B&Q is the third largest home improvement retail company in the world with 321 stores in the UK and 60 stores spread across the globe. In 2009/10 retail sales were £4 billion, with profits of £195million. It is part of the Kingfisher Group plc. The company’s name B&Q comes from the names of its founders: [more...]
It’s common to hear about an interesting new web service that has opened for beta testing, only to find that you need an “invite code” to register. Even mainstream services such as Google’s Gmail started out by requiring an invitation code. Why is this a common way for beta sites to start up? One reason [more...]
Marks and Spencer is one of the UK’s leading retail brands. It employs over 80,000 people in 500 stores in over 30 countries. Clothing and homeware sales represent 51% of their business, while food is 49%. Yet this company had its humble beginnings at a market stall where Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer sold items [more...]
Before the Japanese “Just In Time” processes were discovered by the west, most manufacturers offered their clients huge discounts for huge orders. If a client ordered a million widgets, the sales staff would have a big party to celebrate their bonus payments. Meanwhile management would go into panic mode, madly ramping up production so that [more...]
If your company sells goods or services to other companies, you will normally offer credits terms once you are satisfied with the their credit worthiness. Occasionally a purchaser will default on their payment by delaying payment of the debt, or even worse, going into liquidation. This often causes havoc with your cash flow, squeezes your [more...]
If you are in the business of selling goods to other companies, then it is normal business practise to offer the purchasing company credit terms once they have established their credit worthiness. Occasionally, a purchaser will default on their payment by going into liquidation or delaying payment of the debt. This can be a very [more...]
If you are starting up a business in the UK, one of most important things you must consider is insurance. There are many types of insurance. Some are required by law, while others you should consider to ensure that you and your business are protected. As to what types of insurance, it depends on the [more...]
Credit cardholders According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there were 173 million credit cardholders in the United States in 2006 and that number is projected to grow to 181 million in 2010.(1) Number of cards There were 1,488,000,000 credit cards in use 2006 and that number is projected to grow to 1,618,000,000 in 2010. Number [more...]
Diet meals and snacks delivered to your home is a convenient option for losing weight. Home delivery diets is one of the fasting growing segments in the weight loss industry. According to a recent research report, home delivery of prepared diet meals is worth approximately $1 billion. This is a rapidly growing market and it [more...]
According to the AVMA (1), there are more than 72 million pet dogs in the U.S. and nearly 82 million pet cats. Ownership A little more than 43 million households own dogs and nearly 37.5 million households own cats. The average number of dogs per household is 1.7. Cat owning households have an average of [more...]
There are more than 56,000 pharmacies in the United States. The NACDS reports that there are over 39,000 pharmacies operated by traditional chain pharmacy companies, supermarkets and mass merchants. In addition there are nearly 17,000 independent pharmacies. (1) Walgreens and CVS dominate the drug store chain market with the largest number of stores and the highest [more...]
Jersey is an important off-shore banking and finance centre. If you are thinking of conducting business in Jersey, either incorporating a new company there, or you need to check out your potential customer or business partner and their previous commercial experience, then the Jersey Company Registry is the place to start. On Jersey, the Director [more...]
The Pareto principle is popularly known as the 80-20 rule, and is the idea that 80 percent of the results are connected with 20 percent of the causes. A few examples: In a society, 20 percent of the people may have 80 percent of the wealth. This is an actual discovery of Italian economist Vilfredo [more...]
In New Zealand the government body responsible for the Companies Register is the New Zealand Companies Office. It records information on limited liability companies – both domestic and overseas companies carrying on business in New Zealand. It also records on a separate register, information on other entities such as building societies, charitable trusts credit unions [more...]
For a person with no business knowledge it may sometimes seem a daunting prospect to find out who the directors of a UK company are. However, it is relatively easy, and most importantly, inexpensive to find out. You can also find other information such as the company’s accounts and annual returns, and their Registered Office [more...]