ETD: 688 Mentoring; Online Discount Wholesaler; Spammers may
be subject to RICO; More on Google; Global View from The Top: The Rise
of the Intelligent Supply Chain
E-Tailer's Digest
etd_post@gapent.com
Wed, 21 May 2003 22:33:16 -0400
E-Tailer's Digest --- Everything for the Retailer
Issue #0688 May 22, 2003
George Matyjewicz, Moderator mailto:georgem@gapent.com
Published by: GAP Enterprises, Ltd. http://www.etailersdigest.com
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CONTENTS
[1] Greetings
[2] Mentoring
[3] Tom Gottleib Launches Online Discount Wholesaler
----- ---- --- -- -> Important Offer <- -- --- ---- ---- --
[4] Spammers may be subject to RICO
[5] More on Google
[6] Global View from The Top: The Rise of the Intelligent Supply Chain
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[1] Greetings.
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Hi All:
Today I read the best solution for spam. A bill is being introduced to
prosecute spammers under the RICO act - the same law that tries organized
crime! I hope it happens fast. It's a more civilized method than drawing
and quartering them. ;-)
Have you ever considered being a mentor or working with a mentor? It could
change your life forever - it did so for me.
What's happening with upcoming sales and selling seasons? What are you
doing to increase business?
In the US we have the Memorial Day weekend coming this weekend. It's a
weekend for travel. And I hope those who drive can find reasonable gas
prices. Last weekend I was in VA, and gas was $1.29 a gallon, $1.59 in PA
and $1.49 in NJ. So, drive safe and enjoy the weekend.
Now, let's get to everything for the retailer.
Sincerely
Dr. George Matyjewicz
Chief Global Strategist, GAP Enterprises, Ltd.
mailto:georgem@gapent.com
http://www.etailersdigest.com
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[2] Mentoring
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Remember the dotcom heydays where we all made money? All it took was an
idea, a business plan and a list of venture capitalists.
I still can't believe that a major company paid $28 million for a startup I
was a partner in. Of course, the bulk of the payout was in stock. So at
the time of the sale the stock was $27 a share. A year later it was $1.27
a share!
Today it's not so easy. However, those companies who do succeed in hard
times will be much stronger in the long run. E-businesses are now being
funded with personal savings or loans from family or financial institutions.
No longer will you find Super Bowl ads that cost more than the total
revenue of the company since it's inception! No longer will you find the
big paychecks or the fancy cars, all bought on VC funds.
On the bright side, the cost of technology is now reasonable and fast
enough for even the smallest startup. And smart entrepreneurs are taking
advantage of free publicity whenever possible. Creative articles in key
publications drive business to you.
The key is to think big, but spend small. Remember, cash is still
king. Make a profit and plow it back into the business.
In addition to knowing your products and services, you also need to
understand the mechanics of operating a business. Attend some basic
workshops or seminars which address starting a business, business planning,
marketing and financial analysis.
But the most important lesson you can ever learn can come from a mentor -
somebody who understands business and is willing to help you. I was very
fortunate in my early days in that I had the best mentor one could ever
find. Sam taught me lessons on legal issues, marketing, product selection,
raising capital, and more importantly, being fair with everybody with whom
I did business. Today my word is still more important than any piece of
paper drawn up by an attorney.
So, get out there and find a mentor. It may change you life forever.
Actually, I am considering being a mentor now. I find so many people with
great ideas, and they need to get the products to market. I am looking at
two business now.
How about you? Some of our gray hairs should consider mentoring.
George
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[3] Tom Gottleib Launches Online Discount Wholesaler
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Closeouts and overstocks will be made more readily available to independent
retailers thanks to Giftfinale.com, a Web site for end-of-line items from
gift and home suppliers. Backed by Tom Gottleib of Two's Company and Tozai
Home, the list of companies selling product on the site include Gift Box
Corp., Global Views, Manual Woodworkers and Weavers, Mud Pie, and Reed &
Barton, as well as Two's Co. and Tozai. Goods are offered in case packs
with no minimum dollar order. Payment is made by credit card at the time of
shipment, and delivery is promised within seven days. Suppliers can place
product images on the site using low-res jpegs. They will be notified when
an order comes in, and are responsible for shipping and collecting payment.
For more information, contact Gottleib at tg@giftfinale.com.
Quinn Halford, Editor In Chief
Matthew Kalash, Editor
http://www.giftsanddec.com
+++ [Moderator's Comments] +++
Sourcing of products seems to be the #1 issue of most small
retailers. This should be a great source.
George
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[4] Spammers may be subject to RICO
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The same law used to jail gangsters would be used to clamp down on Internet
``spammers'' under a new bill by U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson. On Monday he
announced he wants to apply the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt
Organizations, or RICO, statute to unsolicited commercial e-mail.
Under his proposal, it would become a federal crime to send bulk e-mails
with fraudulent or forged information, such as a fake name in the ``From''
box or a bogus return address. The worst offenders then could be prosecuted
under RICO.
Several other federal legislators have proposed antispam bills, but Nelson
claims his is the first to invoke RICO.
``People in this country are getting fed up,'' Nelson said at a Tampa news
conference Monday. `` ... They can't even use their e-mail because it gets
congested with these things.''
Unsolicited commercial e-mail today makes up about 45 percent of all e-mail
in the United States, up from 16 percent a year and a half ago, said
Brightmail Inc., a San Francisco maker of antispam software. Maybe worse,
much of it is deceptive, according to the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC
studied a random sample of 1,000 spam e-mails and found that 66 percent had
some form of deception in the ``From'' box, the ``Subject'' box or in the
message itself.
One deception: Enticing someone to open an e-mail with a message such as
``Here's your moving info,'' when it actually is a pornographic message,
said Brian Huseman, an FTC attorney.
There are laws in at least 29 states curbing spam, although Florida does
not. But, most provide for only civil penalties against serial spammers,
which have rarely been used, said Mark Lemley, a law professor at the
University of California at Berkeley.
Under Nelson's bill, it would become a federal crime to:
* Forge or send fraudulent destination, routing or subject header
information in unsolicited bulk e-mails;
* Send e-mail to anyone who requests not to receive unsolicited e-mail;
* Collect e-mail addresses from public and private places to send
unsolicited bulk e-mail. And, anyone sending it must give people a way to
opt out of future e-mails.
Those violating the ban would be subject to fines and imprisonment of up to
five years, Nelson said. It would not stop legitimate e-mail solicitations,
Nelson said.
Details at...
http://tech.tbo.com/tech/MGA8PBZ7NFD.html
+++ [Next Post] +++
Spam is a problem for lot of companies and individuals on the Internet. My
Spam problem was getting a little out of hand.
I made a decision to limit my incoming email addresses to some very
specific addresses. I eliminated the ability to have a wild card ability
in my address.
In one day, here is the results - Sunday, I had 284 junk or Spam emails
from everything from porn to financing my home.
Well I just checked my incoming emails for Monday, and my junk / Spam
emails are down to 37. Now I feel I have a little control.
Before any one states, why don't you filter your emails for junk / Spam and
the answer is I do.
My company has 7 different web sites, and I restricted all of the email
addresses to specific incoming emails. It was for my sanity in dealing
with the web. Now maybe I can get back to work.
Yours truly
Jules Kaplan
ChekFaxx Development Co. INC.- E-commerce Payment Solution Provider
Now on Line For EFT Processing www.ezpaymentservices.com
Available NOW http://www.addressmanagerpro.com
Discover how to add your email address to Your Windows Address Book
admin@chekfaxx.com - 480-991-7025 OR 800-220-0468 - FAX 310-362-8746
Accept Check by FAX - PHONE - E-MAIL - INTERNET http://chekfaxx.com
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[5] More on Google
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From the June Issue of Fast Company, reader feedback.
1. From Peter Abatan, Essex, England. "In looking to its future, Google
should keep in mind that it is allowed to fail and succeed because of the
fact it is still a privately held organization. What the stock market is
about is succeeding, with little or no tolerance for failure. It's all
about year-on-year profitability, cost cutting, downsizing, reduction in
overheads, and head count. The stock market will punish you if you have to
increase your expenditures because you are working on a project that has no
known source of income-a project such as the Google News Service. Going
public would change the culture of Google forever and might lead to
staffers breaking away to start their own rival firms. My advice to Google:
Stay away from the IPO flu-you may never recover from it."
2. From Yuval Yosef, Tel Aviv, Israel. " In the event that Google decides
in favor of an initial public offering, I would consider it a management
and board failure. Google has the potential to become the 21st-century
leader in Intelligent Information Retrieval. Google technology as well as
its current execution capabilities should be sufficient in turning this
company into a monopoly. That is also the only way that Google can keep its
values. Strange as it may sound, the only way for Google management to
maximize Google shareholders value as well as Google user value is to keep
the company private."
Regards,
Jerry Grooms
Bar Code It Now
http://barcodeitnow.com
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[6] Global View from The Top: The Rise of the Intelligent Supply Chain
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How can we develop short-range forecasts to respond more quickly to market
changes? How can we monitor the performance of our top five suppliers? What
will it cost to shift to a new supplier in a particular product line? To
get at this information, managers and analysts often have to spend days, or
even weeks, cobbling together aging or obsolete information on
spreadsheets. Measuring forecast accuracy and supplier performance is
still a hit-or-miss proposition. Supply chains are growing increasingly
complex, growing from linear arrangements to synchronized, multi-echelon,
outward-facing networks of distributed servers. There's much more
information that needs to be monitored than just a few years ago.
Most companies lack the tools that can quickly sift through and present
data coming in from supply chain partners and systems. Gartner Group, a
leading IT consultancy, estimates that less than one percent of companies
today actually are capable of monitoring and measuring online supplier
performance. A study conducted by the University of Texas for Dell
Computer Corp. found that only 11 percent of 1,000 companies studied have
any form of online transactional and information-sharing capabilities with
their suppliers.
Building an information sharing and analysis capability will be critical to
sustaining critical competitive advantage over the next few years. "The
movement of supply chains in the 1990s was powered by optimization, but as
we move into the 2000s, the trend is toward workflow and analytics," says
Lora Cecere, analyst with Gartner. Achieving visibility across your supply
chain means not only being able to track the performance of a supplier, but
that of your supplier's suppliers as well. Such visibility enables a more
agile level of demand planning, in which production and quality issues can
be addressed within days, or even hours.
Details at...
http://www.consumergoods.com/news.htm#9
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