Prezi Online Presentation Tool

Are you looking for ways to create dynamic, graphical presentations quickly and easily? Prezi is an innovative online presentation tool that helps you to escape from boring, text based slides and add some fun and movement to your information without needing any technical skills. 

The YouTube video above gives a brief overview of Prezi. 

This cloud based software product offers a virtual converse for adding text, images or even video, with each piece of information connected in any order. When completed, the presentation then flows from point to point fluidly, creating a much richer experience than simply skipping from from one slide to the next. 

Prezi has many potential uses, including: 

• A sales presentation tool for impressing business clients
• Making staff training meetings more interesting
• Students can add something different to their academic projects

My favourite aspect of the product is the fact that you dont have to start from a blank canvas - there are loads of sample presentations in various styles, which you can simply adapt for your needs.

You can learn more and have a free trial on the prezi.com website. 

PESTLE Analysis for International Expansion

If you are running an established business and are considering expansion into another country, there are so many factors to consider. Where do you start?

A common way to break international market research into manageable chunks is by doing a PESTLE Analysis:

P - Political
E - Economic
S - Social
T - Technological
L - Legal
E - Environmental

To elaborate slightly on each of the 6 steps:

Political - for starters, is the country stable enough for you to want to visit or send you staff there? Are there any trade restrictions between the 2 countries?

Economic - How does the exchange rate affect your pricing? Would you need to drop your prices to be competitive against local companies and if so, could you remain profitable. Are there any import taxes that would affect your pricing?

Social - is there already an appetite for your product or service? If not, is there a reason why or simply an opportunity to create awareness and demand for what you can supply? Technological - Is the necessary infrastructure in place for you to deliver your solution and for it to be used? For example, if you provide online software, do the right people have the right hardware to use it and good enough Internet connection? 

Legal - Are there any restrictions on the way you must trade in the target territory? Must you work through a local partner firm rather than being allowed to trade directly with the end buyer as an overseas company? Does your standard contract offer you sufficient protection in another jurisdiction?

Environmental - Are there any pollution / recycling related elements to your product?

There are so many factors for you or your marketing team if you have one to consider during overseas expansion, but but the 6 steps of a PESTLE analysis may help to break your research down into a less daunting series of tasks and look at the risks and opportunities more clearly.

Welcome!

Hi and welcome to the Business Quick Wins blog, which I will share many of the useful tips, tools and techniques that I find in my work.

This will be my journal of learning in the field of international business. I am picking up so much useful insight and advice from experts in fields such as traditional and web marketing, personal productivity, sales, corporate strategy and business growth that I need somewhere to keep a record and refer back to it.

Articulating what I learn should help me to make better sense of how to benefit from the latest research, websites and developments for SMEs through to global corporations and organisations.

I hope what I share will benefit you too!

When I find something big or complex of interest, I'll try to break it down and simplify it where possible to help you and me to establish quick wins that we can take and action within our own businesses.