With the minimum wage in BC previously the lowest in the country at $8.00 an hour (with a training wage of $6.00), the Clark government has introduced a minimum wage raise from $8.00 an hour to $10.25 an hour by May 1st, 2012. This is effective towards the economy as it raises the amount put into the economy however not effective in terms of business.
Because of the raise in minimum wage, the average wage in BC should increase just to balance out the minimum wage increase. This means that there would be an increase in operational costs for a business. In the future, it should balance out however in present times, there would be a hiring freeze in effect due to the fact that businesses need to be able to cope with increased operational costs. With that said, eventually the money should trickle back down to businesses, making it more beneficial in the long run.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Human Resource Management
With many entrepreneurial enterprises, human resources management is viewed as the factor that you cannot make any mistakes, as it poses a risk of the businesses success or failure. Human resources management is typically the systematic process of acquiring, developing, rewarding and maintaining an organizaion's people resources so as to maximize performance. With that said, it takes time for an organization to fully develop into what would eventually be an efficent and successful business. This is usually due to the shortcomings that need to be overcome due to the different challenges that occur along the way.
There are many challenges associated with Human Resources, such as Attracting a large pool of high-quality job candidates. It's quite the typical challenge to try to find a qualified person for the job. Speed in the hiring process and the time that it takes to train the person also plays a role as usually when you post a job, you need to quickly increase job productivity by filling in the role as quickly as possible. Finally, attractive wages and benefits also play a definite role as people need to be able to see the job as an opportunity for success and not a dead end for them
In all fairness, Human Resources is one difficult department be working in. The process of trying to find someone to fill in the role of a space that's left vacant is definitely the challenge. Finding the right person to proprely promote a positive environment and job productivity is another.
There are many challenges associated with Human Resources, such as Attracting a large pool of high-quality job candidates. It's quite the typical challenge to try to find a qualified person for the job. Speed in the hiring process and the time that it takes to train the person also plays a role as usually when you post a job, you need to quickly increase job productivity by filling in the role as quickly as possible. Finally, attractive wages and benefits also play a definite role as people need to be able to see the job as an opportunity for success and not a dead end for them
In all fairness, Human Resources is one difficult department be working in. The process of trying to find someone to fill in the role of a space that's left vacant is definitely the challenge. Finding the right person to proprely promote a positive environment and job productivity is another.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
e-Business: Is It Worth It?
What is e-business?
e-Business is a business that is operational on the internet. It is designed to make the business more accessible to their potential clients that plan to do business with them. The main point of an e-business is for a reduction of operating costs while reaching out to a broader audience. While you can reach out to a broader audience by listing online, not everything comes free as some people might have associated e-business with. The fact is, there are operational costs associated with it. There needs to be constant funding that's needed in order for this advertising approach to work. Many believe that you could just leave it alone and fact is, you could... if you want it to be reached out to a limited audience. Sites need to be constantly maintained in order for it to take full advantage of the advertising base.
Viable?
I believe that doing business through e-Business is a viable option. It has a potentially lower running cost if done right, while reaching out to a broader audience. However the fact of the matter is that there needs to be continued maintenance of the website in order for it to be of full effect. With that said, as long as one maintains their e-business online, they should be able to attract many clients and become a viable business like many.
e-Business is a business that is operational on the internet. It is designed to make the business more accessible to their potential clients that plan to do business with them. The main point of an e-business is for a reduction of operating costs while reaching out to a broader audience. While you can reach out to a broader audience by listing online, not everything comes free as some people might have associated e-business with. The fact is, there are operational costs associated with it. There needs to be constant funding that's needed in order for this advertising approach to work. Many believe that you could just leave it alone and fact is, you could... if you want it to be reached out to a limited audience. Sites need to be constantly maintained in order for it to take full advantage of the advertising base.
Viable?
I believe that doing business through e-Business is a viable option. It has a potentially lower running cost if done right, while reaching out to a broader audience. However the fact of the matter is that there needs to be continued maintenance of the website in order for it to be of full effect. With that said, as long as one maintains their e-business online, they should be able to attract many clients and become a viable business like many.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
19-year-old Entrepreneur Summary
Brain Wong is a 19-year-old UBC grad who has started up 2 ventures. He has been granted $4 million in financing for his venture Kiip, an advertising business model for gaming. This business model works to reward gamers with prizes. This would both benefit the receiving end, consumers, while generating advertising revenue from doing so. Generally, this is to "reward" the players for their achievements with something material, while generating awareness for the several products that will be avaliable from this business. I believe that this is a venture idea that could potentially become the next milestone in gaming. Mostly because of the advertising revenue it would generate because of the consistent message that gets across to the gamers; prizes are awarded for achievements.
With several entrepreneurs succeeding, technology related industries seem to be the area of interest for young entrepreneurs for several reasons. In this day and age, people are most likely to consume their media by television, internet and telecommunications. With Kiip, it sets a good example about how it comes into play. People are gaming and they don't want to get distracted, however advertising agencies want to advertise somehow. Kiip gives people the awareness of products, offering them for their achievements, while making the advertising agencies happy. Most of the money made now a days are through technology. There's a reason why the iPhone is the best selling Smartphone and why Facebook is the most used social media network. It's mostly generated by the convenience that one may have through using these services and products.
With several entrepreneurs succeeding, technology related industries seem to be the area of interest for young entrepreneurs for several reasons. In this day and age, people are most likely to consume their media by television, internet and telecommunications. With Kiip, it sets a good example about how it comes into play. People are gaming and they don't want to get distracted, however advertising agencies want to advertise somehow. Kiip gives people the awareness of products, offering them for their achievements, while making the advertising agencies happy. Most of the money made now a days are through technology. There's a reason why the iPhone is the best selling Smartphone and why Facebook is the most used social media network. It's mostly generated by the convenience that one may have through using these services and products.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
The Costs of Employee Turnover
As employees move on in their life, they will be searching for a future to move up the ladder. This is shown in recent studies as the costs of employee turnover has been increasing dramatically. In the hospiality business, employee turnover is typically in excess of 120%. There are many issues associated with employee turnover; mostly to do with costs in time and money of the company.
Pre-departure costs will be incurred after an employee has given notice however before the employee leaves. This would typically mean exit interviews as human resources would want to find out the reason the employee may be leaving the company for. Recruitment is the next step. Human resources need to account for the costs of replacing the employee. This means that they would have to go out and put out a job posting for potential employees. Next would be the selection process. Interviews will be conducted at this time. The costs of interviewing and the decisiosn is a time consuming task as there is not a perfect employee for every position in the world. Afterwards, orientation and training is up. This is a necessary process as the new employee needs to require training for the tasks they'll be taking up in the future. This usually is followed up by associated costs including time spent training the employee. Eventually it ultimately comes to the productivity loss. Because of the lack of man power in that timeframe, this usually accounts for the largest percentage of total costs, up to 70% in certain cases. This is usually hurt in four ways, the lack of productivity of the employee that departed, the learning curve associated with teh job for the new employee, disruption costs as the new employee will most likely need assistance from their superiors and ultimately the loss of revenues or sales from the vacancy during that period of time.
Usually the result of these turnover costs are associated with te complexity of the job. The more complex the job, the higher the costs. This is usually due to the training associated with the job and the revenues they lose from the vacancy during the time they were looking for someone to fill the spot. And usually its the loss of productivity that hits businesses hard during employee turnover. Employee turnover is a continuing concern in the hospitality industry in the future due to the csots associated with it. It's the loss in revenues due to the loss of productivity that causes them to hit hard, and in this competitive environment, usually this means the loss of its competitive edge and that there needs to be solutions to these employee turnovers for the hospitality industries.
Pre-departure costs will be incurred after an employee has given notice however before the employee leaves. This would typically mean exit interviews as human resources would want to find out the reason the employee may be leaving the company for. Recruitment is the next step. Human resources need to account for the costs of replacing the employee. This means that they would have to go out and put out a job posting for potential employees. Next would be the selection process. Interviews will be conducted at this time. The costs of interviewing and the decisiosn is a time consuming task as there is not a perfect employee for every position in the world. Afterwards, orientation and training is up. This is a necessary process as the new employee needs to require training for the tasks they'll be taking up in the future. This usually is followed up by associated costs including time spent training the employee. Eventually it ultimately comes to the productivity loss. Because of the lack of man power in that timeframe, this usually accounts for the largest percentage of total costs, up to 70% in certain cases. This is usually hurt in four ways, the lack of productivity of the employee that departed, the learning curve associated with teh job for the new employee, disruption costs as the new employee will most likely need assistance from their superiors and ultimately the loss of revenues or sales from the vacancy during that period of time.
Usually the result of these turnover costs are associated with te complexity of the job. The more complex the job, the higher the costs. This is usually due to the training associated with the job and the revenues they lose from the vacancy during the time they were looking for someone to fill the spot. And usually its the loss of productivity that hits businesses hard during employee turnover. Employee turnover is a continuing concern in the hospitality industry in the future due to the csots associated with it. It's the loss in revenues due to the loss of productivity that causes them to hit hard, and in this competitive environment, usually this means the loss of its competitive edge and that there needs to be solutions to these employee turnovers for the hospitality industries.
Xerox: What Went Wrong?
The Xerox Corporation was a legendary company known for their photocopiers. However in the late 90s, they were facing a downturn to competitor Canon. This eventually led to hiring CEO Rick Thoman, who was set to make Xerox profitable again. However there were a number of flaws, CFO Barry Romeril had done a poor job overseeing corporate finances. This led to some creative accounting which reported a $119 million write-off from a subsidiary that only brings in $400 million. Eventually this caused a lawsuit from the Securities and Exchange Commission for overstating earnings. Thoman wanted Romeril fired for incurring a 13% loss in net worth of Xerox. He also wanted to restructure global sales to better compete. Dolan, president of global sales, disagreed. The executives of Xerox were close acquaintances which led to the blocking the restructuring of global sales. Eventually, Thoman was fired. However, Xerox was on the verge of Bankruptcy for a long.
Most of the problems associated with Xerox was the management structure. The executives were close acquaintances and they didn't want to admit mistakes and change their ways of business at Xerox. However it should be noted that many of the executives were lost in their own jobs. The duties that they carried out were scattered and didn't know where to pick up. No matter how much they manipulate the financials, Xerox still needed to reshape their global sales to attract new clients while maintaining their client base.
Most of the problems associated with Xerox was the management structure. The executives were close acquaintances and they didn't want to admit mistakes and change their ways of business at Xerox. However it should be noted that many of the executives were lost in their own jobs. The duties that they carried out were scattered and didn't know where to pick up. No matter how much they manipulate the financials, Xerox still needed to reshape their global sales to attract new clients while maintaining their client base.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Business Ideas
Negotiate Cellular Plans For Customers
Most of the population of Canada has mobile phones. However being Canadian means paying ridiculous prices for cellular plans. Many of these customers think they're just stuck paying market prices for plans however only a few people know about customer care or otherwise known as the loyalty or retentions department. Now the average person doesn't have the time to get put on hold and have a back and forth conversation to lower their cellular plan. Well offering a service to aid with this would be a decent demand as people are willing to pay to save. Charging a fee with a tier-based system would work with this concept as every outcome could end up differently depending on what was worked on within the plan. It doesn't cost much to actually operate a service like this, other than access to a computer and a phone. But it is time consuming. However if people are willing to pay for it, it's a viable business.
EDIT - It's a given that you might get rejected, there is no limit to how many times you call into their call centre, i have personal experience with Telus and Rogers and i've been given probably one of the best plans that one could imagine (Won't list it out here, if you want info, ask me) and that would be a the better incentitive for someone to actually look for this service as the person running it has something that someone would think is close to impossible with the savings and value you get. And it's not always about price, it may be trying to get a free feature like Caller ID, a typical freebie that's thrown out there if you haven't known already. This could save someone $5-8 a month or unlimited incoming calls, a feature that's $10 but it could save someone alot more if they go over their rate plan. So it just doesn't have to stop at trying to get a cheaper price on the plan, it's about shaping a person's need within their budget.
Offer Alternative Items From The Cafeteria Or Trojan Market
Ever sick and tired of the items offered at the cafeteria or trojan market? Well there are a couple people that are so why not offer an alternative to them as such. Maybe even just offer dessert to people. There are many possibilities to this. There are people that want choice and this will fill this niche. However the cost of running this business is costly and as a business, could be proved difficult to make a decent profit margin. It's viable but due to running costs, it could fail with ease.
EDIT - Yeah should have been more clear with this, i think it'll run with more of a general convenience of having snacks which aren't found anymore such as chips, candy bars and for the most part, those cookies that were actually decent. Finding inventory wouldn't be so bad but knowing the market would be a better idea of what to actually stock up with. Not my best idea but it's an idea.
Most of the population of Canada has mobile phones. However being Canadian means paying ridiculous prices for cellular plans. Many of these customers think they're just stuck paying market prices for plans however only a few people know about customer care or otherwise known as the loyalty or retentions department. Now the average person doesn't have the time to get put on hold and have a back and forth conversation to lower their cellular plan. Well offering a service to aid with this would be a decent demand as people are willing to pay to save. Charging a fee with a tier-based system would work with this concept as every outcome could end up differently depending on what was worked on within the plan. It doesn't cost much to actually operate a service like this, other than access to a computer and a phone. But it is time consuming. However if people are willing to pay for it, it's a viable business.
EDIT - It's a given that you might get rejected, there is no limit to how many times you call into their call centre, i have personal experience with Telus and Rogers and i've been given probably one of the best plans that one could imagine (Won't list it out here, if you want info, ask me) and that would be a the better incentitive for someone to actually look for this service as the person running it has something that someone would think is close to impossible with the savings and value you get. And it's not always about price, it may be trying to get a free feature like Caller ID, a typical freebie that's thrown out there if you haven't known already. This could save someone $5-8 a month or unlimited incoming calls, a feature that's $10 but it could save someone alot more if they go over their rate plan. So it just doesn't have to stop at trying to get a cheaper price on the plan, it's about shaping a person's need within their budget.
Offer Alternative Items From The Cafeteria Or Trojan Market
Ever sick and tired of the items offered at the cafeteria or trojan market? Well there are a couple people that are so why not offer an alternative to them as such. Maybe even just offer dessert to people. There are many possibilities to this. There are people that want choice and this will fill this niche. However the cost of running this business is costly and as a business, could be proved difficult to make a decent profit margin. It's viable but due to running costs, it could fail with ease.
EDIT - Yeah should have been more clear with this, i think it'll run with more of a general convenience of having snacks which aren't found anymore such as chips, candy bars and for the most part, those cookies that were actually decent. Finding inventory wouldn't be so bad but knowing the market would be a better idea of what to actually stock up with. Not my best idea but it's an idea.
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