Showing posts with label business. Show all posts
Showing posts with label business. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Ready for business in this part of the world?

I am not talking Business Etiquette, what to wear, to shake hands or not and what topics to avoid.... no,no!  I will sum it all up in one sentence: why make things easy when you can complicate them? It is to the point that, coming from abroad, at some point, you cannot but wonder if it is done on purpose, for some obscure reason you have yet to discover...


Seriously; when I say nothing is easy, pictures of the way people and buses drive come to my mind, the way we queue at the supermarket or the post-office where having a number still does not guarantee your turn, the way one needs another form, another signature and twenty more phone calls to conclude a process...etc


Some days I can take it really well, almost laughing at the absurdity and "chutzpah" of some, it is almost like watching a show, you are the spectator, even if sometimes you have a part to play and you wonder how it will all end.... Other days I am really not in the mood and prefer to stop in my tracks and go back to packing more Sophies HaGirafot in the quietness of the office...
So whenever I go and visit the stores, I always expect "walls" because hey, it cannot be simple! Of course I did get my share of issues but I really cannot complain: they were all valid, pertinent and they helped me understand more what the business needed.


Those past days I struggled a lot though. A container was waiting at customs and the transport company was not moving fast enough... Finally after a week I recieved the merchandise. It took that long to understand each other, understand the process and what the problems were and with whom to talk to finally get the merchandise. And I was lucky to have help in that process... Again because of what should almost be an adage for the region" nothing can nor should be easy"... it would be too much fun!


Could this part of the world be compared with Golf?

 Arnold Palmerone of the greatest golf players once said:
“Golf is deceptively simple and endlessly complicated; it satisfies the soul and frustrates the intellect. It is at the same time rewarding and maddening - and it is without a doubt the greatest game mankind has ever invented.”

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Business 101 for Sophie Ha Girafa

Bonjour!


How about sharing some basic business knowledge today? Maybe you have an idea for a business and the following might help you a tiny bit?
This is what  I have learned  since I started the adventure of or with Sophie the Girafa.


To work as a Freelance in Israel there are currently 3 options:


1- Tium Mas: ( Click on Tium Mas for more infos) 
 A person employed in more than one position will have to make arrangements with the Income Tax authority to have the appropriate taxes applied. This simple process is called ‘Tium Mas’.You don’t need to register as a freelancer.




2- Esek Patur: ( "patur" means "exempt") ( Sometimes it sounds more like "Ossek" than "Essek")
It enables you to work freelance up to 60 hours a month earning up to 60,000 NIS extra a year.You cannot deduct expenses but you don’t pay VAT


3- Esek Morshe aka Osek Murshe:
It is a registered entity. You can deduct expenses. You Pay VAT, Bituah Leumi...
 
So I opened an Esek Morshe and got an accountant...and contacted a printing company where I made the 3 books: Invoice, Receipts and Delivery Note.  If you read Hebrew, this site seems to explain every other detail.
 
I have to confess I thought I was getting a "Esek Moshe"....you know Israel being the land of the Bible: Moshe, Shlomo, Yacov etc etc  I thought that is how they categorized businesses.... Needless to say a few people had a good laugh at my expenses.


 
After the process at Makhon Hatkanim, I ordered Sophie Giraffes from France, I received them and off I was visiting beautiful Baby Stores around the country,  kinda happy I could easily resist all the cute toys, clothes, and other fun baby stuffs since I have no Baby!
 
Aside from visiting and convincing, always with Sophie ha Girafa in mind,  I joined some Networking events. One of those is organized by Gloria Kinrot  from USOLVE . It takes place one Sunday every month. Asides from learning a few things and meeting Gloria who is full of ideas and energy, she informed me  that as a new Esek Morshe, I am entitled to 20 hours of coaching at subsidized price of 56 shekels including VAT instead of 340 shekels ( if I remember well the price).


To benefit from those hours, you need to call the Business Development Center  MATI Raanana (or the one in Jerusalem ) , set up an hour-long  appointment (60 shekels) and if you qualify for coaching , open a file (250 shekels). If you know which coach you want to work with, give them the number and after a few days or weeks, you can start.
 
Well I hope to enjoy those coaching hours soon!
 
In the meantime on MATI's site I found some useful infos on how to prepare a Press Release, a Brochure, Customers etc and this is right what I am in the process of working on!
 
Time to play  nope... time to annoy my son with Photoshop *Wink* He does a great job!
 


source Photos: Matt Marriott / Associated Press
Bea, a three-year-old giraffe, and Wilma, an ostrich,
 have become the best of friends at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, Florida


Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Sophie la girafa investigates...


Six months in. Time for a small assessment of how the business is going.

To do so, those past weeks I visited almost all of the stores that carry Sofi la girafa and ask them a few questions such as  how is Sofi the giraffe doing? were they pleased with her? does she sell well? who the customers are and why it seems they buy Sophie Ha girafa?

Being a first-time business person, I am a bit anxious on how well it is all going. It is very similar to when your child enters school for the first time and you meet the teacher. You want to hear only good things because, hey! your child is the best! ^__^

I feel exactly the same with Sophie The Giraffa. She is like my baby and when a store owner tells me it is rather slow, I cannot help but frown and think: why!? why!? why!? and when a store owner is happy, I beam with joy.

So those "why!? why!? why!?" needed explanations.


~~ Answer #1 to one of those "why!? why!? why!?  is Sophie Ha Girafa not flying off the shelves"???

To any French person (living in France), Sophie la girafa is a given. She is not necessarily well known as "Sophie La Girafe" but simply as "la girafe des bébés".

As I wrote then here, I realize that most of us, French parents, do not really know why we buy it, but we do and we know from hearsay and experience here and there that it is a must.

Six months ago when I first started visiting the stores and explaining who-what-why sofi the girafa, I decided it made sense to prepare a flyer in Hebrew that says it in a succinct way. The flyer could be given to every customer and each box of Sophie would have one inside as well. It explained the history, what makes her organic and 100% natural and how she stimulates the five senses of Baby.

But I missed one crucial detail!

On the flyer along with the text, I put this "visual" that is on every Box of Sophie.



But I came to realize that this cute Sophie ha girafa with the Eiffel Tower does not say enough about her.

I should have used this instead:



Don't you agree?

At first glance you know right away what Sophie Ha giraffe is for... and  you can tell Baby loves her....

That confirms the famous saying: a picture is worth a thousand words!

And so appears one element of answer: Sophie the girafa is simply not famous enough (yet) and my flyer was not right on target.


to be continued.... or as we say in French "La suite au prochain épisode"...