Ad Impressions: Ad impressions are simply the number of times an ad is made available for consumers to view the product or service. These are also known as banner impressions.

Asset Protection: Assets protection is also known as loss prevention. Loss prevention is where steps are taken to stop or reduce the possibility of loss from shoplifting, employee theft, poor safety procedures, and errors in paperwork.

Business-to-Government: Business-to-Government, or B2G, is that the company’s primary focus is on working with government agencies. This can be at the national, state or local level.

Balanced Scorecard: The balanced scorecard is the strategic management system that is measurement-based. It was developed by Robert Kaplan and David Norton. The balanced scorecard aligns the business activities with the strategic goals, monitoring the performance of the goals over time. It also details what needs to be measured to ensure the effectiveness of the strategies.

CLV: CLV, or customer lifetime value, is the current value of the potential future income that is generated by an individual purchaser.

Co-op Advertising: Co-op advertising is also known as the Cooperative Advertising or Cooperative Program. The co-op advertising is the ad costs divided between two or more companies.

Depth of Assortment: This is the number of brands or styles within a product line or classification of merchandise, also known as product depth.

Fractional Tagging: This is where the EAS tags are applied to a percentage of units during production.

GAF: GAF is an acronym for General merchandise, apparel, and furniture. These are the items that stores sell which are normally sold at department stores.

Halo Effect: This is connected to the electronic article surveillance system in that people will have the perception that untagged merchandise is protected with the EAS, simply because other items within the store are protected.

Journal Roll: This otherwise known as the journal tape that is either paper or electronic, recording the transactions from the cash register.

Keystone Markup: Also known as retail pricing, the keystone markup is the equivalent of the cost of the merchandise and doubling it to determine the retail price.

Mazur Plan: This is where the retail store activities are divided into four sections-merchandising, publicity, store management and control.

Narrow and Deep: This is a sales approach where the retailer will only sell a few selected items but have a lot of the product available.

Objective-and-Task Method: A budget technique that relates the sales objective with the advertising budget. This is also referred to as the advertising budget preparation.

Push Money: This is the employee sales incentive in the form of cash premiums, prizes, or additional commission for effectively pushing or increasing sales for an identified product or merchandise.

Step Theory: The step theory is where a customer will go through a decision making process-attention, interest, desire and action.

Universal Vendor Marking: This is where manufacturers will pre-mark the merchandise that is easily read by both people and machines.

Variable Markup Policy: This is a policy that allows for adjusting markups that is based on a classification of particular merchandise.

Wheel of Retailing: Wheel of retailing is a theory that is used to explain the institutional changes that occur when innovators enter the retail industry.

If you are listing items one at a time, going page by page through the eBay program, this slowdown in your business life is even worse. While you may love the profitability of eBay, you may also wish for an easier, and less time consuming, way to take care of your online inventory.

Thankfully, there are many online tools to help eBay sellers through every step in the process. For many of these, you do not even have to waste time looking – they are available on eBay itself, in the Seller Tools section.

Here’s a look at five of the more popular online tools for eBay sellers:

* Turbo Lister – When you need to list a large number of items – and fast! – Turbo Lister may be the program you want to try. Turbo Lister allows the bulk upload of multiple items on eBay. Once you download the program, you will be able to put in all the information about your products from your offline computer.

Once they are ready to go, you can go online and have the system automatically upload the whole lot. In addition to bulk uploading, Turbo Lister also aids in customizing of your eBay sales pages to be more attractive to prospective buyers.

Turbo Lister is a free program offered by eBay.

* Selling Manager – Taking things to the next level is Selling Manger. This program comes into play when your listings are running and helps you keep an eye on them. From monitoring your listings to printing bulk invoices and shipping labels, Selling Manager can speed up the process.

It can also help you generate bulk feedback to keep your shoppers happy. Additionally, the program will help you get your items back on the market with bulk relisting of sold and unsold items.

If you have an eBay store, Selling Manager is free. If not, it costs $4.99 per month to use.

* Selling Manager Pro – In addition to all the offerings of the Selling Manager program, Selling Manager Pro offers bulk and automatic listing capabilities, as well as the ability to send automatic e-mails to your buyers when they purchase an item.

The system will also let you know when your inventory is getting low on the bulk items that you have listed. When it comes to paperwork, this program will print out profit and loss reports and offer sales data spreadsheets.

This program costs $15.99 per month – unless you have a featured or anchored eBay store, in which case it is included.

* Blackthorne Basic – For middle-level sellers that list at least 2-3 dozen items a month, Blackthorne Basic is a good option for all-inclusive eBay product management. Once the software is on your system it will become an all-in-one program where you can create bulk listings, watch those listings and sales and respond to your buyers.

Instead of having to sort through the pages on the eBay website for all these functions, Blackthorne Basic allows you to complete these tasks from an interface on your computer.

This system will also keep track of your customers’ information and allow you to customize sales reports at a price of $9.99 per month.

* Blackthorne Pro [link to http://pages.ebay.com/blackthorne/pro.html] – In addition to the offerings of Blackthorne Basic, Blackthorne Pro adds the feature of inventory management, so you will always know what is in stock. It allows multiple users to work on the system at a time. This program is primarily for businesses that have designated more than one employee to the task of listing items to sell.

Blackthorne Pro also offers upgraded design features to create listings that will stand out and grab the attention of prospective buyers. This program costs $24.99 per month.

Here are a few tools that the site offers that will help you analyze where your business currently stands in terms of being prepared to start a business as well as whether you are qualified for the 8(a) Business Development Program .

These tools have only been available for 3 months now and already the SBA says over 125,000 people have used them. Hopefully you will find them helpful as well!

There are a number of very good accounting software applications that you can buy and install on your computer. These are tried an true programs that are specifically designed to make your life easier when it comes to keeping the books.

But what if I told you that it could be even easier ? That’s right. You can save time (and maybe a little money) by using online applications to do your finances.

FreelancerSwitch reviews 7 of these bad boys so check em out!

The Small Business Association’s (SBA) Office of Women’s Business Ownership – For decades, the SBA has been helping entrepreneurs turn their dreams into businesses with education, financing and grants. Their Office of Women’s Business Ownership was created to specifically address the concerns and needs of women entrepreneurs.

WomenBiz.gov – Federal, state, and local government agencies purchase both products and services from companies small and large. WomenBiz.gov helps women-owned businesses win contracts with the government by using a five-step guide and in-depth information about applications, contracts, procedures and pricing. If you have ever thought about selling your company’s products or services to the government, then this is the absolute best website to help you win a government contract.

WomanOwned.com – Since 1998, WomanOwned.com has been one of the front-runners in providing information and networking opportunities to women business owners and entrepreneurs. You’ll find information on almost every small business subject, as well as plenty of online tools, resources and forums. This is one of the most information-rich websites available to businesswomen.

Digital-Women.com – With over 16,000 members, digital-women.com is a popular website for information on small business financing and grants, and home business ideas. There is also a busy forum full of chat-ready women entrepreneurs – a great place to ask questions and share ideas!

WomensFranchises.com – If you are thinking about buying a franchise , but aren’t sure where to start, then look no further. This is the site for women interested in franchise ownership. You’ll find a complete listing of the top and newest franchise businesses, as well as interviews with successful women franchise owners.

American Business Women’s Association (ABWA) – Founded in 1949, the ABWA is one of the oldest and most respected associations for women. The goal of the ABWA is to help businesswomen network, as well as grow professionally through education, leadership and national recognition. You’ll find plenty of in-depth information on how to become a successful business leader in your industry.

The above links are filled with information that can help your business all the way from start-up through maturity. Most of the information and resources available are free and designed to help women entrepreneurs become empowered through educational, financial and networking opportunities. There are also plenty of other resources for women entrepreneurs on the web, so if you haven’t found what you’re looking for from the links above, more information is just a click away!

Using the Right Tools

Effectively coordinating a sales force requires powerful tools, and the right contact management software can be one of the most powerful weapons in your arsenal. Whether you want to streamline communication within or among departments, develop better reporting, more accurate forecasting, or more effective time-management, pertinent up-to-date information is a keystroke away.

You may want to send automated e-mails, produce mailing lists, generate automatic reports, or your goals may be as simple as just accounting for everyone’s time. Regardless of the scope of your objectives, contact management tools can help you develop or streamline your operational, analytical, and collaborative efforts.

Operations

Automating critical sales tasks like forecasting, tracking, lead management, and quote management standardizes processes and improves efficiency. Information entered once can be accessed many ways to develop precise, effective, reports that can be generated on the fly. Information can be sliced and diced, and even exported to other tools like Excel or Word and used for other purposes.

Analysis

Powerful analytical tools can enhance your efforts at cross-selling, improving customer satisfaction, optimizing pricing, and discovering new markets. Analyzing trends can also help in reducing customer attrition.

Management

Tracking performance-related issues on a daily and even hourly basis is easy, allowing management to make pinpoint decisions about staffing and related issues. Relevant reports can be developed and generated quickly and accurately, offering concrete insights that can help improve performance and be an invaluable training tool.

Think About the Future

If you think that your organization is still small enough that you don’t need to worry about contact management tools, consider what would happen if the one or two key sales people you rely on leaves the company. Will you have the information and tools available to recover? If you get that big contract or customer you’ve been working on, will there be a structure in place to provide excellent service and support? Will you have the tools necessary to make the best benefit of the resources available to you? Answering these questions will tell you a lot about the strategies you need to employ as you grow your company.

Whether you are making forecasts, planning on increasing staff, changing your product offerings, or exploring new markets, contact management software can be the critical element that helps you succeed.

If your goal is to stay a step ahead of your competition, improve your sales, or streamline reporting, the best way to increase your bottom line is to know what’s happening in your organization. The more knowledge you have, the better you can respond to changes and challenges. Contact management software is one of the best ways to gain intelligence on how your business is working today, and how to make it work better tomorrow.

Knowing your market is an essential facet of online business. It may be true that the Internet offers the world’s largest customer base, but in order to take advantage of this webmasters and e-store owners need to do their research. As an e-commerce entrepreneur (as with any business owner) this includes researching market trends to find the most viable and profitable products.

What Is eBay Pulse?

eBay Pulse is a service offered by the eBay website. It provides figures and trends pertaining to the most popular and the most sought after items on eBay. Even if you do not intend to sell any items on the auction powerhouse itself, this tool can provide invaluable and insightful information into the most popular products.

Accessing The eBay Pulse Website

Access to the Pulse section of eBay is simple, although it is important that you work predominantly with the site specific to your country because trends do vary. To view the main Pulse site the address is www.pulse.eBay.com. For other countries simply replace the .com with the appropriate top level domain. For example, to view the latest trends for the UK you would visit www.pulse.eBay.co.uk.

Finger On The Pulse – Popular Searches

Popular Searches is a list of the items that have been searched for most frequently, and are calculated according to the number of searches conducted. This gives a good indication of the number of people looking for a particular item. If you are considering selling on eBay then you should conduct further research, including the kind of price that these items sell for, the most successful listing keywords, and more.

Finger On The Pulse – Category Selector

In order to dig deeper into the bowels of eBay searches there is a category selector at the top of the page. This drop down menu includes a substantial list of categories that you can research. Once you have found a category that is most closely related to your area of business, select it and wait for the page to update automatically.

For instance, if you choose the Crafts category, you’ll see the most popularly searched items on eBay that fall within that category. Clicking the Category selector again gives potential subcategories related to Crafts items. This enables you to further delve into the popularity of items that are being listed on eBay.

Finger On The Pulse – Largest Stores

On the right of the Pulse screen is a pane that displays the largest stores. Again, when you first log on to the Pulse site this list will be populated with the most popular stores over the entire eBay site. Once you choose a category, the list will then be populated with the largest stores within that category, or subcategory.

The Largest Stores figures are determined by the number of active listings, and do not account for sales or any other figure. While these can be used as a guide to the kind of item that others believe will sell, they may not provide an accurate assessment of the actual items that will sell.

Finger On The Pulse – Most Watched Items

One final, and potentially useful, section of the Pulse website is the “Most Watched Items”. When you first visit the Pulse page and no category has been selected it is more than likely that this will be filled with cars. Cars and other vehicles are typically the most watched items, barring any major events or news coverage for specific items.

As with the other sections of Pulse, though, once you have selected a category or subcategory the information becomes more precise and more beneficial. This can help track down more expensive or rarer items that fewer people search for, but still generates a lot of interest from those that view the item.

Combining Pulse With Other Research Information

The information contained in Pulse is obviously limited but it does have its uses. If you intend to sell any of your own items on eBay then it can provide an excellent pool for research. Even if you have no intention of eBay selling it can still provide an insight into the items that people are currently searching for within your given industry. Never use Pulse trends alone to determine a sales plan, or any other business orientated plan. Instead, combine it with other market research you have managed to gather and create a much more powerful campaign.