Buying Skoda Rapid Take A Look At The Hits And Misses

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Skoda has launched several models in the market with a fair share of wins and losses. Skoda Rapid is the latest addition from the auto company, and it does work in its class sans a few hiccups. It would be unfair to describe Rapid without mentioning the fact that it is similar to Volkswagen Vento in many ways. Skoda has designed the car impressively with a good number of induced features. Also, the car has been launched in three diesel and five petrol variants and priced according to features loaded. While the three models are almost same in both petrol and diesel, there are two automated variants, Elegance Automatic and Skoda Ambition Automatic, which are only available in the petrol version.

The hits in new Rapid:
The first-rate design: Rapid works in C segment sedans because of its designing. Although the comparison with Vento is inevitable, the higher end models feature high class inclusions like Anti Lock Braking system, dual SRS airbags and front and rear fog lamps. It”s a well built and strong European car for the Indian roads.

The first-rate price: Comparing strictly with Vento, Rapid offers a much better driving and comfort experience. The price by Skoda is truly commendable as the company has taken ample care to ensure maximum luxury in its class.
The First rate Automatic Transmission: If there”s one thing in Rapid that is awe-inspiring, it”s the automated transmission. There are different modes for different styles of driving with ample attention to the comfort-on-drive factor.
The first-rate Diesel Engine: You get the automated transmission on petrol version, but you cannot overlook the superb performance of the diesel variants. The car moves smoothly in traffic with loaded diesel engine and creates a torque of 250Nm.

The Misses in New Rapid:
Unimpressive Petrol engine: If the diesel engine offers you power and dependable drivability, the petrol engine will surely not satisfy you at that level. One expected Skoda to empower the petrol variants to a little larger extent.
Absence of certain features: If you take a look at the C segment of sedans on the Indian market, you will find many misses in Rapid. There are no parking sensors and no steering mounted controls, something which you will surely find in other sedans.

Unimpressive After sales service: This is probably not the concern with Rapid, but with all Skoda cars. The after sales service of Skoda is not at par with Maruti or Hyundai, which scares the class of consumers who look for quality services. People living in smaller cities will feel the main difference.

Shortcomings of diesel variants: You won”t get a diesel model with automated transmission, which is another disadvantage.

Skoda has managed to hold the market with this car after being praised for the mighty Superb. For those who loved Vento, they will surely love Rapid because it”s almost same as Vento with praiseworthy dynamics, brakes and chassis. On the whole, Skoda rapid is certainly a decent sedan with a few flips. It should continue to have an upright share on road.

Home Decorating With Gas Fireplace And Feng Shui

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The modern trends of fireplaces have evolved but decorating homes are still based on the balance of the elements to successfully harmonize any living space. in feng shui, balancing of the five elements fire, water, wood, earth and metal, are important when you are remodeling or decorating your home. . If you are buying a stove for sale, obviously you are adding an element of fire into your home. Any space with a gas fireplace will certainly exude a fiery element that emits heat embracing an ambiance and the people within it with warmth and console. This is ideal to heighten an intimacy of couples that want to restore a broken relationship.

When you search for a stove for sale or any other gas fireplace, you should consider the space and your existing furniture at home that will sit next to it. According to the feng shui masters, the south wall of your home is the best place to locate a gas fireplace. You may also locate a gas fireplace to any other areas of the house but be certain not to place them on the Northwest or the middle left part of your home. This area represents family and health. Placing the fire in this area can risk your health and relationships. Clean the space where you want to locate the fireplace; this way you do not get in the way for the heat energy to flow around the house, hence, you are not obstructing the Chi.

If you are placing your gas fireplace at the center of your home, be certain to balance it with other elements such as water. Finding a stove for sale can also weaken your health if you place it on the center of your home since it also represents the center of your body. Being exhausted with too much heat can ultimately weaken the body. Try incorporating water, wood, earth and metal elements. It does not literary tells you place a swimming pool next to gas fireplace for a water element. A small fountain or an aquarium will do but you can also use paintings or photographs with rivers, falls and the like. Other water element includes black furniture and mirrors. Placing a mirror next or near your gas fireplace is good to harmoniously balance and prevents the depletion of energy around the house. If it is a wood element, photographs or paintings of trees can help or if you can add real plants to show something that is alive and growing. Adding a television near the gas fireplace may not be a good idea. But if you and the rest of the family are fond of watching either shows on TV or DVDs, be certain to keep it hidden after use. You may use a cabinet to seal them or a projector screen that you can roll over when youre done watching.

No matter how expensive or cheap a stove for sale can be, proper placement should always be considered. Ask a feng shui expert to help you deal with the movement of the Chi. At the end of the day whats more important is your health and your familys happiness beyond all the beautiful decors and furniture around the house.

An Alternative To Venture Capital In The Food And Beverage Industry

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If you are an entrepreneur with a small food or beverage company looking to take it to the next level, this article should be of particular interest to you. Your natural inclination may be to seek venture capital or private equity to fund your growth, but that might not be the best path for you to take. We have created a hybrid M&A model designed to bring the appropriate capital resources to you entrepreneurs. It allows the entrepreneur to bring in smart money and to maintain control.

We have taken the experiences of a beverage industry veteran, a food industry veteran and an investment banker and crafted a model that both large industry players and the small business owners are embracing.

I recently connected with two old college mates from the Wharton Business School. We are in what we like to call, the early autumn of our careers after pursuing quite different paths initially. John Blackington is a partner in Growth Partners, a consulting firm that advises food and beverage companies in all aspects of product introduction and market growth. You might say that it has been his life’s work with his initial introduction to the industry as a Coke Route driver during his college summer breaks.

After graduation, Coke hired John as a management trainee in the sales and marketing discipline. John grew his career at Coke and over the next 25 years held various positions in sales, marketing, and business development. John’s entrepreneurial spirit prevailed and he left Coke to consult with early stage food and beverage companies on new product introductions and strategic partnerships.

Steve Hasselbeck is now a food industry consultant after spending 27 years with the various companies that were rolled up into ConAgra. His experience was in managing products and channels. Steve is familiar with almost every functional area within a large food company. He has seen the introduction and the failed introduction of many food industry products.

John’s experience at Coke and Steve’s experience at ConAgra led them to the conclusion that new product introductions were most efficiently and cost effectively the purview of the smaller, nimble, low overhead company and not the food and beverage giants.

Dave Kauppi is now the president of MidMarket Capital, a M&A firm specializing in smaller technology based companies. Dave got the high tech bug early in his business life and pursued a career in high tech sales and marketing. Dave sold or managed in computer services, hardware, software, datacom, computer leasing and of course, a Dot Com. After several experiences of rapid accent followed by an even more rapid decent as technologies and markets changed, Dave decided to pursue an investment banking practice to help technology companies.

Dave, John, and Steve stayed in touch over the years and would share business ideas. In a recent discussion, John was describing the dynamics he saw with new product introductions in the food and beverage industry. He observed that most of the blockbuster products were the result of an entrepreneurial effort from an early stage company bootstrapping its growth in a very cost conscious lean environment.

The big companies, with all their seeming advantages experienced a high failure rate in new product introductions and the losses resulting from this art of capturing the fickle consumer were substantial. When we contacted Steve, he confirmed that this was also his experience. Don’t get us wrong. There were hundreds of failures from the start-ups as well. However, the failure for the edgy little start-up resulted in losses in the $1 – $5 million range. The same result from an industry giant was often in the $100 million to $250 million range.

For every Hansen Natural or Red Bull, there are literally hundreds of companies that either flame out or never reach a critical mass beyond a loyal local market. It seems like the mentality of these smaller business owners is, using the example of the popular TV show, Deal or No Deal, to hold out for the $1 million briefcase. What about that logical contestant that objectively weighs the facts and the odds and cashes out for $280,000?

As we discussed the dynamics of this market, we were drawn to a merger and acquisition model commonly used in the technology industry that we felt could also be applied to the food and beverage industry. Cisco Systems, the giant networking company, is a serial acquirer of companies. They do a tremendous amount of R&D and organic product development. They recognize, however, that they cannot possibly capture all the new developments in this rapidly changing field through internal development alone.

Cisco seeks out investments in promising, small, technology companies and this approach has been a key element in their market dominance. They bring what we refer to as smart money to the high tech entrepreneur. They purchase a minority stake in the early stage company with a call option on acquiring the remainder at a later date with an agreed-upon valuation multiple. This structure is a brilliantly elegant method to dramatically enhance the risk reward profile of new product introduction. Here is why:

For the Entrepreneur: (Just substitute in your food or beverage industry giant’s name that is in your category for Cisco below)

1.The involvement of Cisco – resources, market presence, brand, distribution capability is a self fulfilling prophecy to your product’s success.

2.For the same level of dilution that an entrepreneur would get from a VC, angel investor or private equity group, the entrepreneur gets the performance leverage of smart money. See #1.

3.The entrepreneur gets to grow his business with Cisco’s support at a far more rapid pace than he could alone. He is more likely to establish the critical mass needed for market leadership within his industry’s brief window of opportunity.

4.He gets an exit strategy with an established valuation metric while the buyer helps him make his exit much more lucrative.

5.As an old Wharton professor used to ask, What would you rather have, all of a grape or part of a watermelon? That sums it up pretty well. The involvement of Cisco gives the product a much better probability of growing significantly. The entrepreneur will own a meaningful portion of a far bigger asset.

For the Large Company Investor:

1.Create access to a large funnel of developing technology and products.

2.Creates a very nimble, market sensitive, product development or R&D arm.

3.Minor resource allocation to the autonomous operator during his skunk works market proving development stage.

4.Diversify their product development portfolio – because this approach provides for a relatively small investment in a greater number of opportunities fueled by the entrepreneurial spirit, they greatly improve the probability of creating a winner.

5.By investing early and getting an equity position in a small company and favorable valuation metrics on the call option, they pay a fraction of the market price to what they would have to pay if they acquired the company once the product had proven successful.

Dean Foods utilized this model successfully with their investment in White Wave, the producer of the market leading Silk Brand of organic Soy milk products. Dean Foods acquired a 25% equity stake in White Wave in 1999 for $4 million. While allowing this entrepreneurial firm to operate autonomously, they backed them with leverage and a modest level of capital resources. Sales exploded and Dean exercised their call option on the remaining 75% equity in White Way in 2004 for $224 million. Sales for White Way were projected to hit $420 million in 2005.

Given today’s valuation metrics for a company with White Way’s growth rate and profitability, their market cap is about $1.26 Billion, or 3 times trailing 12 months revenue. Dean invested $5million initially, gave them access to their leverage, and exercised their call option for $224 million. Their effective acquisition price totaling $229 million represents an 82% discount to White Wave’s 2005 market cap.

Dean Foods is reaping additional benefits. This acquisition was the catalyst for several additional investments in the specialty/gourmet end of the milk industry. These acquisitions have transformed Dean Foods from a low margin milk producer into a Wall Street standout with a growing stable of high margin, high growth brands.

Dean’s profits have tripled in four years and the stock price has doubled since 2000, far outpacing the food industry average. This success has triggered the aggressive introduction of new products and new channels of distribution. Not bad for a $5 million bet on a new product in 1999. Wait, let’s not forget about our entrepreneur. His total proceeds of $229 million are a fantastic 5- year result for a little company with 1999 sales of under $20 million.

MidMarket Capital has created this model combining the food and beverage industry experience with the investment banking experience to structure these successful transactions. MMC can either represent the small entrepreneurial firm looking for the smart money investment with the appropriate growth partner or the large industry player looking to enhance their new product strategy with this creative approach.

This model has successfully served the technology industry through periods of outstanding growth and market value creation. Many of the same dynamics are present in the food and beverage industry and these same transaction stru7ctures can be similarly employed to create value.

Vemma Fraud Or Legit

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Are you familiar with the term MLM? Multi Level Marketing is a business approach use by several companies to promote their products and services. Unfortunately, there are several hearsays about MLM, which are not accurate. Moreover, not all MLM businesses are the same. The truth is there are some who succeeded and have been recognized as a premiere company all over the world.

Vemma MLM Business
An example of a multi-level-marketing or MLM company is Vemma. Nutritional health supplements is what it offers. As it was mentioned earlier about the bad reputation of MLM, it is just the right thing to know and to understand how the company started and how the business with Vemma works if you are keen to join this company. Vemma on the other hand is different. Certainly there is no pressure in Vemma. You are not obliged to sign up and buy products, which you think will not benefit you. Health and nutrition is the target of Vemma products. Certainly, the most important to man is nutrition.

Vemma Background
Health and wellness is what Vemma company is all about. It produces quality products through the network marketing business approach. Vemma is founded by BK Boreyko. To help people and to give everyone a healthy living is what is up to. He knows that the primary reason for personal bankruptcy is sickness and diseases, so came up with the principle to fight these causes. Mangosteen fruit is the key ingredient in Vemma’s nutritional products and beverages. Mangosteen is very effective in helping the body to fight infections and other causes of disease because it contains anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties .

As Vemma continues to change people’s lives through healthy living, there is also an opportunity for people to make money in this business. The business model use by Vemma is the multi level marketing which was tackled earlier. In this kind of approach, a commission is given to the distributor on every product that he or she sell. In addition to the residual income that they sales team is garnering. The residual income is duplicated from all the efforts and positive sales produced.

Is Vemma A Scam?
Without doubt, Vemma is legitimate company that offers health and nutrition in every product they retail. The company also provides a business opportunity to those people who wants to earn extra cash or a part time job. In order to succeed in this kind of business, effective marketing is important. People who sell the products must use Vemma products as well. It would be very difficult to sell a product that one never used in his or her entire life. That will be very bogus. People who actually sell Vemma can give testimonies of how Vemma changed their lives.

How To Succeed In Vemma
In Vemma, trainings and seminars are provided to every brand partners. These informative trainings help those marketers to have a deeper knowledge on the products. In addition, if you have entered this type of business you ought to realize that every person is a potential customer. Vemma products cater to all age groups including kids.

To help you to be successful in this kind of business, you need to know how to generate leads. You need to know the needs of each individuals. You also need to understand each product and how they can help people. You need to be always prepared to give answers on how the product will be able to satisfy their needs, solve their problems and improve their lives.

Whatever business venture you enter into, whether if it is Vemma or any other MLM company, it is very important to realize that success is not overnight. You need to study your products and your market. Learn how you can promote your products well. Take note that you represent your products.

Is Being A Silpada Designs Independent Representative Right For You

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In 1997, Teresa Walsh and Bonnie Kelly had founded Silpada Designs. They happened to be room mothers for children in the same classroom. The two women struck up a conversation and discovered that both had a common interest in sterling silver jewelry. They tried several business ventures but each time were unsuccessful. This prompted them with an idea to design their own jewelry and show them at their own jewelry parties. Since those humble beginnings, their Company, Silpada Designs has had phenomenal growth over the years empowering a vast number of Independent Silpada Designs Representatives all across the country.

Silpada home shows and jewelry parties can bring in several hundred dollars at each party. Typical sales can run around seven to eight hundred dollars for the jewelry collection. Silpada Home Designs are very lenient on how their representatives run their jewelry parties. The representatives are free to run their parties as choose. This gives a large advantage over other home parties that specializes in the jewelry market, a definite advantage for those that are seriously considering this type of venture. Representatives do not have to follow any sales script, push a particular product, or for that matter required to throw any parties. Silpada Designs even allows you to be creative in your marketing by allowing you to sell jewelry directly, over the internet, by phone or any other creative ways provided that you do not miss represent the product. Many representatives are so enthusiastic about the jewelry line and they sometimes are their own best customers. What better endorsement can you possible have?

Make no mistake; Silpada Designs is a Multi Level Marketing (MLM) opportunity. But do no let that scare you. A Silpada Representative is not bound to hold a certain number of parties or is under any quotas or minimums for sales. The number of parties is strictly up to you. However, holding as many parties as you can earn you a great deal of money. In addition, like other MLM opportunities reps can earn prizes, jewelry and vacations for doing an outstanding job. The general commission for representatives is thirty (30) percent of retail sales for jewelry and fifteen (15) percent for accessories. You can also earn residual income from down line sales made by your recruits. Again, no requirements to recruit or have a down-line sale force.

Sound good right! So the question becomes, “How much is this going to cost me?” Unfortunately, for those that are on a real tight budget, its going to be a little costly. Its going to cost you for a certification fee, learning materials and of course some product. Figure almost two hundred dollars for the certification and learning materials and two to five hundred dollars for some starter product (cost of product to reps are at a fifty percent discount) to show. So I would estimate four to seven hundred dollars to get you going.

If you want to do this but you are concerned about the startup cost, I suggest that you go to a couple of Silpada Design parties and just see for yourself how well the jewelry and accessories sell. If you truly belief that you can make a go at this and you want to be in business for yourself, but have the startup cost, save up over several months or borrow it from family or friends if you feel the need.

Go into this venture with both eyes open and your feet firmly planted on the ground. Remember not to take on more that you can deliver. We all believe that it is easy to sell anything, but retail sales are very volatile and have a lot of ups and downs to it. Keep a keen eye on seasonality and run your business like a professional CEO. Never the less, this is well presented business model and is generally a very easy business to run.

The best part of the Silpada Designs business plan is that this opportunity has instant credibility in that the Silpada Designs Representative receive his or hers commission upon making the sale. You simple collect the money, take your commission and send the remainder to the company for payment and shipment. Other companies do it differently than Silpada Designs. They require all sales profits to be delivered to the company for payment and shipment of the product, then the company sends a commission check, sometimes have the representative wait weeks on end to get paid.

So, is being a Silpada Designs Independent Representative Right for You. I would hope so. Build a career, have fun, set your own schedule and make money at the same time. No experience is necessary, and you can learn as you go. Its one of the easiest ways imaginable to have your own business.