The pricing strategy of your small business can ultimately determine your fate. Small business owners can ensure profitability and longevity by paying close attention to their pricing strategy.

Commonly, in business plans I’ve reviewed, the pricing strategy has been to be the lowest price provider in the market. This approach comes from taking a quick view of competitors and assuming you can win business by having the lowest price.

Lowest Pricing Does Not Win

Having the lowest price is not a strong position for small business. Larger competitors with deep pockets and the ability to have lower operating costs will destroy any small business trying to compete on price alone. Avoiding the low price strategy starts with looking at the demand in the market by examining three factors:

1. Competitive Analysis: Don’t just look at your competitor’s pricing. Look at the whole package they offer. Are they serving price-conscious consumers or the affluent group? What are the value-added services if any?

2. Ceiling Price: The ceiling price is the highest price the market will bear. Survey experts and customers to determine pricing limits. The highest price in the market may not be the ceiling price.

3. Price Elasticity: If the demand for your product or service is less elastic, you can then have a higher ceiling on prices. Low elastic demand depends on limited competitors, buyer’s perception of quality, and consumers not habituated to looking for the lowest price in your industry.

Once you understand the demand structure in your industry, review your costs and profit goals as set in your business plan or financials. The low price strategy is best avoided by small business but there are conditions such as a price war that can drag a company into the lowest price battle.

Avoiding a Price War

A price war can wreck havoc in any industry and leave many businesses, out of business. In the early 90′s, I observed the competitive exercise equipment market enter a price war in a large city market. Profits were plentiful but a price war took the gross margins from 42% to 12%. In less than 18 months, over 60% of the retailers were out of business while my division went national. Take these tips to evade a deadly price war:

And because this is China, a country that is still undergoing cultural growing pains and whose architectural monuments are mostly being built by unskilled migrant labor, the opera’s construction was racked with problems and the quality of some of it is abysmal.

Still, if you’re an architecture lover willing to find your way to the building, you probably won’t care much. Designed by Zaha Hadid, the new Guangzhou Opera House is gorgeous to look at. It is also a magnificent example of how a single building can redeem a moribund urban environment. Its fluid forms — which have been compared to a cluster of rocks in a riverbed, their surfaces eroded by the water’s currents — give sudden focus to the energy around it so that you see the whole area with fresh eyes.

They also want to ensure that future deal would be legally binding on all.

But the draft texts written by chairs of overnight talks do not specify a legally binding outcome.

This year’s talks in South Africa are not intended to produce a new binding agreement.

But the EU and its allies from the Alliance of Small Island States (Aosis) and the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) are seeking a firm roadmap towards such an agreement, and soon.

Aosis delegates are not happy with the drafts.

They, and the EU, have pledged they will not make an agreement here that is not consistent with the scientific picture.

“If there is no further movement, then I must say I don’t think there will be a deal in Durban,” said EU climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard.

The drafts broadly reflect the priorities of the BASIC group – Brazil, the South African hosts, India and China – and the United States.

They envisage some developed countries – the EU, and probably others – pledging further emission cuts within the Kyoto Protocol, without making those pledges binding as yet under the protocol.

One seasoned observer of the UN process said the proposals “buy 10 years’ delay in action for the US, China, India and Brazil, and risk making the most vulnerable countries ‘road kill’ on the big emitters’ highway to the future.”

Detailed reactions from delegations are awaited.

The main lobby of the conference centre in Durban, South Africa, saw a long demonstration on the final afternoon, with campaigners demanding progress.

“Listen to the people, not the polluters,” they chanted.

The last of the demonstrators was led away about an hour and a half later.

Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN climate convention (UNFCCC), said that whatever governments decide here will not be enough to bridge the gap between the emission cuts governments have pledged, and the cuts necessary to keep the global average temperature rise below 2C from pre-industrial times.

Pretty summer dresses and bare legs must have felt like a lifetime ago for Pippa Middleton as the brunette beauty belted a warm winter coat over an all-black ensemble for her walk to work.

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Braced for the chill, Pip wrapped a black scarf around her neck and kept her legs covered with thick black tights and her Russell and Bromley knee-high boots. Staying as stylish as ever, Pippa accessorised with a Loewe Amazon bag and shades.

LONDON. Artists including Damien Hirst, Isaac Julien, Shepard Fairey and Wim Wenders have created limited edition digital works for a web platform, s[edition], that launches today in London.

The works are available to buy and download for display on mobile phones, iPads and computers. Each edition is numbered and authenticated with a certificate signed by the artist. Prices range from £5 to £500, and will increase as editions sell out, rising to around £1,000 according to Harry Blain, the site’s chairman and cofounder.

Blain, formerly the director of London’s Haunch of Venison gallery and now co-director of the Blain|Southern and Blain|Di Donna galleries, is leading the venture with Robert Norton, the former chief executive of Saatchi Online and head of e-commerce at AOL Europe. “It’s an idea I’ve been playing around with since the early 1990s when we were looking at CDs, but the technology was simply not there then,” says Blain. He calls the concept a “21st-century adaptation of woodcuts and etchings. Artists are just using the media available to them to reach a larger audience”.

The organisers hope to attract aspiring collectors with works including a downloadable Damien Hirst for £7.50. “If they go on to buy works, become patrons of museums, or major collectors it would be a wonderful thing, but at the moment it is just about being fun and interesting,” says Blain.

The site encourages users to follow the artists involved, as well as see which works other members are buying. Ultimately, buyers will also be able to resell works they acquire. “Once the edition has sold out you can offer it back for sale again. It is authenticated through the site and then sold through a separate part,” says Blain, adding that the technology for resale will not come into effect until 2012. Meanwhile, those tempted to buy physical works by the artists involved can contact the relevant gallery directly: those listed on the site so far include Gagosian, White Cube, Helga de Alvear, Lehmann Maupin and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery.

There are currently nine artists involved, including Mat Collishaw, Michael Craig-Martin, Tracey Emin, Tim Noble & Sue Webster and Bill Viola. A further “ten or so are creating works”, says Blain, adding that “it would be a nice objective to have 100 or 200 of the world’s best artists involved.” The project is a “great thrill”, says artist Mat Collishaw, who likens the reproduction of works on digital devices to illuminated manuscripts. Isaac Julien says the platform allows a “proximity that we do not have to artworks generally”, while Sue Webster adds that the speed of the internet means that the spread of information “is faster than a disease. And… instead of a disease being spread, why not some of our imagery being accessible to a wider audience because I suppose it is educating people to look at art.”

Tatlin’s constructivist tower on Saadiyat

ABU DHABI. The most interesting work of art on show at Abu Dhabi Art 2011 is not for sale, it could hardly be more prominent, and yet most visitors give it no more than a passing glance.

Just beyond the main entrance to the Manarat Al-Saadiyat is one of the earliest surviving models of Russian artist Vladimir Tatlin’s The Monument to the Third International, conceived between 1915-20. Though the original disappeared long ago, this ten-foot-tall model was built in 1967 by the Moderna Museet, Stockholm, using extant plans and photographs. The New York-based dealer Tony Shafrazi had the idea of bringing it to Abu Dhabi Art 2011.

What makes the piece so compelling is the relationship between it and its current location. There is a fascinating resonance between the wild, ambitious idealism that once inspired Tatlin’s tower, and what Shafrazi called the “remarkable, miraculous, limitless possibility of thinking” that has inspired the development of Abu Dhabi and in particular Saadiyat Island, now home to Abu Dhabi Art.

Saadiyat Island will soon house the Zayed National Museum (designed by Foster + Partners), the Louvre Abu Dhabi (Jean Nouvel) and, with luck, the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi (Frank Gehry). Only by understanding what this island was until recently—an unpromising stretch of barren, sandy land—does the link to Tatlin and his strength of vision become clear.

There’s another parallel here when it comes to the height of the proposed tower. Had it been built, Tatlin’s tower would have been the tallest building in the world. Today that honour belongs to the gargantuan Burj Khalifa that opened earlier this year down the road in Dubai. Originally known as Burj Dubai, it is said to have been renamed after Abu Dhabi’s ruler, Sheikh Khalifa, in gratitude for recently coming to Dubai’s financial rescue.

It might sound silly to attempt a connection between Russian constructivism in the 1910s and what is happening a century later in the Arabian Gulf. Yet the wild and at times utopian ambition behind both makes it just about possible. It is this element of what is happening on Saadiyat Island, if nothing else, that surely would have met with the approval of Tatlin, Malevich and others.

“Football is football and a game should never be played without the intention of winning it. I may have a match like those against Alcorcon on Tuesday against Ponferrada. We’re not exempt from that ever happening to us and we shouldn’t feel embarrassed if it does. That’s why we should always give a serious performance. You may win or lose, but doing a good job should be natural regardless of the outcome. We did our best tonight and tried to win a Champions League match.”

“I had intended Jese to play, but I brought Mendes on because Arbeloa had mild pain and we were winning 2-0. I thought of using Altintop as a right back and Jese down the wing, but we were pulling back our lines and I felt I had to use a defender.”

“Mendes did very well. He has international experience and did a good job. Jese will have to wait until next time. He may not play in the Champions League this season, but there are many more future European Cup games which he can play with Real Madrid. Let’s see if he makes his debut against Ponferradina.”

“I didn’t use Ozil or Di Maria due to circumstances that arose during the game. Altintop needed to play and he did very well. But I did feel Ajax would have a chance to win the match if they scored and brought the score up 2-1. We needed the stability Xabi gives us. We lost a bit of balance. I sometimes have an idea but I’m forced to do something else because of what happens in the game. I had Ozil and Jese in mind, but in the end used Xabi and Mendes.”

“If memory serves me well, last season we lost to Barcelona after facing Ajax. You never know in football; there are always surprises, but right now we feel more confident and tighter. We are a better team than last season.”

Missiles reportedly struck a Hamas training facility overnight, sending shrapnel flying into nearby houses.

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya accused Israel of an “unjustified and serious escalation” in the Gaza Strip.

Israel’s military expressed “regret”, but blamed Hamas for operating “while embedded within a civilian population”.

A statement said the civilians were not harmed directly by the missiles, but by the explosion of rockets stored at the Hamas facility. Hamas, it added, had used the civilians “human shields to protect their actions”.

‘Arbitrary killings’

A health official in Gaza City, Adham Abu Salmia, told the Associated Press that Friday’s air strike had set several houses on fire and sprayed several with shrapnel.

The destruction of one house left a 42-year-old man dead and injured seven members of his family, including his father, wife and five of his children, he said.

Mr Haniya, the head of the Hamas-controlled government in Gaza, accused Israel of carrying out a predetermined policy of assassination and arbitrary killings.

Israel said two militants, who had been planning an attack, were killed in an air strike on Thursday

“We are pursuing intensive contacts with several Arab and international parties, and we stress the necessity of this aggression being stopped immediately,” he told reporters.

On Thursday, Gaza-based militants fired rockets into southern Israel in response to another air strike that killed two militants.

The men died when missiles hit a car in which they were travelling on a crowded street in Gaza City.

The Israeli military said the men had been planning an attack on Israeli civilians and soldiers along Israel’s border with Egypt’s Sinai peninsula.

Palestinian sources say one of those killed was a member of the Fatah movement’s military wing; the other was his nephew, a Hamas member.

The BBC’s Wyre Davies in Jerusalem says much of southern Israel is on high alert.

At least one major road near the port of Eilat has been closed, and according to Israeli intelligence sources a significant cross-border attack in the area is expected anytime soon, our correspondent adds.

In the late 1960s/early 1970s, the ice fields slipping down Mont Blanc and the surrounding mountains of the European range covered some 375 sq km.

By the late 2000s, this area had fallen to about 275 sq km.

The research has been presented at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting, the world’s largest annual gathering of Earth scientists.

It mirrors some findings of retreat occurring in other sectors of the Alps which sit across the borders of several nations, but predominantly Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, Germany, France, and Italy.

The new French Alps glaciers inventory was produced by Marie Gardent, from the University of Savoie, and colleagues.

It assessed the roughly 600 glaciers in broad areas incorporating the Ecrins, Belledonne, Vanoise, Ubaye and Grande Rousse Arves massifs, as well as the famous Mont Blanc Massif in the north.

The team drew upon map archives, past satellite imagery and aerial photographs. Manual inspection was used to check the automatic delineation methods employed in the pictures was correct.

“We use manual delineation to verify the satellite data because there can be a problem with debris cover on a glacier,” explained Ms Gardent.

“Automatic delineation from satellite data will sometimes say there is no glacier when in fact we know there is one there. Also, deep shadows can hide the glacier margins.”

The only existing glacial inventory from the French Alps was published four decades ago within the context of the World Glacier Inventory. It found the overall area of ice to be about 375 sq km.

By 1985-86, in spite of a short advancing period in the late 70s/early 80s, glacial coverage had decreased to a value close to 340 sq km, the new survey shows.

Since then, the withdrawal has accelerated, with the area being reduced to about 275 sq km in the late 2000s.

Nasa’s Landsat spacecraft looks down on Mt Blanc and La Mer de Glace snaking off to the north-west

This represents an average loss of some 26% over the last 40 years. The retreat is not uniform across the French Alps, however. The greatest losses have been seen in the southern sectors. In the Belledonne Massif, for example, glaciers have almost completely disappeared; and in the Ecrins Massif, glacial retreat is more than three times stronger than in the Mont Blanc Massif.

“The glacier retreat is less important in the northern Alps than in the southern Alps,” Ms Gardent emphasised.

“We think this is because of the lower elevation of the mountains in the south, but also because of climatic conditions which are different. There is more precipitation in the north and there is also more cloud.”

The northern region includes the biggest French glacier of all – La Mer de Glace, which falls over a 1,000m in altitude down Mont Blanc itself. Its area today is just over 30 sq km, a shade smaller than the 31.5 sq km in the late 1960s/early 1970s.

Efforts to assess and monitor glacier health are going on across the Alpine region.

At this very meeting three years ago, Swiss researchers reported that glaciers on their part of the European range were also losing mass at an accelerating rate.

This rich, treacly gingerbread is addictively good. Try making it as an alternative to a traditional Christmas cake.