Cents and sensibility

During the economic downturn like what we are experiecing now, it's very important to get the most bang for your buck this season. When holiday is around the corner, and you realize it's time to spend money again,but the economy isn't looking good this year. Are you cutting back? Is your list getting shorter?

The good news is, you don't have to. Lately, we started offering "sets" on Merx2go.com. Each set is truly a bargain, buy the whole set for your family, coworkers or friends.  e.g., our best selling set is 02361, 12 pieces of animal trinket boxes for only $86, whereelse can you buy bejeweled keepsake boxes at this price? Each trinket box comes in its own gift box, some are even deluxe gold boxes with satin lining, simply add a ribbon and you are done with gift wrap! And best yet, bejeweled trinket boxes are all high quality pieces and usually only available in boutiques.  So why wait? Grab this set now and SAVE. They will surely impress your gift recipients, no matter they are collectors, animal lovers or kids!

 

Shop for more "sets"  now or search for "set" on Merx2go.com.

Good news! Starting from Oct 24 through end of the year, get a FREE Snowman Wonderland paper bag when you purchase a trinket box, or minaudiere or scarf on www.merx2go.com. Limited to one bag per shipment.

Simply dress up with tissue paper, you are done with gift wrap! (tissue paper is not included)

Large bag: 8-1/4" x 4-1/4" x 10-3/4" Small bag: 5-1/4" x 3-1/2" x 8-1/4". Made in the U.S.A.

Creating your own jewelry stand can not be easier! Get this 3 piece kit on Merx2go.com to create your own jewelry stand by recycling a used glass bottle, in just a second. No tools required.

	Our wire kit includes a brass top wire (6 arms), a screw and a wine bottle cork. Cork is new, we drilled a hole at the cork top to make your assembly easy.
	This is how it looks when you put them together. You don't need any tools to screw onto to the cork.
	The kit fits in most wine bottle, beer bottle, oil bottle or other glass bottles. Next, dress up the bottle. Simply wrap the bottle with your silk scarf or a small piece of fabric, and secure with a ribbon near the top. Now, you have a one of a kind jewelry stand to hang your jewelry, and remember, by creating this work of art, you are also doing something good for the planet. Look for something fancy? Check out the following images and let your creativity run wild...
Eco-Friendly Hawaii Jewelry Stand	Bridal gown jewelry stand
	You can even use the kit without a glass bottle, e.g., the screw also works with wood object, candle or styrofoam. Merx2go.com offers a large selection of mannequine jewelry stands and ring holder shoes and other jewelry holders. Elegant design and high quality.
Christmas Jewlery Stand

These amazing bottle decorating pictures are originally from pj lighthouse. We added our top wire to these designs, so you can have a good view of how they look as a jewelry stand.

Original pictures are from the following link: http://www.pjlighthouse.com/?p=688&akst_action=share-this

A friend found this amazing work of art on a foreign website. It's hard to believe that this entire 3 bedroom unit is built inside a shoe box, with all recycled material from used fabric to newspaper and magazine ads.  I'd like to share the following with all of you, either you love dollhouse, or crafts work, or care about the planet. Please read on to see a lot of close ups. Enjoy!

Entrance and hallway. The purple cardboard created the shoe shelf and coat area.

Hallway carpet is wrapping paper scraps.

Living room.

Again, the flat panel is an ad on newspaper. 

This miniature plant is from a used silk flower. The planter? A toothpaste cap wrapped by a chocolate paper cup!

 

 Glass without bottom. Why? That's a straw tip.

 

Water dispenser, hehe. Water container is an eye drop bottle. How about stools? Tiolet paper wrapped by winkled color tissue.

 

Master bedroom.

 

Kid's room.

 

Curtains are made of a used top.

 

 

 

Dresser in the master bedroom.

 

 Home office.

 

Books on the shelf are folded magazine stripes.

 

Kitchen. The handles on cabinet? Staples.

 

Bathroom

 

 

The toilet lid can open! This isn't an easy task. The seat is a pistachio shell. How creative is that!

 

Let's take a look at the entire house again, hope you enjoyed!

 

Email tools are abundant and nowadays everybody seems to be retrofitted with a gigantic mailbox that will probably never be filled up for a very long time. Expensive tools are not always the best tool for your business, even though it comes equipped with functions that in my opinion, you will probably never use. Let me use the scenario in which one person started the business and grows and eventually get married and then grow older and then have every family remember joining the team. As in each scenario, the email structure that started from a one-man band could be different from mom and pap, and a family-owned business.

In a one person team scenario, one guy wears the hat that says "I am the sales+marketing+operation+whatever". Even though a email structure can be set up to reflect each of the role that this single person is playing, but it's probably too complicated for that person to handle info@, sales@, marketing@, service@.....and he just say:” I’ll just use my private email: john.doe@yahoo.com". Fine, this is probably the best case for this scenario because at this stage of the game, Your business takes the form of that one-person's identity and building business upon that personal identity is a smart way to attract more customers.

Using a personal email to conduct business usually means several things:
1. I am in stealthy mode now and not ready to reveal my business identity yet.
2. I am a super neat person, business is business, personal is personal.
3. I want to add a personal touch to the communication.
4. My business just started and I haven’t had time to get the email personalized.

Regardless of what you want others to interpret, if you find using a private email address convenient, stick to it. Because you don't even know what's going to happen to your business, so spend less time worrying about the email structure and more time on the market! Hopefully your business grows and survives a couple of downturns and if you lucky enough, you will find your spouse and teamed up in the very business you started. Now "1+1=2"? right, Well at least not in the number of email boxes.

Now you have two-person team, and it may well equally divide the responsibility as marketing, sales, service and so on. The business has grown into maturity and you want to add some professional touch to your email system and now you ended up with many email boxes. Not only do you need to communicate from one but sometimes two boxes and on top of that, communicating each others on a variety of issues such as service, leads projects etc. Until now, this one-to-one relationship as it's in one-person stage just get multiplied not only by the amount of mail boxes but also in the amount of information transferred. Well, now you have your relatives want to join your business because they all see the different mailboxes you two have and think they are big now. "1+1+n="? You get the picture.

So how do you know your current email needs? Well, you don't know it. But your customers know. Adding email structure is all about dissecting the information to target customer and market. If you think creating different mailboxes will help you add values to customer service, better communication, then do it. If you have a genius way of managing the amount of emails in that one super box and still can keep up, stick to it. You see right here, the essence of creating email structure is not just to receive email and find a place to store them. Creating email structure has to, in the meantime, create value for your business in term of better customer service, campaign marketing or sales. If it were not for the reasons of adding values, the email structure is an overhead to maintain, upgrade and sustain.

To build a private label (own domain) email system requires knowledge of Domain name server, mail exchange and also knowledge on IMAP or POP3. And on top of this, controlling the spam would also be needed to keep the bad worms out your sensitive data. This is no easy task for small business let alone for entepreneurs completely out of the IT arena.

Before diving into the pool, you need to define your email needs for now, at least for now:
1. Ask yourself how important is the private label email to your customer. For a PR business that polish relations for others, you definitely will need that look and feel.
2. Assess how do you want to control spam. If you do post regularly at forum or SNS, you could well be worried about the amount of spam you will receive from that email box. Tips: get a dedicated email address for sign up and another email for conducting business
3. Do you need to send campaign emails out? if you do send out email in large volumn, it's wise to get a paid email marketing system like iContact, constant contact. Because you don't want to have your email address listed as spammer. Besides, there are new rules regarding how to send out mass email.
4. Web or desktop. Web email is very convenient but many desktop application that will still need email client to operate, i.e. endicia. In most cases, business will need both.
5. Define the flow requirements for customer service, sales, marketing and shipping. Usually you will just need this group inbox for small business. Ask how can the email information be routed or assigned among the best flow that benefits the customer and the teams. You may want to forward some inboxes to other to simply the flow.
6. Understand email system needs to grow with your business. One example we had after implementing our very own CRM system, we changed from Outlook to Thunderbird so we can better use the many open source plugins that lacks in Outlook

Just as ebay sellers thought their landlords has learned something from their past and will dig in to attract sellers, here comes the latest blow to that fantacy. eBay has upped their rating system to only allow seller to leave nothing but "positive" feedback to buyers. The new system, dubbed the ebay's way of saying "customer is always right", no longer allows sellers to leave negative or even neutral about buyers and the new policy, since implementation, has undoubtfuly created a tidal wave across all forums. The initial reaction? Of course sellers hate it.

Katie of verticalwebmedia.com has done a coverage of this new system and published on August issue of Internet Retailer magazine with related stories from ebay's third party developer, ChannelAdvisor:

As eBay tries to attract more buyers, it upsets sellers with new ratings system

With its growth slipping, eBay Inc. has been making changes to lure more buyers to eBay.com. In the process, however, it’s managed to upset many of its sellers. And those sellers are speaking out on blogs, forums and other social communities telling tales of how the changes have hurt their businesses.

The debate focuses on eBay’s new seller ratings including modifications to its customer feedback system, which no longer allows sellers to leave negative or neutral feedback about buyers—only positive. Merchants say the policy leaves them vulnerable to crooked consumers who can make unfair demands—such as a shipping refund or partial refund after the sale—and threaten to leave a negative rating if merchants don’t comply.

Merchants also think the policy change to count a neutral rating by a buyer as a negative when calculating the seller’s positive feedback rating is unfair.

Those and other changes worry Erik R. Faraldo, co-owner of cell phone accessory store Wireless Unlimited with sales of about $60,000 a month. His eBay feedback rating fell from 99.9% to a 99.2% with the “neutral as a negative” change, he says.

Many of eBay’s relatively small sellers are also concerned about the company’s apparent shift toward more fixed-price sales by large retailers such as Buy.com, which is doing about $3 million in sales a month on eBay after starting to list about 500,000 items on eBay.com earlier this year, according to Scot Wingo, CEO of ChannelAdvisor Corp, a company that offers services to help retailers sell through eBay and other e-marketplaces. The ability of large merchants to afford services like free shipping can make them show up higher in eBay’s new site search feature.

While it’s clear merchants aren’t happy, both eBay and others who work closely with the world’s largest marketplace say increased focus on buyers is necessary to fuel growth. Gross merchandise sales, the total value of goods sold on eBay, grew 13% in 2007 over 2006, down from year-earlier growth of 19%. Moreover, its fastest growth was in overseas markets.

“If you look back five years, eBay grew so rapidly that it took its eye off its core U.S. market,” says Wingo. “They bought PayPal and Skype but didn’t keep their core marketplace up to date with what happened in the rest of e-commerce. It’s all about the customer experience in 2008. There have been more changes in the last three months on eBay than in the last four years. And there are more changes to come.”         --------- Internet Retailer, August Issue

 

 

Following are our currently active Whereboutiqueshop.com wholesale coupon codes that are available for your use. Please note that you can only use one coupon on an order, so if you are eligible for more than one coupon, select the one that offers you the largest discount.

Coupon Codes

09/30 11:59 PM

Code	Description	Expires
ele	10% off 15911 (sitting elephant trinket box)	09/30 11:59 PM
mon	20% off 15555 (Bejeweled Monkey Trinket Box Pen Holder)	09/30 11:59 PM
bow	50% off 07037 (Silver Chandelier necklace Crystals)	09/30 11:59 PM
sap	20% off 05234 (Deep Blue Satin Purse Pearl Handle Inside Mirror Included)	09/30 11:59 PM
pho	10% off 15821 (Tropical Fish Photo Card Holder Jeweled Red)	09/30 11:59 PM

 

Guidelines for using coupons

• To receive the discount, you MUST type the Code into the Coupon or Promotional Code box of the shopping cart. Discount can not be applied if not entered at time order is placed.
• Coupons that are marked N/A do not require a code to be entered.
• There is a limit of one coupon per order, simply choose the coupon that benefits you most.
• Coupons can not be applied retroactively to any previously placed orders.
• If you use a code for which you do not meet the requirements (such as first when it is not your first order), we will adjust your order accordingly.
• Code applicable only at our wholesale site: www.whereboutiqueshop.com. See separate code under retail site: www.merx2go.com.
• Must be a registered reseller to use coupon.

SAVE 10% 10% Item#: 10034 On the purchase of Victorian Bracelet Four Row Beaded Green CODE：mx10034

SAVE 10% 10% Item#: 06051 On the purchase of Multi Color Beads Earrings CODE：mx06051

SAVE 10% 10% Item#: 06054 On the purchase of Black Butterfly Dangle Long Earrings CODE：mx06054

SAVE 10% 10% Item#: 06049 On the purchase of Pink Art Deco Long Earrings CODE：mx06049

SAVE 10% 10% Item#: 06028 On the purchase of Victorian Earrings Pearls Pink CODE：mx06028

SAVE 10% 10% Item#: 14116-05 On the purchase of Satin Jewelry Stand 15 Inches Burgundy Dress Form CODE：mx14116

SAVE 10% 10% Item#: 17040 On the purchase of Patriotic Heart Keepsake Box Bejeweled CODE：mx17040

SAVE 10% 10% Item#: 17041 On the purchase of African Elephant Trinket Box Bejeweled CODE：mx17041

SAVE 10% 10% Item#: 15910 On the purchase of Golf Bag Photo Card Holder Enameled Silver CODE： mx15910

SAVE 10% 10% Item#: 20050 On the purchase of Aromatherapy Black Teddy Bear CODE： mx20050

SAVE 20% 20% Item#: 12040 On the purchase of Victorian Floral Brooch Citrine Crystals CODE： mx12040

SAVE 20% 20% Item#: 07094 On the purchase of Victorian Necklace Floral Citrine Crystals CODE： mx07094

SAVE 20% 20% Item#: 15452 On the purchase of Large Green Floral Faberge Egg Box CODE： mx15452

SAVE 20% 20% Item#: 15578 On the purchase of Fleur De Lis Cross Jewelry Box Bejeweled CODE： mx15578

SAVE 20% 20% Item#: 15739 On the purchase of Fish Trinket Box Bejeweled Whimsical Red CODE： mx15739

SAVE 20% 20% Item#: 15907 On the purchase of Collectible Angelfish Box Bejeweled Blue CODE： mx15907

SAVE 20% 20% Item#: 15820 On the purchase of Photo Card Holder Tropical Fish Coral Jeweled CODE： mx15820

SAVE 20% 20% Item#: 15821 On the purchase of Tropical Fish Photo Card Holder Jeweled Red CODE： mx15821

SAVE 20% 20% Item#: 15821-01 On the purchase of Tropical Fish Photo Card Holder Jeweled Turquoise Blue CODE： mx1582101

SAVE 20% 20% Item#: 15822 On the purchase of Seahorse Photo Card Holder Jeweled Blue CODE： mx15822

Starting business can be an exciting thing, especially when surrounded by like-minded entrepreneurs. In the business park that caters to our business, we have neighbors in wireless, computer parts, toys company and machine shops. Each business is different and along the line, produces different kinds of waste or shall I say, treasure? Many business practices the Japanese shop management of "5S" or Toyota's JIT. These continuous improvement methods are boosting worker efficiency and cutting down cycle time all along. Besides the management gain of these methods on shop floor, they also call for a swift judgement of material deposition, a judgment that sometimes produces a lot of waste. Just take a look of your neighborhood recycle dumpster, here is a shot from one in bayside. 

Luckily businesses in California have a free service called "The California Material Exchange" or "CALMAX". (CALMAX) is a free service provided by the California Integrated Waste Management Board (CIWMB). The program's goal is to help businesses, industry, residents, and others locate markets for usable materials that would otherwise be discarded. According to the CIWMB, "the concept behind CALMAX is simple: materials discarded by one business can be a resource for another business". In another word, Calmax works the way much like Craigslist, where businesses publish want and available ad, except for the ad only for recyclable materials.Their slogan says it all: CalMAX...a simple idea. "One business's trash is another business's treasure." Businesses, schools, and nonprofits can utilize CalMAX to search for available and wanted materials.

If your business like to start a recycle program, Calmax would be your first step to publish surplus or need information. One area that does need some attention since Calmax is a state-wide system, so be more geo-targetting as possible. You don't want to end up picking from places 50 miles away and spend money on gas. To put this in perspective, leave contact number, what you need (need specifics) or have, best time to call, and business location in your ads. Add a side note as to what you will do to these reusable materials can certainly help donors decide the fit.

In a small business environment, email is absolutely the single most important thing of communicating with customers. So at the early stage of our IT infrastructure build-out, a reliable and also versatile email server is on everybody's top list. Our missionary search ended back then with an enterprise email solution that does exactly what we want it to do and even more. But we also ended up with two servers, one with a little more green foot print and the other, a power hog.

The setup of email server would require a hierarchy that closely mimic a large corporate setting which in turn require multiple server buildup to avoid conflict and achieve redundancy. The email server provided a web-based access page that everyone can use to check their email, be it at home or out to travel. To keep the server running so we can receive email 24/7, a separate UPS is also added to the duo and our email backed up tens of time in a day to prevent loss. With each server running single power supply, it's comsumption of electricity reached 300Watts/day. This setup worked very well in-house and everyone didn't seem to mind the noise and the bill. 

In 2004, Google announced the Gmail amid a flurry of rumors. Its powerful search function and mail capacity of gigs attract attentions, and this time from small businesses. What Gmail does for the small business is not unprecendent. Many webhosts before Gmail also offered some sorts of free web email system that were all so cumbersome to read and archive. Besides, even using the email client like Outlook via pop3 will worsen many problems if the mails were read from different access points. Often times, multiple mails are stored inside the Outlook or important emails deleted because of a different client setting. 

With IMAP and its upper hand in search, the emergence of Gmail has embarked a whole new territory for small business to offload their mail server onto Google's cloud computing, not only save time and money but conserving energy. Imagine the server that its sole task is to receive email is no longer needed and keeping email running and well backed up are pushed to Google, small business could efficiently manage their business using emails as the tool.

With its latest release of Google Apps, small business can even create their very own email identity complete with email boxes and alias like info, service etc. And can even use it to manage multiple email boxes that are not in the domain of gmail.