|
Statistics for your business
While I am not sure why the fascination that people express with regard to 'industry standards' , I have found a website I would like to share with you. This link will take you to the front page of their site and from there you will have to follow several links to find some of the appropriate information. This site has a lot of information about financial comparisons.
One comment of caution. When you are asking for these 'industry standards' you also have to ask how many businesses have participated in the survey and if their numbers were confirmed.
Frequently this information is on a volunteer basis meaning the business can submit any numbers they want. Secondly in asking how many businesses participate, I am not sure what the quality is when the participating businesses represent a very small part of the industry.
A third concern is if you are looking at the survey over several years, you should be concerned about the repeat participation of businesses. As an example, if the survey has 300 businesses this year and a different 300 businesses participate next year, it makes it very challenging - if at all possible - to see any trends in the numbers.
Biz Stats
$$$$$$
One more reminder:
Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day is Thursday, April 25
You have a great opportunity to draw a lot of attention to your business with this event.
Ask everyone in your business to bring at least one child to work. If they don't have children, perhaps they are an aunt or uncle, or even a grandparent. They can always 'borrow' a child from someone.
You could get some great press by having all of these young people in your business for a day. You can make arrangements for a local independent pizzeria to bring lunch for everyone.
Got a local bakery? Drinks and cupcakes or cookies from there would be a big hit.
Get that social media going and tell your customers they should come to visit the future leaders of the community; the future independent business owners.
If you are a service business, take a kid along with you. Send your customers a note telling them about your special work arrangements for that day.
And be sure to tell your story to the media in advance of the event so you can get some free publicity from it.
Here is a link to the website for the event. You can even order t-shirts and hats to promote the event.
Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day
$$$$$$
Jerry Obarski to be our special guest for the e-ret@iler conversation on Thursday, April 25
Jerry has a lot of experience with business management. He spent 37 years with major department stores. The part of Jerry's expertise we are going to discuss is shrinkage control.
Shrinkage control means making the necessary efforts to be sure your employees are not stealing from you, losing equipment, giving 'deals' to their friends, and just about anyway possible for you to lose money or property from your business.
We will also talk from an ownership position about how you need to have certain controls in place so that you do not have situations where someone can alter your financial books to hide any stealing.
This is a very important e-ret@iler conversation; I have heard from too many of our readers who have experienced theft in one form or another.
Send your questions now and I will make sure that Jerry will give you his viewpoint on what you can do to better control your business.
The call will be Thursday, April 25 at 8pm eastern.
If you did not join Bill Kendy and me for the March e-retailer conversation, you missed the opportunity to hear Shawna Schuh share some great ideas of business professionalism.
We do record all of the sessions and they are available for you by following this link.
E-retailer conversations
| Internet Tip of The Month |
Advertising, marketing, promoting calculator
This free online tool is an updated version of what we used in our business for many years. My father required that I have a written plan for each year as to how we were going to get our name in front of new potential customers as well as speak to our existing customers. Also included in the budget was our plan for contributions and donations to organizations within our community.
When we introduced this calculator to the website it was unique in that it required a paid annual subscription. Now it is FREE, and we invite you to utilize this tool.
AMP Calculator
| The Power Promoting Idea of the Month |
Are you thirsty?
This past weekend here in St. Petersburg, our community hosted the season opening Indy Car race. Needless to say, there were a lot of visitors to the community and a lot of locals coming to watch three days of racing.
My observation was that of one very sharp business that very inexpensively exposed many of these race fans to their business. Their effort?
They had staff members standing on street corners handing out bottles of free cold water. I am sure it was very refreshing on a warm day.
The business found a nearby company that will create a custom label for a business and label as many bottles as necessary.
The labeling company charged an art set up fee and required the business to print a certain quantity of labels that were paid for in advance.
The local business only paid for the quantity of water bottles they ordered for each event. The labeling company, having printed several thousand labels, keeps all of the extra labels on hand and awaits the phone call of the local business to get the instructions to label some bottles and deliver them to the local business.
It is a very inexpensive way to get all of your contact information before your potential customers. And as these potential customers take a sip, they have to look again and again at the contact information of the business.
|
