Everyday news about the credit crunch and resultant recession seems to get gloomier. The pound is weak against most currencies, house prices are dropping and everyone is tightening their purse strings. Tradesmen and labourers are amongst those who have been hit the hardest. However, a number of resourceful tradesmen have been able to use online resources to beat the crunch.

Tradesmen are now turning to websites such as MyHammer to find work. The website is an online marketplace for tradesmen and people looking for their services. It allows tradesmen to find a large pool of jobs and create a rating based profile. From June to December 2008, 7,153 jobs were awarded to MyHammer tradesmen and these jobs had a combined value of over £200,000.

In January alone, over 1,000 tradesmen found work on MyHammer. Nearly half of those were awarded more than two jobs.

“Despite the credit crunch I’m booked up for months with MyHammer jobs,” says Raymond Lynn of Monray Domestic Services who has been awarded 50 jobs since joining MyHammer and has a 100% customer rating.

Robert Swift the UK manager of MyHammer says:

“There are always people who need jobs doing around the home. The trick for tradesmen is finding those people. MyHammer provides the kind of marketing power that most independent companies do not have. We have thousands of jobs all over the country, centralised on our site for tradesmen to browse and quote on whenever they want.”

MyHammer works by allowing consumers to post their jobs on the website. They appear on pages such as the one below, which is a listing of all carpentry, handymen and joinery jobs currently being offered:

http://www.myhammer.co.uk/db/Carpenters,-Joiners,-Handymen/-/uk/

Those jobs are then free to view and tradesmen can quote on jobs that are relevant to them in terms of location and area of expertise. Communication with the customer is done via the forum where questions can be asked. Once a quote is accepted and the job is done, the tradesman receives a quality rating from the customer allowing them to build a national, online profile.

As the title above describes, this post is just a question whether SMS, as a media for marketing is innovative or annoying??

Many companies use it as the ultimate media for marketing these days. SMS reaches you on your mobile phone, which is with you almost all the time. Talking of me, it remains with me all 24 hours, whether I am in bathroom, bedroom, road or office. Some are fans of SMSes and have been found subscribing to different types of SMS groups. Even some websites like SMSGupshup, Google SMS Channels etc allow making of free SMS groups for these fans.

These websites work for free as they have been sponsored by different advertisers. You are sent one or two ads with the SMSes.

Talking of the recent, UTI MF after using the ‘dabbawallas’ for marketing are now planning to use the SMS for marketing. “Our strategy of using ‘dabbawallas’ was a big success. We now plan to use innovative channels like SMS to push our products,” UTI MF’s Chief Marketing Officer Jaideep Bhattacharya told PTI here.

Pay some attention here, he used the word “innovative” for this SMS marketing.

Now, the other side of this coin. People have been found being frustrated of SMS Marketing. Even TRAI after banning of advertisers’ calls to subscribers registered in the DoNotCall Register has now implemented the same BAN for SMSes. That means any advertiser can’t send you an SMS if you are registered with in the DNC Register. If you want to complain, just forward the SMS with the two letter alphacode in the SMS sender to 1909. There can be huge penalty on the marketer for this.

Now, I don’t understand, why UTI MF, and also many other companies are planning the same. On some websites it has been noticed that they ask for your mobile number if you wish to receive future offers from them, just the way e-mail ids were asked sometime back.

Now, what do you think, is SMS marketing good?? I feel it is good, if I am paid for it. There are some sites which pay you, if you agree to receive advertising SMSes.

What do you say???

Tata Motors is having payment problems with their suppliers & vendors. Many wonder why this situation arises for Tata, after acquiring Jaguar and Land Rover. Is the company moving into critical financial situation?

A Delhi-based supplier selling electrical components to Tata Motors said that “The situation was already tense due to the uncertainty over the Nano small car project. It got worse when the company stopped making payments in the past few months. Now, we are in deeper trouble, as Tata Motors’ orders have dropped drastically in the past three months with vehicle sales nosediving,” Also added that “We are yet to receive our dues of over Rs 80 crore,”.

A Tata Motors spokesman said “Tata Motors is working with vendors in these hard times. We cannot share any details since terms between vendors and Tata Motors are internal, but the company will abide by the partnership approach with vendors and suppliers,” He also said that the company is trying to get along with this situation with some help from its suppliers & vendors.

Payment negotiations are goin on, which resulted in partial payments so that no issues arise with principal investments. A vendor form south said that there are over Rs 100 crore in pending.

Adityapur Small Industries Association (ASIA) -Jamshedpur which supplies components to Tata’s truck complains that Tata Motors owes over Rs 500 crore to its members.

Mukesh Ambani, the CEO of Reliance Industries (RIL) became the third-richest chief executive in the world. This stats was provided by Forbes magazine. Also Steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, Anil Ambani and Sunil Mittal were the other Indians in the top 10 list of richest cEO’s.

Reliance Industries had a 62% drop in its share prices since January 2008. Inspite of this downfall, Mukesh Ambani achieved to come up three places in the 2009 rankings. His stakes in petrochemical division is evaluated to be at $16.8 billion.

Anil Ambani is at position 6 in the top 10. Downfall occured in Reliance Communication, which was valued to be 78% drop since Jan 2008. Anil’s shares are valued at $9 billion. Hope these gaints maintain their positions in future days.

For the past 3 months, the news in finance sector is so pathetic that big banks goin bankrupt & shutting down. But this is the case for foreign banks, not for Indian banks

The rank stats have been tripled. i.e.. from 6 to 19 between 2007-2009. HDFC holds the big cup among all the Indians bank. Among the 19, 13 banks are run by government.

For the past three months ending with December 2008, all the banks have reached to an average of 35% growth in Interest return and a 42% hike in net profit. These stats show that Indian Banks will get more investors dumping foreign banks.

Bharat Heavy Electrical Ltd (BHEL) has entered into a MoU with Kerala Electrical and Allied Engineering Co Ltd (KEL) for manufacturing wind power generators.

BHEL chairman and MD Mr.Ravi Kumar said, “We have already installed over 100,000 MW of power generating capacity world-wide. The company is gearing up to meet emerging demands in the transportation segment, which is expected to grow exponentially due to the railways plans for capacity enhancements,”.

This project will supply generators and generator spares to Siemens and GE. It is expected that this joint venture will generate Rs.60 Crore by next year. BHEL will provide all the essential support for optimal utilisation of machineries involved in the manufacture.

Visitors from close allied countries like Japan and Britan will soon have to register personal details online at least three days before arrival.

The United States will begin implementing the changes in August. Online registration will be compulsory for all visa-free travel by Jan. 12.

There are currently 27 countries whose citizens are not required to obtain visas for U.S. entry, When U.S began discussing the online registration rule last year, European businesses worried that business travel could be hampered.

But Chertoff said the system will simplify visa-free travel, because visitors will only be required to register online once every two years instead of filling out forms each time they travel.

Jet Airways, SpiceJet, Kingfisher and other airlines will curtail services frequency and air routes to cut losses after oil companies raised the prices of aviation fuel. Because of this airlines may choose to fly less rather than fly more and lose more. The rationalisation of flights has already started on the short haul routes and will soon extend to the long haul ones. For an example, Spice Jet has cancelled around 15-16 short haul flights in the last two months and will look at pulling out long haul flights soon.

ATF comprises more than 45 per cent of the airline’s costs and this component will increase even more. The prices of ATF have been increasing much more than other petroleum products. Public sector oil companies announced on Saturday night, more than an 18 per cent average increase in the prices of aviation turbine fuel (ATF), which has finally resulted in an increase of 8-10 per cent in all ticket fares, with airlines such as Jet. Airways and Kingfisher announcing an increase of Rs 300 for short-haul sectors (under 750 kilometers) and Rs 550 for long-haul sectors (over 750 kms). State government will cut down sales tax upto 4 percent.According to civil aviation a relaxation in norms for flying abroad would be sought even more strongly, so that airlines opting out of domestic routes could expand their operations internationally.

By only using his brain waves, a paralysed man has been able to manipulate a virtual character, researchers call it the world’s first.

The patient, who is 41 years old, uses his imagination to make his character take a walk and talk to another virtual character in a very popular site known as secondlife.com

The patient is suffering paralysis for more than 30 years can barely bend his fingers to use the mouse or keyboard in a traditional method.

Researchers said that it is the first time a paralysis person has been able to meet another person in virtual world and have conversation with.

Scientists are now trying to learn certain system with the help of which patients can create certain text messages by mentally selecting text characters.

To boost its Web search traffic, Microsoft corp. on Monday announced a deal that will make its Live Search the default on Hewlett-Packard Co. personal computers in the U.S. and Canada, starting in January.

The world’s largest PC maker, H.P. also calls for a deal to install Internet Explorer with an extra Live Search toolbar on those PCs.

The company has been under lot of pressure to prove that it has plans for attracting more people to Live Search since Microsoft called off its $47.2 billion offer to buy Yahoo Inc.

Government has probably decided to impose 15 per cent export duty on iron ore, used for making steel, since January iron ore prices have gone up by 50% , thereby increasing inflation.

The decision was taken at the meeting of the Committee of Secretaries (CoS) on 30th of may. The CoS has also decided to roll back export duty on steel, barring primary and semi-finished products.

At present, an export duty of Rs 300 per tonne is imposed on iron ore with 62 per cent of iron content and Rs 50 per tonne on lower grade iron ore. Under the new rule, the export duty would be based on the value of the product exported.

The domestic prices of steel have increased since 2006-07. Prices of pig iron went up by more than 70 per cent, construction steel like TMT and wire rods by more than 36 per cent and HR coils by more than 40 per cent during the recent months.

A new system in air travel began today as it got rid of the paper ticket on the eve of the industry’s conversion to cent per cent electronic ticketing at the call of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), adjoining around more than 230 global airlines.

“Today we say goodbye to paper tickets, it has served us well, but its all over. Four years of hard work by airlines round the world start the beginning of a new, more appropriate and more efficient era for air travel,” said Giovanni Bisignani, Director General and CEO of IATA inaugurating its Annual General Meeting .

IATA, which represents around 93 per cent of the world air traffic, had set a deadline of May 31 to introduce cent per cent e-ticketing which came into effect round the world, including India. This revolution helps saving an estimated 3 billion USD annually on paper, consumers can now face easier travel in an electronic world, where 100 per cent electronic ticket eliminates the headache of lost tickets. ETs can easily be changed and reissued without any need to go to a travel agency or airline ticket office. And they enable a wide range of self-service options like online and mobile check in.

The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), is planning to start a separate marketing division for retail trading. There are 3 divisons in ONGC as of now. The divisons are exploration, production, and drilling. The two support groups are finance, and human resource.

“Obviously, they will give top priority to evacuating their products first and then consider picking up ONGC’s stocks,” ONGC spokesmen said on a press meet.

From ONGC’s point of view, direct marketing of its crude and other petro-products would be a better profitable option.”The corporation will not ignore its basic function and will, in fact, strive to pump in more funds for this activity.” said ONGC.

ONGC believes that it should concentrate more on refining & marketing, power and petrochemicals while ensuring that the budget for exploration does not suffer variation.