.

by Katie Rosehill, Demand Media A stationery can be a profitable business. Step   1 Papers and pens, gift wrap and ribbons, cards and notes are all part of what you find in a stationery store. Add invitations, books, gifts and magazines and your store is stocked. Opening a stationery store takes planning, preparation and research. You don't have to be located in a huge shopping mall, but your store does have to have visibility to your potential customers. The founder of the William Ernst Brown brand grew his tiny 400-square-foot stationery store into a nationally recognized brand, according to Arlene R. Barro, the author of "Win Without Competing." Research the competition. While you might be the only stationery store in the shopping mall or strip shopping center, you may not be the only store carrying stationery, cards, pens, pencils and such. Review the types of cards the other stores carry and offer your customers something a little diffe

The right point-of-sale software system can save you as much as five hours a day, and retail establishments can see an average of 15 percent of their gross annual sales as return on their POS investment. Each system is designed for a specific industry and size, and can offer thousands of features. Because so much hinges on this decision, it is essential for gift shop owners to find the optimal POS system. This article compares five POS packages based on ease of use, cost and company reliability for follow-up support. These are only a handful of considerations that business owners need to evaluate when finding the optimal POS system for their stores, and the buying decision shouldn’t end here. A point-of-sale software package is, at its simplest, a computer program that takes the place of a simple cash drawer. All sales are made through the computer. A person enters the information, sales and transactions, and the system records and tracks everything. However, POS systems have doz

By   Baqir Sajjad Syed Updated   a day ago PM Nawaz Sharif is faced with the difficult choice of picking a new ISI chief — AFP photo/ File ISLAMABAD: Barely in his second year in office, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is faced with the difficult choice of picking a new Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief — a decision that could have far-reaching consequences for the already strained civil-military relations. Director General of ISI Lt Gen Zaheerul Islam, who was appointed as the spy chief in March 2012, is set to retire on Oct 1. And for many reasons, the sit-ins and the floods have not stopped politicians, journalists and analysts from speculating on who will replace Gen Islam in this key post. Know more:  New ISI chief to be named soon: report An extension for Gen Islam is highly unlikely; while the government is not too keen on the idea. It is also evident that the military is in no mood to ask for it. No wonder then that speculation is rife on the

Here you can find the standard measurements used in baseball, basketball, bowling, boxing, football, golf, hockey, and tennis. BASEBALL Home plate to pitcher's box: 60 feet 6 inches. Plate to second base: 127 feet 3 3/8 inches. Distance from base to base (home plate included): 90 feet. Size of bases: 15 inches by 15 inches. Pitcher's plate: 24 inches by 6 inches. Batter's box: 4 feet by 6 feet. Home plate: Five-sided, 17 inches by 8 1/2 inches by 8 1/2 inches by 12 inches by 12 inches, cut to a point at rear. Home plate to backstop: Not less than 60 feet (recommended). Weight of ball: Not less than 5 ounces nor more than 5 1/4 ounces. Circumference of ball: Not less than 9 inches nor more than 9 1/4 inches. Bat: Must be one piece of solid wood, round, not over 2 3/4 inches in diameter at thickest part, nor more than 42 inches in length. BASKETBALL (National Collegiate A.A. Men's Rules) Playing court: College: 94 feet long by 50 feet wide (ideal di