Bus 310 Assisgnment Essay

Bus 310 Assisgnment Essay Bus 310 Assisgnment Essay There are millions of companies in the world today. Some of these are small, while some are global and large in nature. The company I have chosen to research is Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is a multinational corporation specializing in retail that operates a chain of department and warehouse stores. (Wal-Mart. Our Story. http://corporate.walmart.com/our-story. Walmart’s customer base is pretty much made up of everyone. However, according to Brenden Gallagher’s article, there are types of people that frequent these stores. The first type is the wild animals, the loners one would say. They are the ones that you see in school but never wanted to talk or have any interaction with them. Then you have the shoplifting teens, these customers are there just to cause trouble, then you have the dads that don’t normally do the shopping, but have been asked to go get something. They are the ones lost, wondering around the store searching helplessly to find that one item that he has been asked to bring home. Next you have the drug users, the stoners. These customers are there because of the vast variety of muchies available to them at all hours of the night. There is also the bored elderly couples that are just there to walk around the store just to get them out of the house, the middle aged divorce that could only be there to either sulk or look for the next husband. Let’s hope it’s the sulking not the latter. Then of course, you have to have the town gossiper there to see what he/she can find to spread around town, because we all know this is where everyone goes! I know I can’t go to Wal-Mart without having to stop and talk to someone I know. Next comes the t-shirt junkies, these customers are there to buy the lame slogan t-shirts that they can get for little money. Lastly, you have the college kid that is home visiting that the parents have talked into running their errands for them. Why else would college kids want to hang out at Wal- Mart, it’s not the mall! Wal-Mart is the world’s largest corporation and can usually be found just about anywhere! Every company both small and large has a mission statement that the business operates for and from. Wal-Mart’s mission statement is â€Å"We save people money, so they can live better†. (Farfan, Barbara. Company Mission Statements-Complete list of World’s Largest Retail Missions. Retrieved from http://retailindustry.about.com/od/retailbestpractices/ig/Company-Mission-Statements/Wal-Mart-Mission-Statement.html. According to Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart, the company’s purpose is to work together to lower cost of living for everyone. (Farfan, Barbara. Company Mission Statements-Complete list of World’s Largest Retail Missions. Retrieved from http://retailindustry.about.com/od/retailbestpractices/ig/Company-Mission-Statements/Wal-Mart-Mission-Statement.html. Wal-Mart uses their Human Resource department to unders tand the connection between fitting the right person the right job to motivate the employees to feel capable of successfully accomplishing the daily operations. With every business you will find issues that derive from human resource. Some of these examples are turn-over rate, low wages, and unskilled employees. Well surprise, Wal-Mart isn’t any different. There are several thousand stores around the world and they each have their own human resource issues, the one that I feel is the biggest issue is the unskilled workers let me explain why. If Wal-Mart human resource implemented a series of test to determine the persons personality, attitude, demeanor, and skills will assist in hiring better skilled workers. These test will be able to evaluate how a person can handle customers that are irate, or co-workers who are lazy and want to have someone do everything for them. If these test

Honest Numbers about an Amazon Indie Ebook Giveaway

Honest Numbers about an Amazon Indie Ebook Giveaway One problem facing indie authors is the lack of honest sales figures. Self-reporting is often vague or exaggerated. While Hugh Howey’s Author Earnings page is a good source, more data are needed. I recently did a five-day free promotion on Amazon and would like to share my results. I’m writing a series of post-apocalyptic novels titled the Toxic World. Book One, Radio Hope, came out in February. In March I published a 10,000-word short story titled The Scavenger. The series is in the KDP Select program so I can take advantage of free giveaways and countdown deals. The Scavenger is priced at 99 cents. It’s not intended to make money, but to advertise the series, so I use my free days. I get five days to offer it for free every ninety-day period. My first promotion was from Friday, April 4 through Tuesday, April 8. I did little promotion. I mentioned it on my blog and several times on my Twitter feed. Several blogger buddies mentioned it. A few nice people tweeted. Here’s the daily breakdown, with the number of downloads for each country in parentheses. Friday, April 4: US (79), UK (13), Spain (5), Germany (2), Canada (3), India (1). Total: 103. Saturday, April 5: US (82), UK (9), Germany (1), Canada (1), Australia (1). Total: 94. Sunday, April 6: US (58), UK (2), Germany (1), Canada (3), Australia (1). Total: 65. Monday, April 7: US (61), UK (11), Australia (1). Total: 73. Tuesday, April 8: US (47), UK (8), Spain (1). Total: 56. Grand Total: US (327), UK (43), Canada (7), Spain (6), Germany (4), Australia (3), India (1). Grand Total for all markets: 391. The giveaway numbers mirror my sales - the U.S. is My first day was my biggest. Fridays and Saturdays are good sales days as people look for weekend reading. There’s a severe drop off at the beginning of the week. This was reflected in my giveaway numbers. That good first day got me into the top 20 in the Post-Apocalyptic and Dystopian categories on Amazon UK and into the top 20 â€Å"Kindle Short Reads† on Amazon US. This increased visibility and encouraged more downloads, creating a positive feedback loop and getting the attention of some â€Å"free ebook† websites and Twitter feeds, which presumably helped keep numbers up. Reader reaction was prompt. While the giveaway was still on, someone added The Scavenger to Goodreads and I got three reviews. What about sales of Radio Hope? During the giveaway I sold six, twice what I sold in the same five-day period a week earlier. I have since had several sales of Radio Hope to people who said they’d been pulled in So what did I learn? Don’t expect astronomical numbers. As a little-known author in a flooded genre, you won’t hit number one. The friend factor only goes so far. Few downloads were The first day is essential. Getting those numbers up quickly makes you visible. This encourages more downloads that will keep you visible. Weekends are better. Split it across two weekends instead of a single five-day block. You’re building a tower, not launching a rocket. While this giveaway didn’t get me lots of sales, it did get my series onto nearly 400 Kindles. That’s a start.