Environmental laws and regulations have not kept pace with the enormous rate of growth of the cruise industry. One set of regulating guidelines is called MARPOL (International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships), a set of standards for all ships to follow regarding the discharge of certain substances and for the building and maintenance of ships and their equipment. Another law governing cruise ship operations is the Clean Water Act, which prohibits the dumping of any pollutant within three nautical miles of the United States and prohibits the discharge of oil and other hazardous substances within twelve nautical miles. The second of two multimillion-dollar criminal fines against Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines originated from direct violations of the Clean Water Act. Another of the U.S. laws instrumental in governing cruise ships is the Federal Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships, which incorporates many of the MARPOL provisions. In 2002, Carnival Cruise Lines was found to be in violation of this law for flushing clean water through sensors instead of bilge water. Two more recent regulations are Title XIV of the Labor, Health, and Human Services Appropriations Bill and the International Safety Management (ISM) Code. Title XIV, signed and passed in 2000, requires the Coast Guard to develop monitoring and reporting programs for all ship discharges and authorizes the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish “No Discharge Zones.” The ISM Code, passed in 1998, is an international standard requiring cruise ship owners and operators to establish safety management systems that include an environmental protection policy with procedures for pollution prevention. Alhough it is not responsible for criminal charges or fines directly, a ship must be certified through the ISM in order to be eligible for insurance.

Several types of pollutants are associated with cruise ships. The first is black water, the sewage from toilets and urinals aboard the ships, and it is estimated that a typical one-week voyage generates as much as 210,000 gallons of black water. Despite strict regulations about the treatment of black water, wastewater expelled from the ships into the sea has been found to contain high levels of fecal coliform bacteria.

A second type of pollutant is gray water; the waste from sinks, showers, galleys, and laundry facilities. The one million gallons of gray water generated on a one-week voyage often contain such contaminants as soaps, detergents, cleaners, oil, grease, metals, pesticides, plastics, hydrocarbons, and even large amounts of fecal wastes. This waste can legally be dumped anywhere, even though the EPA says that gray water may have adverse effects on the environment that are as great or greater than those of black-water waste.

A third type of pollutant includes paint, maintenance materials, and the hazardous waste that comes from the ship's photo-processing labs and dry-cleaning facilities. The chemicals that are produced can be extremely toxic and can have serious adverse effects on the environment. Yet another type of pollutant is solid waste, including food, plastic, paper, wood, cardboard, cans, glass, and other material typically disposed of as garbage. A one-week voyage on a typical ship generates eight tons of garbage, and ships often directly violate the strict disposal regulations by dumping the garbage at sea. One ship, the Ecstasy, was found to have dumped 16,000 pounds of garbage at sea.

A final type of pollutant is oily bilge water. The bilge is the lowest point in the ship's hull, where the seawater that seeps into the ship is collected and then pumped back out into the sea. On a typical one-week journey, a ship produces 25,000 gallons of bilge water, and oil from the ship's machinery gets into it. On many occasions, the Coast Guard has been able to prove that ships bypassed antipollution systems, falsified oil record books, and dumped oily bilge water into the ocean.

Of the eighty-seven confirmed U.S. illegal discharge cases, 93 percent (or eighty-one cases) were brought for discharging oil or oil-related chemicals, whereas the remaining six cases dealt with the illegal disposal of solid waste. Royal Caribbean pled guilty to a twenty-one felony charges in one $18-million decision in 1999, only one year after pleading guilty to other criminal charges resulting in a $9-million fine. The $18-million Carnival Cruise Line case was settled on April 19,2002, after Carnival pleaded guilty to criminal charges related to the falsifying of oil records on six of their ships. Holland America Cruises plea-bargained for a $2-million judgment in 1998 after discharging oily water in Alaska's Inside Passage. Seven other cruise lines have also faced criminal fines in the past twenty years, including Norwegian Cruise Lines ($1 million in 2002), Palm Beach Cruises ($500,000 in 1994), Princess Cruises ($500,000 in 1993), Regency Cruises ($250,000 in 1993), American Global Lines ($100,000 in 1994), Ulysses Cruises (two $75,000 fines in 1997), and Seaway Maritime ($75,000 in 1997).

The International Council of Cruise Lines (ICCL), an agency designed to keep member cruise lines in compliance with industry regulations, claims that there has been vast improvement in pollution prevention among member ships. In 2001, the ICCL announced that it had adopted mandatory environmental standards for all members, which covers, but is not limited to, gray-water and black-water discharge, hazardous chemical waste, unused pharmaceuticals, used batteries, and burned-out fluorescent or mercury vapor lamps. Ships must comply with these new standards in order to maintain or gain membership in the ICCL.

Globalization has radically reshaped the industry especially in nations where domestic manufacturers have been under intense competitive pressure from offshore producers. As the Original Equipment Suppliers Association has put it: “More than ever, automakers are drawing on suppliers around the globe, shuttling parts across borders in search of lower prices and higher quality.” In earlier times independent parts suppliers were physically closer to their customers, rarely more than a day's drive away. In the global economy of the twenty-first century distance is not a barrier if your product is low-cost, meets industry quality standards, and can be delivered at the agreed-upon time. In fact, more than 20 percent of the auto parts produced in the world are exported from their country of origin to customers in other markets around the globe, primarily the United States, Western Europe, and Japan.

During the period from 2001 to 2005, auto parts exports across the world grew at an average annual rate of 12.7 percent reaching $220 billion by 2005 and more than 20 percent of global auto parts production. Emerging economies-Mexico, Brazil, Romania, Slovakia, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, India, and Taiwan-accounted for 29 percent of 2005 exports, their sales growing at a much faster pace (20.1%) than exports from established industrial nations.

Based on figures assembled by the International Trade Centre (ITC), foreign competition has had particularly negative impacts on U.S. auto parts producers. Until 2003 the United States was the world's leading exporter of auto parts. By 2004 it was second to Germany with Japan close behind and France, Canada, Italy, and Spain coming on strong. ITC is a joint technical cooperation agency of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the World Trade Organization (WTO).

At the same time, U.S. auto companies dramatically increased their parts imports. Japan is the leading vehicle and parts producer; but unlike Germany and the United States, which are leading parts exporters as well as importers, Japan is only fourteenth on the list of importers. Japan relies more heavily on its domestic parts industry largely a result of its keiretsu structure under which manufacturers maintain exclusive relationships with their independent suppliers. According to the more comprehensive import/ export figures of the U.S. Office of Aerospace and Automotive Industries (OAAI), U.S. imports of automotive parts were $95.2 billion in 2006. Exports totaled $58.9 billion-producing a trade deficit of $36.3 billion. The 2006 deficit was lower than the year before ($37.1 billion) but still triple the $11.7 billion deficit reported in 1999. This reflects the continuing difficulties of the domestic auto parts industry, as outlined in the March 2007 U.S. Automotive Parts Annual Assessment of the OAAI, as their major customers continue to lose market share; costs of raw materials keep rising; the domestic Big Three (Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors) demand price and cost cuts; and foreign competition grows. “However,” observed the report, “as transplant automakers (U.S. operations of foreign manufacturers) increase their presence in the United States, foreign-affiliated suppliers also increase their presence to supply the automakers, creating equipment and jobs in the U.S. economy.”

Shrinking Domestic Sector

Employment in the U.S. auto parts industry has been eroding. Parts producers employed 920,000 in 2000 and 721,900 in 2006 according to data provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), a part of the U.S. Department of Labor. The number of participating companies has also been declining. In fact, as OAAI reports, “industry analysts predict that, of nearly 800 major suppliers in 2000, fewer than 100 will be left by 2010 as a result of bankruptcies, mergers and acquisitions, and migration to other industries.” In 2005, for example, there were thirty-two mergers and acquisitions, up from twenty-six in 2004. In 2006 another eight major suppliers filed for bankruptcy. The employment figures are especially troubling in view of the fact that “Automotive suppliers are directly and indirectly reported to account for more jobs and provide more economic well-being to more Americans than any other manufacturing sector,” according to the OAAI.

In some respects, the auto parts supplier industry is repeating the history of the industry it serves, but in a different form. A report in the May 1996 issue of Ward's Auto World presaged this trend in recounting historical highlights of the auto parts industry: “In the beginning, suppliers such as Henry M. Timken, Arthur Oliver Smith, Albert C. Champion, and the Dodge and Fisher brothers sold parts to the early automakers that they designed and manufactured themselves. Later, the automakers bought out some of these suppliers so they could control the parts that went on their vehicles. Meanwhile, other suppliers joined forces to create larger and more capable companies.

In the 1990s, automakers are returning design and engineering responsibilities to suppliers for the components and systems they provide. Will automakers eventually return to vertical integration? That's not likely, say industry watchers, but the trend by larger suppliers to acquire smaller companies to give them systems capability and global presence closely resembles (automotive) industry history.

The report goes on to quote David E. Cole, director of the University of Michigan's Office for the Study of Automotive Transportation, to predict that “there won't be a wholesale return to vertical integration,” although consolidation among Tier 1 suppliers takes the place of vertical integration from a historical perspective, which is essentially what has been transpiring. This has been a major factor in the decline of the number of major U.S. suppliers.

Major Product Categories

The auto parts industry produces a wide range of products, in effect all components of an automobile except its body and its tires. The sector is so diverse, in fact, that in reporting on it the U.S. Bureau of the Census breaks it apart into eleven separate industries which, in this presentation, we treat as nine major product groupings. The product array is presented in Figure 7, displaying category shares as percent of the sector's shipments in dollars.

Ignoring the All Other category, which includes a great multiplicity of parts, the largest category in 2005 was transmissions and power trains, the smallest automotive air-conditioning systems. In the combined carburetors, engines, and parts industry, carburetors represent 7 percent, engines and parts 93 percent of the total. Within the lighting, electrical, and electronics category, automotive lighting is 14 percent of the industry and all other electrical and electronic components 86 percent. Shares of the components have remained roughly the same over time with small changes between 1997 and 2005. In 1997, for example, transmissions and power trains were 17.2 percent, slightly smaller than in 2005. Similarly the carburetor/engine category was 15.9 percent in 1997 and 16.6 percent in 2005.

The All Other category includes filters, exhaust systems, wheels, bumper assemblies, automotive frames, fuel tanks, radiators, doors, sunroofs, air bag assemblies, and many other componentry that do not fit readily into other major categories.

Designers need materials and equipment to fabricate prototype athletic shoes that build on advances in three primary areas: biomechanics, the study of human move ment and related forces; physiology, the study of the integration of the body's energy systems and responses to environmental stresses; and sensory/perception, the subjective evaluation of product attributes such as cushioning, flexibility, stability, traction, and durability.

Design prototypes are fabricated in-house. Prototypes are laboratory tested for cushioning, flexibility, stability, traction, and durability. Athletic shoe companies buy machines to test seam strain, adhesion, heat absorption, and water permeability. Durability tests are important as they provide a benchmark, a method to determine under identical conditions how one shoe compares to another. Durability tests are repeatable, and data acquisition systems can accumulate performance information. Athletic shoe companies buy machines to simulate specific conditions such as toe drag on a tennis shoe. Gait equipment is used to study the overall performance of the athlete in the shoe and the forces the lower extremities encounter. In addition to laboratory tests, prototypes are tested by actual athletes before shoes go into production overseas. Nike has a nearly 13,000 square feet design department referred to informally as its Innovation Kitchen on its 175-acre headquarters campus. One wall displays every Air Jordan model ever made. Nike design materials include high-speed video cameras that capture soccer kick data at 1,000 frames per second and a scanner that produces a perfect 3D digital image of any human foot in just seconds. Nike testing surfaces include a huge section of regulation maple basketball flooring, artificial soccer turf, and a 70-meter running track. In 2001 Nike used the equipment to design and introduce Nike Shox, a system of columns of engineered foam that provide superior cushioning.

Other materials needed by the U.S. athletic shoe industry are computers to track the complicated worldwide supply chain. Since 100 percent of athletic shoes are imported, primarily from China, all key U.S. players have manufacturing operations abroad. For example, in 2004 Nike had 900-plus supplier factories in fifty countries. All players need materials to build top-flight information systems to handle logistics and to manage the supply chain. Nike, for instance, designs and launches 120,000 products in four cycles per year. Nike spent $500 million in 2004 to modernize its technology system to track supply chain operations as it moves goods from its 900-plus factories to retailers. The $500 million helped Nike get products to customers faster and cheaper. Lead time for getting new sneaker styles to market was cut from 6 to 9 months.

Because 100 percent of athletic shoes are manufactured abroad, and because Nike controls an estimated 50 percent of the U.S. sporting goods market, in the late 1990s Nike was criticized about sweatshop labor conditions in China and Vietnam, the low-wage countries that produce 65 percent of its footwear. Business Week reported that by 2004 Nike had a staff of close to 100 inspectors to visit factories, grade them on labor standards, and work with managers to improve problems. Nike's staff performed 600 factory audits between 2002, when it built up its in-house monitoring staff, and 2004, including repeat visits to those with the most problems.

 

• Are Your Creative? If so, decide on a Brand Name
• Web-Marketing
• Generate Income by Selling-
• Promote, Promote and Promote

Remember this may not change for a long time so decide your brand name carefully and stick to it.

 Set aside an estimated amount for Printing Business Cards, Business logos and Office Stationary Requirements. You may want to hunt the market for Small On-sale or Cheaper Stationary and Printing shops to begin with but always make sure you invest in good quality as this represents your professionalism. 

Begin by marketing your Business on line with a business website.

If you gain traffic there, then surely you will have customers wanting to know more. See how you can sell on line before you go ahead and actually open Office.

Remember this is your Business so you may have to delve in Sales.

Try setting timescales for your sales, similar to commission targets for Sales Executives. Even a small revenue can fire-start your Business so get involved in direct sales.

Let the word out, pass information along to friends, neighbors and family.

If you have a blog, announce it there and keep your Audience regularly updated with events, promotions. Refer Testimonials from your Clients and users of your products.

Know your market Value

Now that your Business is up and Running, stay in control. Many Business fail due to lack of proper planning and unclear perspectives. Keep up to date by reading about your industry. Bookmark some business news and Business Tips sites.

 

 

In 1994 the United Nations classified tourism into three forms: domestic, inbound, and outbound. Domestic involves residents traveling within their own country, inbound invloves non-residents traveling within the given country, and outbound involves residents traveling in another country. By combining the three basic forms of tourism, the UN derived different categories of tourism: internal tourism, which comprises domestic tourism and inbound tourism; national tourism, which comprises domestic tourism and outbound tourism; and international tourism, which consists of inbound tourism and outbound tourism.

France, particularly because of the city of Paris, is believed to be the most visited country. In fact, the Eiffel Tower is the fourth most visited monument in the world.

• The Eiffel Tower, Paris, France
  
  

Other European countries that are often visited by tourists are Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Germany, Greece and Poland. As we all know, Europe is the smallest continent in the world but it is the source of today's civilization. Therefore, it is quite common to find European places of interest.

• Zaragoza, Spain
  
  
• The Houses of Parliament
  
  
• An autumn view of part of the Alps, Switzerland
  
  
• Hamburg, Germany
  
  
• Parthenon on Acropolis in Athens, Greece
  
  
• Krakow, Poland, One of Europe's major tourist destinations, and UNESCO World Heritage Site
  
  

Other places in the world visited by tourists are the United States, Australia, and some countries in South America like Argentina and Brazil.

• Disneyland, California, USA
  
  
• Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
  
  
• The Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia
  
  
• Bariloche, Argentina
  
  
• Iguazú Falls, Argentina / Brazil
  
  
• Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
  
  

For travelers tourism is usually an exciting experience. It is a real opportunity for him or her to learn about a different culture. For instance, someone who thoroughly visits Greece before studying about it in History will understand what he or she studies much better than someone else who does not.

Business people obviously benefit a great deal from foreign travelers. Hotels, especially the ones located in city centers, dramatically increase their income. Stores, particularly the ones that carry souvenirs, often experience a sharp upturn in their sales. Businesses that provide transportation, such as cruise ships and taxis, are also in a better shape when there are more tourists, as they are usually the ones who mostly use them.

As a result, the governments of the countries visited by tourists should obtain a monetary benefit from tourism as well: the consumption of goods and services by tourists generates a larger amount of income, which is to be taxed at a higher bracket, and unemployment rates frequently decrease in times when the economy is prosperous. What is more, there is an assumption that tourism is vital in some countries, as they are likely unable to survive without it.

Considering the advantage of having a more powerful economy, inhabitants of countries that are constantly visited by tourists are to rejoice. Someone from that country who is not financially capable of spending on tours abroad should feel that he or she has the opportunity of learning about another cultures. In addition, hearing about the impressions foreigners have of one's native country is likely to spawn a better sense of appreciation for it.

Meanwhile, it appears that some environmentalists have claimed that tourism causes some fair share of disturbance to the country's inhabitants. Pollution and damage to some valuable sites are often blamed on tourists. In my opinion, however, this problem could easily be resolved - of course, I admit the possibility of being wrong. It is a fact that tourism calls for carefulness, protection and vigilance, but I would regard it as an exaggeration to say that it must be stopped altogether. As an alternative, the level of control on tourism activities could be increased somewhat.

It has also been reported that some people don't appreciate having tourists in their native countries. This is usually because they prefer tranquility. Saying that one is to ignore those people would be very rude, impolite, and selfish. A way of compromising with them should rather be sought.

In conclusion, I understand tourism is a very appropriate and exciting way of entertainment. People mostly benefit from it. Control in an attempt to prevent some problems from happening, as well as to minimize the disturbance of some people, is welcome and, perhaps, necessary, but, by no means, should tourism be discontinued.

There was a time when the lament of those who embraced our connectedness to the planet resonated in the words of a favorite frog, "It ain't easy being green". What a relief to no longer have to deal with the dismissive "tree hugger, greenie" comments, hippie peace signs or eye rolls when innocently asking "Do you separate glass and plastic?". The union of a green personal and professional environment is beginning to take hold.

Our collective environmental consciousness has been raised, and it IS socially acceptable to be green,to practice green,to think green. In fact it is COOL!

The slippery slope of this social awakening is that if GREEN is only cool because of the social climate and economic pressures driving us to seek alternatives to our previous lifestyle choices, "Greening" runs the risk of becoming just another fad; a saturated concept that burns itself out in a few years. Then we will loose more than a great buzz word, a visually slick campaign or a catchy logo... much more. We simply can't afford to create another "Flower Power", "Generation X" types of marketing employing buzz words that burns themselves out from overuse or stagnation.

As advertisers, marketers and media leaders, we drive and shape the thinking of the planet. Our responsibility, indeed our challenge is weighty... To create "sustainability" for the "brand" (life as we know it) while our "Target", KENT or consumer (M/F, all socioeconomic levels, all educational level, age 0 to 100) come to grips with the realization that the "sunshine yellow" and forever blue sky "land of plenty" attitudes of our past must blend together to create a true, substantial GREEN LIFESTYLE.

The opportunity to facilitate global awareness,empower positive change,and enhance the "shades of green" that are part of this metamorphic period and personalize "environmental consciousness" are as rich, dynamic and essential as any message we have ever delivered, maybe more so. Our industry is in an awesome position to do that. The question is do we have the awareness,passion,commitment and creativity to do and most importantly, carry through? We must decide if we are fueling a movement or shaping a lifestyle. Shaping takes leadership. We begin leading with a look inward at our own organizations, carbon footprint, environmental impact and wanton wastefulness? 

Shifting the focus of environmental consciousness from "anywhere out side my door" to everywhere I interact (whether at home, in my car, at my workplace or in my recreational activities) is a fundamental. As we collectively burst foreword from the "chrysalis of separation" we have built between ourselves and our natural world, will our energies prove to be an extension of our own awakening, or another brand slogan with a hot logo?

Happily, there are a few advertising agencies and industry leaders already taking the point. They've been drawing the solid line between individual personal commitment to environmental changes and their business practices. Creating global impact one sphere at a time. 
Forging a union of green practices that include virtual officing, minimization of environmental waste, smarter and more efficient use of resources...without sacrificing delivery of superior advertising for the client. Some of the obstacles are daunting. Some of the changes are tough to get used to. But adaptation is key to survival.

Finding the motivation to take action has become, by necessity, an easier first step. Confronting the challenges of changing time honored practices and traditions are not for the weak of heart. Finding the fortitude, guts, courage and vision to create change, even when the urgency is so pressing, takes a bit more. It takes a united vision, collective study, innovative thinking, committed passion and a daring to believe that each individual CAN make a difference...this time "they" can't do it without "me". Thanks to the "Hippie Tree Huggers" who are already a distance down the road, we aren't blazing entirely new trails.

Never before has a species been able to foresee the potential for it's own extinction with such measurable and predictable clarity. Never before has a species been able to so clearly articulate and comprehend the interdependence of all life forms; one to another and all to the planet that sustains them. Through scientific study and technological advances we are.

If science and technology are the eyes that can most clearly see the perils and possibilities, media is the mouthpiece that can deliver the message of sustainability, redefine environmental conscious and facilitate a union between the green movement and the green lifestyle. And we can.

If we fail to break out of our cocoon of "made by man"; fail to universally reintegrate ourselves with our natural environment; fail to act swiftly, deliberately and personally, fail to embrace every technology, tool and opportunity available to us; fail to re mediate the strain we've placed on our resources, ecology and diversity; we will emerge from out metamorphosis to an unrecognizable, flightless world.

Although I had a good job and the promise of a rewarding career in the future, every morning I felt like a slave to a system that demanded so much of my time. Caught in the maze that I had indeed created for myself, it seemed like there was no escape. But then I had an epiphany, and I put the monotony of that hard life behind me, forever.

First I should say that I'm still a mom, and I still work hard, but gone are the dreaded hours sitting in traffic and the boredom of my old job. My children are happier now, and we spend infinitely more time together as a family. And no, I didn't drop off the grid to live on a commune - I still live in the same house, and I still put in 8 hours a day, same as before, but now I wear comfy clothing and walk my girls to school in the morning. Now I leisurely shop for clothes, take photographs of my finds, and work for a few hours at the computer in the afternoon. And I waste time watching the money come in.

I started my eBay business in January 2007 operating under the user ID Attic*Industry. My target market: twentysomethings with fat wallets and an avant-garde sense of style. It started innocently enough. I bought a mouthwatering flocked 1950's vintage prom dress for $50.00 at a thrift shop in Kingston, Ontario. The dress was gorgeous and I just had to have it, even though it was obvious that it would never fit me. The anguish of spending fifty precious dollars on a decoration for the inside of my closet got to me in a matter of hours, and it was then, for the first time, I considered an ecommerce solution: eBay!

After snapping some digital pictures of the dress, I wrote a passionate, detailed description for potential buyers. I had no difficulty getting my very first item listed on the eBay website; I already had a PayPal account, and so before I went to bed that night Attic*Industry was open for business.

Day one was an eye-opener. You know that famous quote from Ray Kinsella's Field of Dreams, “if you build it, they will come…?” These words came true online. The bids came fast and furious, and from all over the world. On day seven the auction closed and I realized a profit of $310.00. My love of good quality vintage clothing was no longer a burden to my bank account - now it was a terrific boon.

After dabbling for six months and seeing my sales grow exponentially, I decided it was time to put my executive career on hold and sell vintage clothing online full time. After only four months I became a respected PowerSeller with stellar feedback, and in August 2007 I was selected as a finalist for eBay Canada's Entrepreneur of the Year. I can proudly say that I've sold beautiful clothes and fashion accessories to hundreds of people on six continents in over two dozen countries, and all with zero negative feedback.

The good news for you is that the internet is still accepting applications for the next ecommerce success. With eBay the start up costs are minimal. Equipped with a nine year old digital camera, no knowledge of html and no budget, I entered the marketplace and experienced no difficulties finding buyers for my goods.

Top Tips For Selling Online

1. Research your market

   Recognize what buyers are looking for, and how much they will pay for it. Learn to identify what's common and what's rare. Make yourself an expert in one or two categories, and develop the ability to spot each specimen's unique "hidden qualities." This means reading support material, articles and blogs and spending time on eBay watching popular auctions close to learn the true prices of things.

2. Develop exclusive sources of merchandise

   Once you've experimented with online sales and sold off some things you've had lying around the house, you must find the courage to shop for more stuff. "Merch" is what they call it in retail sales, and acquiring good quality unique merchandise is the downfall of many ecommerce businesses - everything from sales tax, broker's fees, transportation and the price of gas will cut into your bottom line. To shop smarter, you have to use the computer. Smart shoppers use their computers to select the best hunting grounds, find parking, and even the cheapest place to buy fuel, in advance.
   
   If you are like me and you buy and sell vintage clothing and fashion accessories, you'll shop at charitable second hand stores like Salvation Army, Value Village, and Goodwill. Use a local search service on your computer to find other discount retail outlets that are liquidating terrific merchandise at rock bottom prices. I use Poynt on Microsoft® Windows Live Messenger�,,� or AIM® to make a map of such stores in my area. Powered by Yellow Pages in Canada and Superpages.com in the United States, Poynt is a great tool for finding used clothing stores outside trendy overpriced neighborhoods. Enter keywords like "second hand", and "used furniture" and "used electronics" and click on the pins as they appear on the corresponding Microsoft® Virtual Earth scalable map interface. Poynt is a whole new way to economize shopping. Another secret: hit the "print screen" button on your computer to screen grab the image and make a handy map to print or send to friends.

3. Get a merchant account

   Get this at PayPal to safely and easily accept payments from your buyers. PayPal was bought by eBay almost five years ago and has since become the ubiquitous payment standard - the word PayPal is now used as a verb. “I'll send the dress when you PayPal the money.”

4. Shoot crystal clear photographs

   Make sure you include at least three different angles of each item you are selling. Amateurs, photograph the objects outside during the day against neutral backgrounds.

5. The online world is a small

   Do unto others as you would have them do unto you: be honest about your merchandise and ship items quickly.

6. Stay focused and don't give up

   It WILL be slow at times, but a consistent presence is always key to building your profile as a reputable business. Remember this is a business, and just like the bricks and mortar firms on main street - you have to keep the shop open and lights on, even if people don't step inside the front door.

7. Be Passionate

   I have found that the more adoring I am, the more expressive I become. Every article of clothing that I truly love seems to benefit from my descriptive praise and enjoys a higher than average final sales price. So be expressive. Use your vocabulary and instead of labeling something "blue", call it “sapphire,” and instead of saying that something has a "tight fit", why not write that it “hugs curves for maximum figure enhancement.” You get the idea.

8. Keep costs low

   When shopping, make sure not to overpay. That $50.00 dress I mentioned at the beginning of this article was an anomaly for me - most times I don't pay over $15.00 for anything.

Lastly, I will write the greatest secret of all - social network your business online as you quest to become an expert in your field. Keep my tips in mind but go forward boldly and indulge your passion, be it for baseball cards or butter churns, glass eyes or rare car parts. Ask yourself: what is stopping you from becoming the next eBay Powerseller?

According to Dan Hawtof, VP, business intelligence for iSuppli Corp, OEM outsourcing to ODM and EMS providers will grow at a CAGR of 12.5% compared to 6.5% for the electronics industry as a whole. But things are not as rosy for this services industry. While their revenues have seen strong growth, increased competition from other low cost countries is giving this industry a run for their money. Material costs now account for a lions share of the manufacturing costs for EMS vendors and whats more, the days of sub-$1 rates even in Chinese SEZs is a thing of the past.

ODMs on the other hand are at a better position as far as backward integration is concerned. HTC and BenQ are prime examples of corporations that were originally ODMs but then snapped up capabilities through acquisitions and are now major players in the mobile phone market.

By moving up the value chain, these service providers are targeting the profit share of their customers by providing value added services, advanced processes and design capabilities, primarily acquired through inorganic growth. This has allowed many such ODMs to present themselves as a one-stop shop for everything starting from market research and conceptualization of new products to warranty and repair services, thereby reinforcing the globalized business model for their multinational clients.

The India story in EMS is still to pick up from "potential" to execution. While mature EMS and ODM providers such as Flextronics and Jabil Design Services are fast ramping up their India operations to provide end-to-end solutions particularly hardware board design and software developement, there is still a long way to go before full-fledged product development can be executed. Jabil, for instance has acquired Celetronics and Philips India's manufacturing operations to reinforce its offerings. But other than that, according to Jayaram Pillai, managing director, National Instruments, India, "not many companies in India have product design knowledge". The lack of established compliance engineering and testing facilities to develop environmentally profitable products is also hampering business. While companies like MindTree, Wipro, Sasken and HCL are trying to convince their clients to transfer the entire design activity spectrum and sometimes "product ownership" to them, the real challenge will lie in changing the mindset.

Chinese service providers are reeling under global pressure due to IP violations, uncertain RoHS rules, stringent Chinese market requirements, poor manufactured material quality and shrinking cost-advantage. There is a window of opportunity for India to capitalize on future demand. With global majors like Flextronics, Motorola and Texas Instruments creating the right R&D environment, companies like D-Link designing and manufacturing products entirely out of India, growing household incomes and growing domestic demand here, the only weak link is the supply of materials which tie up 80-90% of the costs. The mantra: competitive supply chain, logistics, infrastructure and a rational duty and tariff structure. The same old buzzwords which only lack political resolve and public-private partnership. But with $160-170 billion at stake, it is worth breaking the shackles and seizing the opportunity.

The domestic market in India itself is a huge untapped opportunity and design and manufacturing service providers will do well to adopt a “Blue Ocean Strategy” to exploit this potential and steer clear of competition using “value innovation” and employ this to the benefit of their client brands. India's EMS/ODM market is set to double by 2011, according to market research firm In-stat, and China is likely to suck in at least 76% of the business with Thailand and Vietnam emerging as credible contenders. The key is to look into the Indian hinterland, the way China Mobile did in the Chinese mobile market. The retail boom in India presents enormous prospects. Large retailers like Big Bazaar and Reliance Retail are moving away from traditional OEMs and are tying up with EMS/ODMs to offer private labels that provide low cost alternatives to costlier brands, with effective on site sales and support. Retailers look at "defining gaps and opportunities", customizing existing offerings to a subset of their more relevant features for the average buyer. Private labels like Sensei and Koryo for instance have been a big hit at Big Bazaar especially with lower middle class segment customers. Though they have been lagging behind bigger brands in terms of growth but the rules of the game are yet to be written. Tie-ups with Indian design and manufacturing houses is therefore a more feasible and “blue ocean” strategy that can better understand and serve the Indian consumer.

It is just a matter of time before we see improved conditions and an ecosystem for product development. The challenge again will be in changing the mindset as stated by Subroto Bagchi, Gardener, MindTree Consulting (in a different context)… “upping the engagement" and "changing the dialogue".

It usually begins quite naturally. An entrepreneur decides to make garments for sale to try to make an independent living. Obviously, such an independent thinker might also want to embellish such garments to set them apart in some way to give them a competitive selling edge in the market, so they go out and buy some dye to experiment with.

The entrepreneur goes home and experiments with a few old clothes, the dye and some string. It is fun and the vibrant results are exciting. When the entrepreneur shows the samples to their friends for a second opinion, the feedback is positive. Of course the next step is to make some actual stock to try to sell to the public.

The public are usually so enchanted by the vivid colour that the product moves and the entrepreneur has to make more goods.

The cycle begins. In this way, a cottage industry is born.

Even accumulating the equipment needed is not difficult.

Running water is a must.

Any heat-source will do; an open fire, gas bottle, stove or microwave oven will all do the job.

Empty plastic containers of every description will hold dye. Small butter dishes are useful for dyeing children's garments, while large buckets are needed to dye décor items such as duvet covers.

Add a space to work, a drain and an adventurous spirit, and anybody can be self-employed in a short time, for minimum outlay.

 

The thing you need to realize if you are thinking about going into the radio industry is that the industry as a whole is slowly dying. As more and more people replace their radios with MP3 players, radio stations will continue to reach fewer and fewer listeners. Some stations will, of course, remain to service people who prefer listening to the radio, but radio stations across the country will, for the most part, have fewer and fewer listeners every year.

Fewer listeners mean fewer advertising dollars for the radio station. When the station's bottom line becomes effected, it may have to cut jobs. Therefore, you may find yourself without a job if you start out in radio. At the same time, salespeople will find it increasingly harder to sell advertising. As ratings drop, fewer businesses will be willing to invest their money in buying radio advertising. Since many sales people receive no salary other than a commission on what they sell, they may find their income drop over time.

Some radio stations are finding new ways of earning additional revenue to help make up for the negative trends in the industry by embracing new technology. The internet, for example, has proved invaluable to many radio stations. Many stations have websites, for which they can sell advertising and/or use ad programs like Google Adsense

Because traffic to their website means additional revenue, they can use their station to promote their website. By making the website a useful supplement to the terrestrial radio station by offering services like online streaming, their website can become a profitable source of revenue.

Automation is also making some jobs at radio stations obsolete. For example, radio stations no longer need to pay a weekend DJ because they can simply prerecord some vocal tracks to throw in a playlist and put on a computer. Thus, if your job is something that a computer could conceivably do, you may find yourself replaced on day.

Of course, radio stations will continue broadcasting for a long time and they will continue employing people. While some small, local stations will be hit hard by the industry's trends, the really good ones may find themselves doing better without all of the extra competition. Talk radio stations in particular are among those who will continue to do well for many years to come. Since they often offer local programming that you cannot get anywhere else, more people are staying loyal to talk radio stations than are the music stations. This trend is likely to continue for some time.