The February e-retailer contains:

1. The article of the month: The Need to Show More Pride in Your Employees
2. e-ret@iler advisory of the month: Looking to Save Time
3. Web tip of the month: Days of Inventory on hand
4. Our Power Promoting idea of the month: March 29
5. Book of the month: Hope is not a Strategy!
6. Your e-ret@iler subscription, contacting Profits Plus and Tom Shay

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

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1. The article of the month: The Need to Show More Pride in Your Employees

Whether your local unemployment rate is low or high, good employees are hard to find. And when we find them, we have to work hard to keep them.
Take a look at this article and give a second thought about how you are showing your appreciation to your employees.

The Need to Show More Pride in Your Employees

O <= After printing the February 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: Looking to Save Time

It was late last year as we were examining the book, "The Stuff Americans are made of". I mentioned that while the title implies that it is applicable only to people that live in the United States, I haven't found that to be true.

We started this book review in October, and after taking a short vacation for last month's article we will continue. The fourth point from the book is that we are all looking to save time.

We can help our customers do this in two ways. One in how we merchandise the sales floor; do we make it easy for them to find what they want?

Are the aisles wide and easy to navigate? If you have a double front door, are both sides unlocked?

The second way we can help people comes from what we sell. Your customers will pay more for something that saves them time and effort. Of course, we have to point out these benefits to our customers. But a time saver service or product is definitely worth some extra money. And that means some extra margin and profit for you!

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

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3. Web tip of the month: Days of Inventory on Hand

We continue our series of looking at the many tools we have created on our website for your usage. This month we look at "days of inventory on hand".

This calculation gives you an answer that is stated in a number of days. The answer means that if your business were to stop purchasing inventory today and were to sell what you have on hand until you finally sell out, how many days would it be until you ran out.

Over several months, if this number grows, it means that either your sales are slowing down or your inventory levels are increasing.

At first look you might think you want this number to go lower and lower. This is true to a point. And that point happens as customers ask for items and your answer is, "We are currently sold out, but should have some more in soon".

Remember the comment about saving time for customers that we just discussed? If you are out of stock on items and I have to come back, you definitely are not saving me any time.

Tom's suggestion is that you look at what this number has been for the past couple of years in your business and make a point to track it each month.

While having it too low will create the problem we just discussed, having it too high means that your checking account could be hurting.

Days of Inventory on Hand

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

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4. Our Power Promoting idea of the month: Mom and Pop Business Owners Day

March 29 is Mom and Pop Business Owners Day. And what are you doing to celebrate it? As one who the day has been created for, are you going to have a sale to celebrate the day? How about throwing a party for yourself?

Tell the media and your customers how neat it is to be among the thousands of successful Mom and Pop Business Owners. Tell them how proud you are to be among this group.

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5. Book of the month: Hope is Not a Strategy by Rick Page

If the title does not say it all, then perhaps my rendention of a phrase from Alice in Wonderland can tell the story.

Alice asked the rabbit, "Can you tell me how to get somewhere?"

The rabbit said, "Where do you want to go?"

Alice responded with, "I don't know."

To which the rabbit said, "Then any road will get you there."

The same idea applies to the book of the month and to many businesses. You have to have a strategy as to where you want your business to go. It might
not be exactly the right place to go, but as you go in that direction, you will see if it is correct. And any necessary changes will likely make themselves visible to you. But, hope is not a strategy.

If you have already read this book, or are looking for more books to read, follow this link to the list of suggested readings on the book referral page of the Profits Plus website.

Book Referral List

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

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6. 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. Every month we see that 50-75 of you fall off of our subscription list as you change e-mails and hope that you are remembering to update your e-mail address. If you have multiple e-mail accounts, we will be glad to add all of them. We just don't want to lose you!

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

That's our message for February. We hope you found the investment of your time to be worthwhile as you read our monthly newsletter.

Again, my reminder. Make a point to do business with another independent. When you do, you will likely meet a person that will become a friend and runs a neat business - just like yours.

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

Tom Shay