Talk about your products here, Bizniks

That's a tough one for me to answer in a few lines. I am a service/product provider. However, I only get paid when I sell product. My service is free & included in the regular retail price of my garments. My clients tend to be Financial Planners, Attorneys, Business Owners, Sales People, Mortgage Brokers... anyone who needs or likes to look professional for work. My business tends to do really well during recessions because competition in everyone's business tightens up & one way to make yourself "look" better than your competition is to look better than your competition. As far as growth goes, my business income is always function of how hard I work.

My business primarily focuses on product sales. During the past 10 years, I mostly worked in the furniture industry. And, my report to you is bleak.

Imports from low-wage countries really affected the industry here. And, even those companies that have been sourcing from the low-wage producers are doing poorly (look at their balance sheets).

Though the housing situation has had an effect in this industry, the low priced goods caused much of the harm.

So, right now, I am re-focusing my efforts - Into new product groups.

I sell eco-friendly computer products. It's a pretty new market, and mine is a pretty new business, so unfortunately I don't have any numbers yet.

However, from everything I can tell, it looks like it's going to grow substantially. A lot of the big names are getting behind eco-friendly tech initiatives such as the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, the 80 Plus certification, EPEAT, etc.

My main focus right now is connecting the dots between the manufacturers who are greening their products, and the consumers and businesses who are looking to buy them.

Spike, regarding your question about the effect ocean freight has had on business - It is having a great effect, especially with the rise in bunker costs (the diesel and oil) being passed along to the shippers.

With the current economic slow-down, and the lengthy production schedules in the low wage countries, some of the larger buyers (in variuos product industries) find themselves in a situation in which they are even trying to sell some of their (now excess) production in the global marketplace - so they do not have to incur the shipping costs. And, this is because if they have to sell it here at "salvage" prices, they may end up getting even less than the cost of shipping it.

Last year I wrote an article relating to this situation.

It's found at:
(http://neildoherty-business.blogspot.com/)