Today's Issue
- Editor's Take
- SME News: Cebu chosen as Philippine hub for creative industries
- Events: Awareness Course on ISO 22000: 2005 Food Safety Management System (FSMS) (Monday 17 November); National Inventors' Week (Monday 17 to Friday 21 November); Market Intelligence: How to Compete Effectively (Tuesday 18 November); Lean Manufacturing (Tuesday 18 and Wednesday 19 November); Webpage Development Using Dreamweaver (Wednesday 19 and Thursday 20 November); Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) (Thursday 20 November); Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) Internal Audit Course (Thursday 20 and Friday 21 November); ISO 9001: 2008 Quality Management System Awareness Course (Tuesday 25 November); Business Expense Savings Training (BEST) Game Workshop (Tuesday 25 November); and Food Safety Risk Analysis: Improving confidence and transparency in food business (Tuesday 25 and Wednesday 26 November)
- Tax Calendar
Cebu chosen as Philippine hub for creative industries
CEBU — For producing re-nowned entrepreneurs such as Kenneth Cobonpue and Monique Lhuillier, Cebu was chosen as the creative hub for the Philippines as part of the United Kingdom’s thrust to such centers in East Asia.
The British Council chose Cebu from a list that included the cities of Manila, Silay, Vigan, Liliw, Paete, and Davao.
Cebu is the second leg of the council’s Creative Cities tour in Southeast Asia. The first was in Bandung, Indonesia early this year.
To read full article, click here!
Tax Calendar
Wednesday 12 November - e-Filing of 1601C & 1602 L & SNL Taxpayers (Group D) and 1601E & 1601F together with the Monthly Alphalist of Payees (MAP) L & SNL Taxpayers (Group D) for the Month of October 2008
Thursday 13 November - e-Filing of 1601C & 1602 L & SNL Taxpayers (Group C) and 1601E & 1601F together w/ the Monthly Alphalist of Payees (MAP) L & SNL Taxpayers (Group C) for the Month of October 2008
Source: Bureau of Internal Revenue
Editor's Take
November is a make or break month for most if not all businesses. With year-end targets on the line, everybody’s bound to work doubly hard to meet business expectations.
With ever-changing market conditions and consumer behavior, all efforts to rake in more sales sometimes is not enough. Competitors abound and consumers are becoming pickier and more demanding. Having a good product is no longer a guarantee that the business will sell. It takes a clearer and better understanding of the market and of your own business to come up with an effective strategy to achieve your sales targets.
An effective method used by most companies is to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) involved in marketing the business. The purpose of SWOT analysis is to identify the key internal (strengths and weaknesses) and external (opportunities and threats) factors that are important in achieving your objective.
* Strengths: attributes of the organization that are helpful to achieving the objective.
* Weaknesses: attributes of the organization that are harmful to achieving the objective.
* Opportunities: external conditions that are helpful to achieving the objective.
* Threats: external conditions which could do damage to the business's performance.
As simple as it may seem, SWOT analysis can be quite daunting. It’s important you are not realistic with the strengths and weaknesses of your business, or company, for that matter. Keep your SWOT specific and make full use of SWOT in analyzing your business in relation to your competition – are you better or are you worse than your competition?
The results would be a big revelation, but keep in mind that you use the results of SWOT as a guide in preparing your marketing strategy and should not be treated as the ultimate solution.
To stay competitive, keep attuned to your market, your competitor and the needs of the business within.
What's your take on this?We want to hear from you! To participate in the discussion, click here!
