they help a customer easily tell the source of a product. They safeguard the trademark owners from being economically exploited by unscrupulous elements.

The third kind of intellectual property right, termed as patent, safeguards the rights of inventors in their novel and beneficial invention. A patent is valid for a predefined span and allows the holder exclusive right to use and commercially exploit his or her invention.

Some other, less often enforced intellectual property rights are also safeguarded by the law. Some examples of other kinds are traditional understanding cultivated by natives of a specific region that is distinctive only to that area; trade secrets that include business secrets, for example, KFC’s recipe; and positional pointers that are a variant of trademarks used for products arising from a specific part of the world, for instance Champagne.

Though these forms of intellectual property are separate from each other there are certain commonalities between the three. All three are fully admissible under the law and the rightful owner can take legal recourse to enforce his right and claim reparation for any misuse.

Discover more about Trademark Registration Singapore and discover how does an Intellectual Property protection increase the net worth of your business very fast.

If you focus on event photography you can make quite a bit of money. It is a varied and widely sought after field of photography.

Here’s how you can do it

The key trick is in choosing your market slice. You must choose a slice of the market where people want to keep memories alive in print. It must also be an event that is hard to capture for a not professional so that they will need your services.

One idea is to go to kids sports events. Get permission from the coach to click pics for the parents watching and then start clicking away. If you turn up with a huge telephoto lens like the ones used for pro coverage of events, you will be taken seriously. Make sure you get all the kids doing great action shots and then hand out flyers to all the kids’ parents watching with your web address. If you can get hold of the parents email address so you can email them the URL of you site then upload the pics to your web site that day and email everyone. If you have a simple shopping cart set up you can make money in a few hours as people pop in to see the pics and buy them for $20 or more a pop.

You can do a similar thing with weddings. Take all the normal shots as part of the wedding coverage but then get your URL printed on the wedding invites and all the other wedding materials and also get an email list of all the wedding guests, offer the couple a nice 20% discount for doing this and then take lots of extra pics at the wedding of the guests doing all the things they do. Upload all the pics to your site and send the emails. You will then make a lot more money than the 20% discount it cost you because then 30 or 40 people will be also buying your pics at $20 or more a shot straight from your site. Charging a higher price for high res pics is also a great money spinner.

The key is to just find a corner of the market where you can take the pics and then sell them easily online.

Dog shows, fashion shows, horse shows, car shows, livestock competitions, rock shows, – the list goes on. Keep your eye out in the events section of your local paper to see what is happening. Always ask for permission to shoot pics and if you need to offer the people 10% of the income if feel you need to so you can get easy access.

Discover more out about Singaporean Event Photographer who are also on of the top Wedding Photographers.

categories: wedding photography,entrepreneur,ebusiness,photography,events,photographers,hobbies,arts

A rich man born out of giving!

There is a Japanese folk tale about the power of giving and it exemplifies how we can get the most wonderful of gifts when we’re gifting things to others and are positive about what we have already got.

Here is the story.

Once upon a time, there lived a young farmer of very modest means. Whatever he tried to do did not find fruition and he always remained penniless. He was completely broke without any money, without any food and with no relatives. So one night, totally despondent, he went to a temple and sat near the altar begging the Gods to show him a way.

“I have always been sincere and industrious, but all my industriousness never became beneficial to me. Where have I gone wrong?”

He fell asleep near the altar just after he put the question. When he woke up in the morning, he saw in front of him one of the Gods he had seen in his dream, with a bright golden light around him. The God’s voice reverberated in his mind.

“When you wake up in the morning, cherish what you have in your hand and go on giving it to others liberally as you proceed,” the God commanded.

The farmer woke up. He still had many questions jumping through his mind but he lifted himself up and tried to shake off the strangely vivid dream he just had. To his surprise, he saw a piece of straw in his hand. Maybe it was on his clothes after the long day of fieldwork.

He was about to throw the straw away, but remembered what God had told him. Once again he sat down. Then he looked curiously at the bit of straw.

He sat still for a long time thinking what this meant. He had no clue why a piece of straw can be of any value to him. Then he saw a wasp flying around. It eventually landed on the tip of the straw. He caught the wasp and tied it to the straw with a piece of thread from his clothes. Now with a piece of straw with a flying wasp at the end, off he went on the path.

He had only walked for a few minutes before he saw a little boy and his mother coming from the other direction. The boy was crying. As he said hello, the boy noticed the wasp moving on the straw that the farmer was holding. He stopped crying and asked for the straw. The farmer nearly declined but then he remembered about the God’s message that he needed to treasure what he had but also remembered that he was to give it away to others. So, he offered the straw to the boy. The mother was very appreciative as now the boy stopped crying and began smiling. The mother offered the farmer three tangerines.

The farmer moved on. As he proceeded, he felt hungry. He was about to eat the tangerines when he again remembered that what was important was giving things to others, not giving it to himself.

He had to climb a steep hill and there he saw a trader sitting on the earth under a tree. Near the man was a wooden box. The farmer wished the trader who seemed to be very tired. The trader saw the tangerines the farmer had and asked if he could have them. The trader said he was very thirsty.

The farmer was also quite thirsty having walked for a long time during the heat of the day but he offered all the tangerines to the merchant. The merchant ate the three tangerines and regained his strength. He was very grateful for the kindness of the farmer and opened the wooden box next to him. There were rolls of hand dyed silk fabric. The merchant handed him one roll, thanked him and walked off.

The farmer walked again and continued on the same path. After a while he found a river from which he drank water. He felt recharged. He went forward with more energy and a feeling of ease.

He walked for some more time but did not come across anyone else. He felt that the silk might be that which would bring him something good. So he chose to go to a town in the vicinity and trade the fabric.

But just as he went around the corner, he saw in front of him a band of fighters. One of the fighters who looked liked the head of the band stood near a horse that was lying on the earth. The farmer heard the leader talking to his men.

“This horse would not last long. We just have to leave it. Just take care of it and catch up.” He jumped up on another horse and galloped off disappearing out of sight.

The remaining soldiers were left discussing what to do about it. They were reluctant to kill the animal but they did not have much of a choice. At last one of them took out a sword.

The farmer pleaded with them not to do that. He said he was ready to look after the animal. He said they can have the bolt of silk for letting him care for the horse. They agreed to the deal and left the place quickly.

Now the farmer stood there with a dying horse. He thought he might have made a mistake that after all he was not meant to be wealthy. Then he remembered something. There was the stream he’d just passed.

He made his way to the river and once there stripped off his shirt and dipped it in water to be able to feed the horse. He made his way back to the horse again and fed it by squeezing out the water into its mouth. After the water trickled in for a while, the horse reacted and soon became conscious. The farmer was then able to pull it up and make it stand.

Once the horse could stand, the farmer was able to take it to the river. The horse drank directly from the river and the farmer also led it to the patches of grass nearby. Very soon the animal was rejuvenated.

So now the farmer owned the horse! The man and the animal traveled together, and the farmer had to run as the horse led the way. They traveled together for miles. Finally, as the sun was setting, the horse came to a halt in front of a big house. The animal pushed the farmer towards the gate when he finally drew level with it.

As the farmer made his way to the gate, all of a sudden the gate opened and an old man was standing there. The man looked drawn and he was hastening out onto the road. The old man took notice of the farmer as well as the animal standing nearby.

The old man asked the farmer what he was doing. The farmer said he was looking for a place to stay the night. The old man said he was going to the town for an urgent matter. He asked the farmer if he minded looking after his house until he returned. He said he might not be able to come back for a little while.

Since the old man appeared to be in a hurry, the farmer said that he can use the horse. The old man felt glad about the gesture and accepted the offer. He left with the horse but before he left told the farmer something strange.

“If I do not return within three years, this house is yours.”

As you perhaps inferred, the old man did not return.

So the farmer lived happily ever after in the old man’s big house with kind-hearted neighbours around and a land rich in good crops. He always kept in mind the rule that he should give to others what he had.

Thank you for going through this story. And what is the message that it contains?

Perhaps there is a secret to things. When we can turn the business of getting into the business of giving, our life gushes forward with greater plentitude. Still it might not be easy to incorporate into practical life this age old wisdom.

Here are some of the interesting distinctions we can find in this story :

* When we are willing to provide what others want, their value for it enhances more than when we are trying to ‘barter’ it (as mostly we hope to get something out of it) since they compare the price with what we expect for it and would obviously pay less.

* When we are not attached to the things we have, we often find that we attract better opportunities as we can let go of existing ones.

* When life seems to deal us a bad hand, instead of focusing on the problem if instead we focused on giving and caring, life seems to end up bringing better luck later.

* When we try to encash what we have created, believing that “this is the maximum it will bring”, as we think we might be the loser if it is not turned into cash, our life will stagnate. Instead of that, we should continue to give liberally whatever we have got and however wealthy we are or we are not.

Giving is intrinsic in the lives of many who have made it to the top. When giving is done first, we are better able to lead a life of grandeur, comfort and glory.

Find out more about how Buy1GIVE1 (BOGO) can transform your business using Cause Marketing.

Definitions of some English words can change quite rapidly these days. In the recent past the meaning of words was often very fixed. Today the meaning can change in the blink of an eye. With faster and newer ways to exchange ideas such as Twitter and with wider and more culturally, socially and educationally dissimilar groups connecting together – words are put back on the anvil of evolution and changed into something new and more reflective of current life.

There is a growing significant movement happening global where consumers are asking businesses to look after the things they care about such as the environment and the less fortunate in society. The request is still mainly tacit and despite it being an ironic request it still signals we are in a time of great change. Consumers these days want their ‘toys’ but they don’t want the environment to be destroyed in the creation of these. They want cheap products but they do not want workers to be paid a pittance to create the cheap products.

There may not seem an answer to this complex puzzle and yet one actually exists. It exists in the reforging of a simple single word – GET. Today there is a new movement of people wanting to get but give at the same time and they are reforging its meaning into the word GIVE.

Every day I receive a notice from Google Alerts for two words – B1G1 and BOGO. It tells me all the new places that these words are being used on the Internet. I can now see that the new meaning of these words is coming alive ‘poco a poco’ [Italian: poco, little + a, by + poco, little].

The B1G1 and BOGO acronyms both stand for Buy One GET One free. You buy one and you get given an extra one for free.

If you look on Wikipedia you will find these definitions for BOGO (there isn’t a definition yet for B1G1) -

* An acronym in the retail industry that stands for Buy One Get One. For example, you could say “Buy 1 DVD, Get 1 FREE!

* An acronym in slang British that stands for Britons Of Greek Origin or Greek Britons.

* Bogo, Cebu, a city in central Philippines.

* Norway, a village in Norway.

* Norway, a village in Norway.

* The mascot of the ITESM CEM.

* BogoMips, an unscientific measurement of CPU speed

* Bogosort, an ineffective sorting algorithm

BOGO lights

There is a business in the USA called SunLight Solar founded by Mark Bent. He has created a special torch that not only is an amazing and sturdy solar-powered light; his company also gives a free torch to those in need in developing nations for each one bought. If you look on their website you will learn about their “BOGOlight”.

“The BoGo – our Buy one/Give one – program has successfully provided lights to many, many thousands of people in the developing world, changing lives because of your purchase and participation.” – BOGOlight.com

Mark Bent has managed to flip the meaning of the BOGO acronym upside down. For Mark along with thousands of his customers, BOGO now means Buy One GIVE One. A light is given whenever one is sold. Now each sale supports people in remote parts of the world who don’t have the benefit of electricity. They can now tap into solar power support themselves.

There are many other well known and many less well know businesses doing Buy One Give One giving, or transaction-based giving as its becoming known. Some of the famous companies are OLPC – One-Laptop-Per-Child and TOM’S Shoes. Some of the less well-known ones (in the US at least) are based in Oceania and the UK – Earthstar Publishing, Maple Muesli, Blinds Couture, Figure 8 Body Chains, Sunsplash Homes, Honestly Women magazine and Thavibu Gallery based in Thailand are just a small handful of these special businesses that are leading the Buy One Give One movement.

Many Buy One Give One businesses are uniting under the common banner of Buy1GIVE1 run by a social enterprise based in Singapore. Buy1GIVE1 is the home of transaction-based giving. Any business based anywhere in the world can now start doing Buy One Give One giving with ease. It is becoming like a ‘CSR plug-in’ allowing a business to instantly start giving from each and every product or service sale, starting from just one cent. And it is no longer about giving an equivalent product to someone else; instead it is about contributing to a project that resonates with a company’s activities. So for example a restaurant can feed a child, a TV manufacturer can give a cataract blind person the gift of sight (Get Vision-Give Vision), a magazine publisher can plant a tree for every subscription and a builder can build a low-cost family home for those in need (Buy1BUILD1) – the list is endless.

There is something very special happening these days as more and more people are switching to giving and what are known as ‘citizen brands’ as a part of their everyday experience. In the 2008 Goodpurpose study of global consumer attitudes it reveals that almost 68% of consumers would choose to remain loyal to a brand during an economic downturn if it supports a good cause. And 71% say that when they think about the economic downturn, they have either given the same or more time and money to good causes. This study also highlighted some other key points as well such as:

* 52% of consumers globally are more likely to recommend a brand to others when it supports a good charity cause over one that doesn’t.

* 54% would sing the praises of a brand to promote their products if there was a good cause behind it.

* And going even further globally, consumers are voicing a strong desire for marketers to connect their brands to social causes or action. Forty-two percent say that if two products or services are of the same quality and price, commitment to a social purpose trumps factors like design, innovation and brand loyalty when choosing one product brand over another.

Transforming Getting into Giving

In the minds of consumers, Buy One GIVE One is expected to replace Buy One GET One as the new global giving movement led by Buy1GIVE1 spreads. Certainly with the massive sales results and consumer demand shown for companies like BOGOlights, One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) and TOMS Shoes, this tide will continue to spread and grow.

I did a recent Google search to find the top 25 keywords associated with the keywords BOGO and B1G1. The results were interesting indeed seeing none of them contained the word Give. You can see the results below. It will be interested to repeat this experiment in 12 months time to see what changes. Consumers are now starting to drive significant change and despite them wanting to receive free gifts (as in traditional BOGO/B1G1), they equally want to help others and the environment. This feeling is validated by 2008′s Goodpurpose global study.

Here are the results:

Free, networking, boots, groups, music, dallas, togo themes, wallpapers, buy, applications, skins, values, coupon, African, gift, photography, blogging, discount, sharing, shopping, pics, join, prose

Transactional or transaction-based giving

Unlike normal charitable giving Buy One Give One giving is transactional. What is meant by that is: every time you buy something you give something. In the case of SunNight Solar they give a physical light for every light sold. In most cases, businesses that become part of this special form of transaction-based giving, give in a different way. At Buy1GIVE1, giving can start from just USD 1c contribution per sale. At this amount no business in the world can say they cannot give and 100% contributed goes to the cause.

The amount of money that is contributed isn’t the focus with Buy1GIVE1 transaction based giving. The focus instead is on the story and sharing the simple joy of giving. After all, if you think that 1c isn’t a lot to give and would not make much of a difference think again.

From its origins in Ethiopia, where the main coffee production is still from wild coffee tree forests, coffee consumption has spread throughout the world. Today Brazil is still by far the largest producer producing an average output of 28% of the world’s total coffee. Brazil produced enough coffee in 2006 to make 216 billion four hundred million – 216 400 000 000 – espresso coffees. If we calculate that across global production then we get a daily global consumption of around 2,117,416,830 cups of coffee. The figures are hard to find but let’s guess that 40% of the world’s coffee is sold in coffee shops then we would get that 846,966,732 cups are sold commercially each day globally. This would equate to about’5,485,714 cups in the USA alone seeing they purchase around 21.9% of the world’s coffee beans.

If we considered the impact of the coffee industry alone taking up Buy1-Give1, imagine now that for every cup of coffee sold a child in a developing region like Sub-Sahara Africa received clean drinking water from a well and it only costing 1cent to do this. Surely any coffee shop could afford to contribute this amount from the sale of a single cup of coffee. Imagine the different that this one action alone would make in the world.

Transactional giving is the story of the thousand-mile journey starting with that first single step. Digging a well costs a few thousand dollars so it’s a big barrier for communities in developing nations. However if you break the cost down it only takes the sale of a cup of coffee to give clean water to a single person for a day1. This is the power of transactional giving. It is like the compound interest of giving – a little turns into a lot very quickly.

Of course any company anywhere in the world can apply transaction-based giving to any of their products or services and do it on their own as some are like TESCO in the UK giving school uniforms to kids in Africa from every uniform purchased in the UK. And yet if companies choose to come together under a commonly recognised banner they have a greater effect. The ripple that one company creates adds to that of another and soon the tidal wave of change flows out into the world benefitting all the companies in the movement. This is the power of giving and doing things together.

The final power of Buy One Give One transaction based giving is that everyone wins – the consumer wins – at no extra cost to themselves they have made a difference through their purchasing choices – the business wins in so many ways – and the worthy cause or charity wins because they can now receive small amounts from many sources all aggregated and paid as a lump sum from a single source if done through the Buy1GIVE1 service.

A new start – a new world – new thinking

If you go and check Wikipedia.com today for the word BOGO you should find that a new definition has been added. It’s time for a tide-change – a change from focusing on GETTING to working with GIVING. I added this small addition to Wikipedia’s BOGO definition: “… an acronym in the marketing industry that stands for Buy One GIVE One.”

Simply imagine our world where every time you go and buy something you give something automatically and seamlessly – giving a gift forward to someone in greater need than you. This is the simple joyful magic of transactional giving.

This is the world I want to be part of.

Just remember – you don’t ‘get’ giving till you get giving.

References:

http://www.buy1-give1free.com/index.php/Partnering/Worthy-cause-charity-projects.html

http://www.buy1-give1free.com/index.php/Partnering/Worthy-cause-charity-projects.html

http://www.goodpurposecommunity.com/

http://www.coffeepoet.com/2007/09/

http://www.scfnw.org.uk/site/article183.html

http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee

http://www.coffeepoet.com/2007/09/

Footnotes: 1 The daily cost for clean well water per person is calculated by taking the average cost to dig a well then dividing that amount by its average expected life without major maintenance then divided it by the number of people in the community benefiting from the well on a daily basis.

Find out more about how Buy1GIVE1 (BOGO) can transform your business using Cause Marketing.