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Archive for February, 2009

Managing Ink Cartridge Imports From Overseas Suppliers

Feb 27

Posted by admin in Import Export | No Comments

The big four ink cartridge manufacturers are Canon, Epson, Hewlett-Packard and Lexmark and the margins they are making on their ink cartridge products is a multi-billion dollar global industry. Many printer buyers fail to ask why the high technology hardware they are buying is relatively so cheap and that is usually because they do not take into account the total cost of ownership of the hardware. Ink cartridges are to printer users what cigarettes are to a nicotine addict and once you have been hooked on a particular printer you have to then buy the compatible ink cartridge.

The big four have gone to great lengths to make their ink cartridges protected by both legal and design features to make copying as difficult as possible. This protects their revenues and the effective monopoly they have had on the supply for ink. However, there have been rapid developments in the ability to duplicate the technology as well as a relaxation by some of the manufacturers who have allowed third party licenses for clone cartridges.

Most of the third party manufacturers are located in the Far East, especially China which has a huge international enterprise zone situated at Shengzhen, but you will find many suppliers in Malaysia, Taiwan and Singapore if you take a brief look in an export/import directory. There are major issues with using a third party manufacturer of ink cartridges and if you are looking to import your cartridge needs directly there are issues you need to be clear on or the huge savings you can achieve will be false economies.

First of all, the engineering quality of the ink cartridge itself needs to be sufficiently high enough to ensure that the cartridge will operate effectively and without causing any damage to your printer. Some brands such as Hewlett-Packard have an integrated printer head and cartridge assembly so the risk to your HP printer is minimized but then the cartridge itself is more complicated and there is more to go wrong with a clone if it is not manufactured to a sufficiently high standard. Other ink cartridges rely on a printer head that is part of the printer itself and the cartridge mates with that assembly on the printer. If the clone cartridge in this case is not of the correct specification then damage can result and you will have to replace the printer itself which is very expensive and defeats the object of buying a clone ink cartridge.

You also need to look at the print capacity of a clone cartridge as the ink may not be of the same quality from a clone manufacturer as that of the branded manufacturer. If the ink is of a poor quality then ypu will probably see this in the quality of the printed document that is produced as well as a need for more, poorer quality ink to be used to produce the same quality of print finish as the branded ink. In other words, it may be cheaper but you need more of it and that affects the total cost to you as the consumer.

Finally when you are looking at importing a clone ink cartridge fro a third party supplier, ensure that you know what the actual ink content of the cartridge actually is. Some ink cartridges, especially recycled cartridges do not hold as much ink as the branded cartridge or a brand new product. If the cartridge is cheap but does not contain comparable levels of ink as the branded version then you have simply paid money for a piece of engineered plastic.

Our company http://www.easyinkz.co.uk is an enterprise specializing in developing and manufacturing print consumables like Ink Cartridges compatible for EPSON/HP/CANON series printers: Continual Ink Supply System(CISS); Refillable Ink Cartridge(RIC); Auto Reset Chip(ARC); Chip Reset System(CRC)and so on.

Are You Faking It Or Are You Making It?

Feb 25

Posted by admin in Ethics | No Comments

Have you heard the phrase fake it until you make it? It’s something which is increasingly common among business owners, especially on the internet or in direct mail. The basic idea is someone sells you a program or course teaching you how they made millions- only they haven’t yet made the millions, they hope to do so by selling thousands of copies of the course they sold you. They were lying about being rich to begin with, but if all goes to plan they’ll get rich in the end. Odd huh? These tactics are on the rise, so we’re going to try and explode some of the myths in this area.

What’s The Point?
What is the point of this kind of business? After all would you take flying lessons from someone who couldn’t fly a plane? In one word, the point is laziness! The ‘fake it until you make it’ guys are typically internet or direct marketers who are possibly new to the whole thing, or just the more experienced kind that are plain lazy. They find a web page or direct mail ad that is very convincing, promising millions of dollars just by following these few simple steps, working just a few hours each day from home. Is there anyone that wouldn’t want that lifestyle?

So they part with their money, and are sent a course explaining how to set up a very similar website, selling an almost identical product. They will make money if they can make some sales from this site, the end result hopefully being that they make enough money to take care of the ‘make it’ part. And then the cycle repeats and repeats, until there are thousands of people selling products, making a few hundred dollars, but claiming to make millions from it on their web pages. A truly strange phenomena, but somewhat of a self fulfilling prophecy.

The Legal Standpoint
Is it legal for advertisers to work on a ‘fake it until you make it’ basis? I don’t know what the FTA would make of it, but I would guess it’s some kind of grey area, as it’s very difficult to prove how much anyone is or isn’t earning from their website. Most often they will provide screenshots of proof of earnings etc on the sites that they sell their courses from. They can look pretty convincing, but these days it’s pretty easy to swipe such images from another site, or just create them yourself with Photoshop or some similar program.

Do Any Of Them Make it?
Very few if any. You can make millions from the internet and other direct marketing methods, but it takes consistent effort and skills that are built up over time. If the ‘fake it until you make it’ guys are too lazy to find their own manner of working and too dishonest to be bothered about telling lies, the chances are most of them are not going to apply the consistent efforts required to learn the ropes or make any money at all. Those new to internet marketing are pretty susceptible to these schemes, and many people do start there before getting their own (better) ideas and becoming successful doing something else.

Is It On The Increase?
Yes, unfortunately so. Modern web technology makes it possible for complete amateurs to create or acquire tremendously impressive websites, sites which can really snare and captivate a viewer. The casual web browser has no way of knowing how old the site is or if the proof of incomes are real or fake or even just stolen from another site. The only remedy is to be extra vigilant.

How To Tell?
It’s very tough to tell if any person is being honest about the claims of their product. Thankfully there are a few tricks we can keep up our sleeve.
Visit whois.net – This site will give you details of any website, the name of the owner, when it was first registered etc etc. Very useful, as it’s unlikely that a website registered 6 weeks ago is making millions for its owner!
Visit Alexa.com – This site keeps traffic stats for virtually every page on the web. A profitable webpage will usually have hundreds or thousands of daily visitors, especially if the site is making the owner millions. It’s very easy to see if this is true by using the graphs here.
Google the site owner’s name. You can find out many useful things with a simple Google search, and if there are bad reports or reports of the site being a scam, you can usually find them with some smart searching.
Look for a guarantee – Many online payment processors, Clickbank.com for example, will have a guarantee, so that if you aren’t happy with your purchase you can get an instant refund.

Hopefully you’ve found this useful. Remember, if you avoid ‘faking it’ you’ll have a better chance of ‘making it!’

Dave Origano runs seven successful businesses, all doing at least 6 figures per year. Learn from this successful serial-entrepreneur how he does it, what marketing secrets he has and what strategies he uses at his website www.MrOrigano.com

Employers Who Fail To Provide Meal and Rest Periods in California Beware

Feb 23

Posted by admin in Compensation | No Comments

Recently the California Supreme Court rendered a decision in interpreting California Labor Code Section 226.7.

The issue was whether Labor Code section 226.7 provided for payment of one additional hour of pay when an employer failed to provide a meal break after five hours of work or a rest period after four hours of work and therefore it was pay and subject to a three year statute of limitations, meaning the employee could bring a claim three years after the fact, or if it was penalty and subject to a one year statute of limitations. In the case of Murphy v. Kenneth Cole Productions, Inc., the Supreme court addressed the issued.

In this case the Supreme Court summarized the facts as follows:

“John Paul Murphy worked as a store manager in a Kenneth Cole Productions (KCP) retail clothing store from June 2000 until June 19, 2002, during which he was paid a weekly salary. The store was open from 9:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Sunday. On a typical day, Murphy and another employee arrived around 8:30 or 9:00 a.m. to open the store. Between 9:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m., Murphy did nothing other than make sales, receive or transfer product, process markdowns and clean.”

“During a usual weekday afternoon, the second shift of either one or two people arrived at 1:00 p.m. The employee who had opened the store with Murphy would go to lunch, and Murphy and another employee would begin carrying merchandise into the stockroom while covering the sales floor. At some point, Murphy would go to the office to eat as he continued to work. By 2:00 p.m. he was either on the sales floor or working back in the stockroom. Murphy was scheduled to leave at 6:00 p.m., but he often would have customers on the sales floor, or would do some human resources paperwork.”

“Murphy’s duties when he worked the closing shift from noon until 8:00 p.m. were essentially the same as when he worked the opening shift. On most days, he was on the sales floor or in the stockroom from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. At 4:30 p.m. he would try to eat lunch while he checked KCP company voice mail and e-mail in the office, and then worked on the sales floor until closing time. After the store was closed, Murphy and a sales associate would verify the bank deposit, clean up the store, put shoes away, vacuum and empty the garbage. Typically, they would finish cleaning around 8:45 or 9:00 p.m.”

“Murphy regularly worked 9- to 10-hour days, during which he was only able to take an uninterrupted, duty-free meal period approximately once every two weeks. He rarely, if ever, had the opportunity to take a rest period and, on occasion, was unable to go to the restroom.”

Plaintiff Murphy resigned on June 19, 2002 and then filed a wage claim with the Labor Commissioner.
About eight months later the Labor Commissioner conducted a hearing and issued a decision in Murphy’s favor and awarded unpaid overtime, interest, and waiting time penalties. KCP appealed it to Superior Court and plaintiff asserted claims for meal and rest period violations. The superior court permitted the additional claims.

The trial court awarded payment for missed meal and rest periods applying the three year statute of limitations under Code of Civil Procedure section 338. KCP appealed from the trail court judgment. The court of appeal held the statue of limitation is one year and that claims may not be raised for the first time on de novo appeal from an administrative hearing in front of the Labor Commissioner. The plaintiff appealed to California Supreme Court.

Overtime and rest period violations attorney Arnold Hernandez can be reached at
San Diego Overtime Attorney Arnold Hernandez