e-ret@iler from Profits Plus and Tom Shay
ideas to sell more merchandise and services
September 2005 - Our 70th consecutive issue

The September e-ret@iler contains:

1. The article of the month: Dreaming and
Planning
2. e-ret@iler advisory of the month: Last
trip down the grocery aisle
3. Sales tip of the month: Add ons add up
4. Web tip of the month: Acid Ratio
5. Our Power Promoting idea of the month: A
Color Sale
6. Book of the month: The Tipping Point
7. Your e-ret@iler subscription, contacting
Profits Plus and Tom Shay

O => Print the September issue of the
e-ret@iler so you can read it at your leisure.

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1. Article of the month: Dreaming and Planning

I think the subtitle of this month's article
says it best; Working ON your business. Hopefully
everyone has dreams for the future of their
business. If you want dreams to come true, there
have to be plans made. Plans have to have goals
and goals have to have deadlines. Take a look
at the September article and see if it doesn't
get you to work on plans for 2006 and beyond.

Dreaming and Planning

O <= After printing the September e-ret@iler, check
here if you plan to read the article of the month.

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2. e-ret@iler advisory of the month: Last
trip down the grocery aisle

In the past two months we have talked about
grocery stores. There is a challenge to grocery
stores, just like there is with your business,
do find a way to have a look that is distinguishing
from the competition.

A sign of a grocery store that has a poor manager,
is in financial trouble, or a company that just
doesn't pay attention is the appearance of the
business.

When I first see your sign, is it all in working
order? Is it clean? Is the parking lot clean? Are
there stripes for the parking places? When I walk
in your business, are the floors sparkling? Are
the aisles wide and cleared of merchandise? Do
all the lights work and are they turned on?

You notice things like this when you walk into
any store. And people are noticing this about
your business.

O <= After printing the September e-ret@iler,
if you plan to review this material for your
business.

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3. Sales tip of the month: Add ons add up

We all want to see our average ticket increase.
As it increases, this can be caused by our
selling more expensive items or by our selling
more items to each customer.

Try this idea with your sales staff the next
time you are having a meeting. (You are having
staff meetings every other week, aren't you?)

Take a piece of paper and number it one through
twenty. Hand a copy to each person. Ask them
to name 20 items that you sell. Then collect
the papers and redistribute them so that no one
gets their own paper back.

As a timed event, ask each person to write an
add on item next to each of the 20 items. The
first person to complete their list can win
a prize.

The idea of this game is to get people to
constantly think about ways to make an add
on sale.

O <= After printing the September e-ret@iler,
check here if you plan to use this tip.

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4. Web tip of the month: Acid ratio

The web tip for September comes from our really
neat financial ratios calculator page. There are
20 calculators on the page - all available to
you at no cost.

The acid ratio gives a clue as to the liquidity
of your business. It is calculated by taking
the current assets (less the inventory) and
dividing that number by the total of your
current liabilities. The term "current assets"
refers to items that are likely to be converted
to cash within the next 365 days. Current liabilities
refers ti items that are likely to be paid
within the next 365 days.

The online calculator will do the math for you.
All you need is your balance sheet to get
started.

Financial Ratios Calculator

O <= After printing the September e-ret@iler,
check here if you plan to look at the financial
ratios calculator.

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5. Our Power Promoting idea of the month: A
Color Sale

When you think of the fall, you may think of
Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Halloween, Christmas,
Veteran's Day in the states, and a bunch of other
holidays. As you think about each of these
holidays, think about a color that you can
associate with that date - Orange for Halloween,
red for Christmas, brown for Thanksgiving, etc.

For the days just before the holiday, offer a
discount on any merchandise that has that
particular color on it. The business where we
first saw this promotion offered a 10% discount
on any item that had that color on it, and a
20% discount for any item that was all of the
particular color.

The neat part of this sale is that as you
promote it, your customers will come looking
for the color sale. This sure beats the idea
of having to place an ad in the paper for it.

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6. Book of the month: The Tipping Point

This is a neat book that was suggested by a vendor
recently. While the examples it gives are not the
usual "mainstream retail", I think you can easily
translate the three main ideas into retail
applicable information.

I think you will enjoy it. It is entitled, "The
Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell.

Book Referral List

O <= After printing the September e-ret@iler,
check here if you plan to read the book of the
month.

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7. Your e-ret@iler subscription and contacting
Profits Plus and Tom Shay.

The subscription is free. Just remember if you
are changing your Internet service provider, you
will need to enter your new e-mail address
to keep the e-ret@iler coming.

Contacting us is just as easy:
The phone is 727-823-7205
The fax is 727-898-3179
The mailing address is:
PO Box 128
Dardanelle, AR 72834 USA

Thanks for visiting with us this month. We
appreciate your taking time from your
busy schedule. Our goal is to help you and
your business to become more profitable. We hope
we have done that.

We encourage you to seek out and do business
with other independently owned businesses. If
you are wanting people to do business with you
because you are a locally owned business, then
it stands to reason that we should be doing
what we are asking others to do.

Get your Profits Plus. May God bless you and yours.
We will see you in October.

Tom Shay