With the passage of time, more and more individuals have shown interests in lending from banks, they'll seek loan for a small home-based business, go for a loan for house construction, or even knock at the door of bank when they need a brand new car. Consumer loans differ in sizes and characteristics, ranging from long term huge mortgage loans to small loans taken out for shopping through credit cards.

Consumer loan is different from business loan in many ways. Even though the business loans are borrowed by individuals as well, but people tend to think differently when borrowing for the business as compared to the borrowing for personal use. Consumer loans are thought to be the more risky ones than business loans because individuals defaults (fails to payback) more often than the businesses, that's why consumer loans normally have higher interest rates than the business loan. Also, consumer loan mostly has fixed interest rate.

Different types of loans:

Consumer loans can be divided into different categories. Some commonly known types are …

Credit Cards:

One of the most widely used forms of consumer loan; Credit cards have got such a huge user base because of the convenience factor. People use it for shopping at large retail stores, dining out in restaurants or at petrol pumps. Best thing about these loans is that consumers can avoid the interest altogether by paying back shortly after the transaction, otherwise a small percentage is added into the basic amount on monthly basis as interest.

House Finance or Auto Loans:

Another very important type of loan, house finance or mortgage has helped many to be in possession of their own house. Auto finance is a loan that succeeds in the time of economic growth. However, both of these loans are subject to manipulation by dishonest parties.

Installment vs. Non Installment Loans:

Installment loans are relatively smaller loans which the borrower is required to return in monthly installments, whereas non installment loans are needed to be paid off in a lump sum after a fixed period of time. Most of the time consumer loans fall in “installment based loans” category.

To cut the long story short, any advertisement that is not relevant will be rejected by the customer, straight away. Imagine that, an outright rejection, which can be regarded as an absolute failure for the marketing department. Therefore, spending time on marketing relevancy is as important as working on the idea and presentation of the ad (even more in many cases). For the reason that a brilliant idea will be wasted, in case the ads do not appear at the right place and at the right time. It applies on all types of marketing, namely online marketing (email marketing, pay per click advertisements or pop up banners), ads in electronic media (Radio & Television channels) or print media (newspapers and magazines).

Online marketing is much more efficient in this scenario, seeing that it provides the marketers with much more control over the display and exposure of their ads. You can spend bucket loads of dollars on sponsoring some of the most viewed TV shows and still more than half of the viewers would downrightly ignore the commercials. Why? Because they are in no mood to ponder over some buying decision in their leisure time, for example if some life insurance ad appears during a football match (viewers will be in a different state of mind altogether, because of the nature of the show). However, online marketing allows you to take help from useful data like search patterns or bouncing rate through different sources, enabling you to keep an eye on your marketing effectiveness throughout the time.

Very few customers are capable of making an entirely independent and rational decision, without getting influenced by any of the external factors. One of the most important factors is the social influence, which plays a very important role in a customer purchase decision. Let’s have a look at how these social influences can affect the buying behavior.   

Family Buying Behavior:

Among all social groups, family of course is the closest, hence the most influential. Knowing the answers to the questions like … who in the family is going to make the final buying decision, or who is going to pay the bill, can help a lot. Because even if your product has got nothing to do with parents, and is mainly intended for the children’s use. It is actually the parents who are going to pay the bill, therefore you are supposed to market the product from parent’s perspective and not of children's (unless the product is some inexpensive toy or candy that the child can purchase from their pocket money).

Social Class:

Society is normally divided in three classes by sociologists, namely upper class, middle class and lower class. Some divide it in further sets like upper-middle or lower-lower classes. All of these classes have their own characteristics, social values, set of needs and spending patterns. Obviously, the buying behavior is going to be different for people belonging to any of these classes, you need to address the right set of needs when marketing for a specific class of society.

Cultural Influence:

American, European, Indian, Chinese … all of these cultures are poles apart when it comes to the people’s needs and preferences, who are a part of some specific culture. Your marketing tactics should be strictly in line with these cultures and their moral values.

Planning way ahead of your retirement gives you more control over your future and saves you from some unpleasant surprises, sometimes you may need these savings even before your retire, in short the planning and the habit of saving is going to help you, sooner or later. Retirement plan doesn’t just mean desperate savings; it is more like a complete strategy that includes your preferred time of retirement, amount that you should be saving and the ventures where you’ll invest these savings. Since all of your retirement plan will be based on your desired lifestyle after the retirement, you should be absolutely clear about the standard of living you want to take up once you retire, especially if during the course of your life, you have grown to be accustomed to a luxurious one. 

A retirement plan, with some calculations would give you an idea on how much do you need to save and for how long? It also helps you in deciding the time of your retirement so that you'll not be working for too long (or retiring too early). Besides, starting early with your retirement plan and saving means, you can have a much more diverse portfolio. You can go for long term investments like stocks or real estate, which are risky but more profitable, or you can choose any other long term investment, which may take time to mature.  

On the other hand, an employee who is satisfied with his/her job will continuously strive to work hard so that he/she can retain the job. Job satisfaction is a product of many elements, some of the important ones are remuneration package, workforce environment, management style and the nature of the duties assigned.

Management Style:

The relationship between the manager and subordinates is a very critical one, if the managers or supervisors are disrespectful or unconcerned about their subordinate’s emotions; the job satisfaction level is always going to be low, no matter what the other instrumental factors are. Nobody likes discriminatory treatment, insulting remarks or overly authoritative behavior. Employees should feel at ease in the workplace, therefore the supervision should not unnecessarily violate the comfort level.

Workforce Environment and health issues:

Bad working conditions includes (but of course are not limited to) bad lighting, insufficient ventilation, hot temperatures or any other kind of health hazards. If the workers’ health is at risk, they can be anything but satisfied. These concerns should be solved on first priority basis without waiting for someone coming up with complains. In addition to the physical safety, working environment should also be able to provide mental peace. Issues like overly aggressive supervisors, bullish co-workers or impractical work targets can ruin the peace of mind.   

A good salary package can nullify various minor issues:

Probably the most influential factor in job satisfaction is the remuneration one gets for his job, a reasonable pay will compensate for many hitches, for example work overload, overtime or even a stressful job. Job satisfaction is directly related to remuneration packages and dissatisfaction mostly come up when a worker feels that he is not being appropriately compensated for the work he is doing for the company.

Apart from these factors, there are some other weighty elements as well, for example job security, overall economic conditions, growth opportunities or work/life balance. If you are experiencing high turnover rate, workers taking excessive leaves or low productivity, then you must look into these factors.   

Franchising as a Business opportunity:

At first glance, franchising looks like an ideal business opportunity if you have got the money and basic business management skills. You can instantly get a hot running product, so you don’t need to bother about the manufacturing or marketing stuff. You can also benefit from the experience and expertise of franchisor. In short, it is a ready-made business, all you need to do is to invest some capital and select an appropriate spot for franchise, and you are all set for a jump start. You don’t need to arrange for raw materials, set up manufacturing plants or go around spending big amounts on marketing, as the franchisor will be taking care of these aspects.

However, no business opportunity comes without negative aspects and there are some down sides in franchising business as well. First, you've got little or no control over the proceedings of the business. Most of the times, you have no say into the decisions of actual company or product, you are obliged to operate under the boundaries set by the franchisor, and at times it can get a little annoying.

Therefore, when you are looking to start a franchise, you must try to get in touch with other franchisees dealing with the same franchisor and ask about their experience so far. Also, be mindful when choosing location of the franchise as it is going to play an important role in your initial success or failure.

Have you not heard the phrase “when in Rome, do as the Romans do”? Similarly, corporate life has its own culture and you need to acclimatize with it. Let’s have a look at some suggestions on how to get dressed for different business occasions.

Getting dressed for Interviews:

Whether you should wear a suit for the interview or not, depends on the job you will be interviewed for, however in many cases it is the safest and the least fussy option available. However, a clean, long sleeved shirt with black or navy pants can also do the job. Do not try to give a youthful impression by dressing overly casual, as it’s not going to impress the interviewer in most situations. You can skip the tie, if you think being too formal is unnecessary. Avoid jeans, collarless shirts or sneakers for the interview, same rules apply to both interviewer and the interviewee.

Office or workplace:

Once you have got the job, you can easily ask about (or just observe) the dress code at workplace and follow that. However, being a greenhorn you should be a little more careful than those senior ones. If you see them wearing casual stuff, doesn’t mean you have got the license to put on street wear on next weekend.

Business meetings:

There are various types of business meetings, for example a meeting within your workplace; or you may be meeting with a client in their office or at a restaurant; then there are those events when people are looking to network with potential clients or partners. All of these business meeting require different attires, such as formal, informal, semi formal or casual (for events like business cocktail parties).

Work Life Balance:

Many people in today’s world are not able to balance their work with their routine lives, which results in serious stress problems. Work (our job, business or any other profession), of course is the most important thing for most of us, one can’t really do without working (except for some very rare born-with-a-silver-spoon cases). At times, you are so overwhelmed by the thought of accomplishing more and more in your life that you fail to pay attention on what you already have, it can be your family, friends or your health. Raising the bar constantly, you go from work to working hard, working overtime and ends up becoming workaholics.

Here’s when the ill affects starts approaching, you distant yourself from your family, your health deteriorate, and you miss out on so many special occasions and joys of life in your pursuit of your dream position or business. Your productivity level also suffers in these situations, working more do not always result in more accomplishment, rather such extensive efforts may fail you in the long run. Remember, you cannot sprint in the marathon or you may not even reach the finishing line, let alone finishing first.

How to balance:

Of course the best way to maintain work life balance is time management. You need to realize that your body and mind needs sometime off to keep performing on their optimum level. You deprive your body and mind of rest, and they will get even by stop responding to your commands, gulping down energy drinks is not going to help either. Best approach to deal with work-life imbalance is to make a time table and then do your best to complete your tasks within the given time frame and do not over burden yourself.      

Instead of welcoming feedback, some businesses are seen trying to discourage any kind of feedback, probably because they are sure that there's going to be nothing but complains. Not knowing, how imperative these complain can be to their long term success. Don’t think of the complaining customers as unappreciative souls who’ve got nothing better to do but to criticize your product or services, rather take them as courteous friends who were kind enough to take some time out and guide you on how to make improvements to your products. They could’ve just dump your products like others, leaving you in dark as to where did you go wrong? Irrespective of the feedback being good or bad, it is something that must be encouraged, for it will provide you with the opinion of those, who matter the most (i.e. consumers).

Coming to the question of what’s the best way to get customer feedback? It depends on the type of your business and as well as your customers. If your customers are internet savvy, then a quick survey form at your website or some other social networking website is an excellent bet. Encourage suggestions and request them to come up with honest reviews of your product, when they do, don’t forget to acknowledge their contributions.

Whatever method you choose for acquiring customer’s feedback, make sure that all those suggestions and feedback is not going in vain. Try your best to take appropriate steps according to the feedback; the customers must not get the impression that they are wasting their time for nothing. Instant reaction on customers complains and suggestions will make them feel privileged, ultimately resulting in a more loyal customer base.

Criticism:

Although, it calls for equal opportunities and economic growth, it is often being criticized for doing exactly the opposite. Mainly because the under-developed nations is the least influential group during the decision making process. According to activists speaking against World Trade Organization, the organization actually safeguard the interests of developed nations most of the times. Plenty of economists completely turn down the idea of trade liberalization as a tool for economic growth, stating that it actually opens up under developed markets for the exploitation of the developed ones.     

How can it help a small trading business?

As stated earlier, WTO is not intended to help businesses directly, but you can benefit from the information and statistic available at their website or other forums. World Trade Organization publishes various research reports and trade statistics on annual basis. For example, international trade statistics provides figures, charts and other trading details for International traders. Other equally useful publications include World Tariff Profiles, Trade profiles and WTO annual report. In case you are planning to start exporting to some particular region, you must consult these reports and look for the demand, existing trade and tariffs that may apply to your trade. You can also find information on dispute settlement, competition policies, electronic commerce, regional trade agreements or trade policies.

WTO offers internships and other learning resources for students from all over the world, such as online training, distance learning and training videos. Some of the courses available are General Agreement on Trade in Services, WTO dispute settlement system, barriers to trade and WTO legal underpinnings. Anybody can go through these courses to perk up their own trade business, or to work as a consultant for other businesses.