SME Insight goes high tech
There’s much business and much money to make in the world of high technology, and no, the possibilities aren’t just for Microsoft, Yahoo and Google.
In the January-February 2008 issue, SME Insight takes an in-depth look at successful homegrown tech companies.
There’s Seer Technologies, a lean-but-mean software company that has managed to rack in millions in sales from top clients like Skycable and PLDT. Find out how they made their mark with just a handful of people on board.
Level Up! Games Philippines is best known for its massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) Ragnarok. But there’s more to Level Up than just Ragnarok, as CEO Jane Walker tells us.
Then there’s everybody’s favorite Internet café, Netopia. Did you know that it started as just a small place on
Katipunan Avenue
Online buyers have been patronizing Regalo Service for its gift registry and shopping services. And all it took to get the word around was the power of blog marketing.
Finally, we zero in on a “perpetual trade fair online” run by Global Trade Philippines. The fact that the company is in turn run by two very young people whose mission is to bring foreign buyers and exporters together makes this company particularly interesting.
Elsewhere in the magazine, get to know the pretty lady behind the hot Zen Zest stores and Scent Station kiosks – Michelle Asence Dula – as she tells us how she started her empire and made it grow.
Then Roberto Castañeda reveals how he stumbled upon making wine from yellow and green mangoes. As he says, “If Europeans have the grape wine, the Filipinos have the mango wine.”
Aside from our features, we also have our meaty Toolbox section, with articles on the art of closing a sale, availing of the tax amnesty, getting results with publicity, identifying leadership, using Six Sigma in operations, dealing with labor unions, and managing project quality.
It’s another power-packed issue of SME Insight. Now at your favorite bookstores and magazine stands.
Secure and interpret your data
By Gabriel Mercado
New business intelligence software and ways to deal with viruses and malware
Let’s say your SME occasionally runs special projects that involve certain employees dropping whatever they are doing so they can take time to do certain tasks. How much money do you lose whenever they do that? Is the time away from work worth it? How much money is saved or made when they work on it anyway? Will it justify hiring new staff just for that purpose?
What if your company warehouse is maintaining inventory of several thousand different products as well as caring for company equipment that cannot be stored anywhere else. How much company resources are being spent on doing so exactly? Is it more cost efficient to separate the two? Sometimes it feels as if it’s more trouble than it is worth so why not outsource the job? But wait, before you do that, why not find out just how efficient it is so you’ll know if you did the right thing?
Common mistakes small businesses make
By Gerry Plaza
You’ve got it all set. A sound business plan. Expertise. Familiarity with the market. State-of-the-art tools. But no one is biting. What went wrong?
Small businesses really played hard but they still stare at a huge deficit against the competition. We’ve talked to people who went through the same perilous journey but came back a victor.
Guerilla Selling
Unconventional strategies for multiplying your sales
By John Calub
Imagine a salesman without a brochure, without a business card, and even without a briefcase walking out with a closed deal (worth millions) from a customer he never met before. This maverick continues to make his sales calls wearing jeans and he doesn’t even carry a pen! What’s so unique about this salesman is that when asked by a customer to write up the order already, this salesman objects—and the prospect is even the one overcoming the objections for him.
Sounds like an urban legend? Not really. The above story is not unique in any way. This approach has been repeated over and over again in several large firms across the world by sales renegades who sneak past the gatekeeper and close the sale even in the toughest situation. And it’s all because of “Guerilla Selling,” the unconventional sales approach propagated by world-renowned guru Jay Conrad Levinson.
Revolutionary selling strategies
The guerilla salesman, although undermanned and under-equipped, sells to large corporations by using two weapons: information and the element of surprise.
Read the full article in the November-December issue of SME Insight Magazine
SME Insight readers attend MBA Roadshow’s Manila leg
Photos by Christian Regis
Owners and managers of small- and medium-scale enterprises took time off from their busy schedules last month to attend the last leg of the Manage Your Business Advantage (MBA) Roadshow held last November 13, 2007 at Discovery Suites in Ortigas Center.
The half-day free seminar was designed to educate CEOs and owners of SMEs about how information technology can be used to their enterprises’ advantage.
Speakers included Art Ilano, editorial consultant of SME Insight, who talked about Finding Your Business Advantage. Jerome G. Matti, marketing manager of Intel Philippines, spoke about Gaining Business Advantage Through Technology. Jermyn L. Wong, channel account manager of Intel Philippines, discussed Intel’s Core Micro-Architecture and how the Intel Platform Administration Technology can enhance business productivity. Dennis Salvador, south GMA territory sales head of Globe Telecom, and Dino Bernardo, corporate sales and marketing supervisor of Canon, introduced their latest product offerings.
The MBA Roadshow was made possible via a partnership between SME Insight, the country’s only magazine for small and medium enterprise managers, and Intel Microelectronics Philippines, the world’s largest and most influential hardware technology company. The roadshow has been to key cities nationwide, including Cebu, Davao and Cagayan de Oro, before reaching Manila.
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Welcome to SME Insight
SME Insight is the only Philippine magazine to focus primarily on small and medium enterprises. After all, the SME sector is responsible for over ninety percent of business activities in the country today! SME Insight is also the first magazine designed primarily for the informational needs of managers and owners of small and medium enterprises. And it’s about time! SMEs are responsible for more than 90 percent of all business transactions in the country today, and the majority of their owners and managers are hungry for tools that can make their managerial tasks easier.
