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Business advisories for March 2009
1. March 29 is Mom and Pop Business Owners Day
Everyone else has special holidays; why not us? This is the first of three holidays that occur each year. How about having a sale or special event to celebrate? What about putting posters in the window of your business to tell of the special day for your customers?
2. February's fireside chat
Thanks to all of you that joined us for the fireside chat we had on February 24. We had some great questions, and I definitely learned a lot about how to make the next one even better. For examples, I learned that I need to tell you to press the *6 keys if you want to do something around the house or business and need to mute the background noises.
Then I learned that I need to tell you that the same *6 keys combination will allow you to unmute so that you can ask a question or participate in the conversation.
And thanks to Larry Leveen of Oly Bikes in Olympia, Washington for asking us to record and catalog these recordings on the Profits Plus website. We will start that with the next one.
3. Fireside chat for March
We are going to have another fireside chat and invite you to join us. This is no charge for this; you only have to pay your own long distance charges, if any.
Bring your questions and concerns and join us on Tuesday, February 24 at 8:00pm EST. To participate you need to dial 1-218-339-4600 and upon getting the recorded message, enter the pin number of 270985#.
To help us prepare, send your questions and concerns to us via e-mail today. Send your questions by using the address in the column on the left; NOT by hitting the reply button to this month's e-retailer.
We will be recording this session and archiving it on the Profits Plus website for those that cannot join us for the live session.
4. What I do with my evenings
Perhaps I need to get a life as I travel; after all, in all of my traveling I have never stopped to go to a theatre to see a play or movie. Instead I spend the time in my room working on new things to share with you. As February was a busy month of traveling, and because we have found someone to help us with some of our projects, we have some new material for you on the Profits Plus website.
We have added in the past month:
70 articles from our archives. We'll introduce them to you with the monthly e-retailers, but they are all posted on the website, and expect to put another 70 on the site in the next couple of months.
Did you know that you can listen to most of our presentations for free on our website? That's right; we don't sell CDs of our sessions. You can listen or download them at your convenience.
In many of the events I speak at, I mention the job application that we utilized in our business. You can now download a PDF of that application from the website.
We have created a new tool for you to use in your business. It is a store evaluation form that is 12 pages long and asks some very in-depth questions that can help you fine tune the operation of your business.
New presentations - we have 39 now. As business becomes more and more complex, we continue to research aspects of business to share insight and ideas of how you can capitalize on the many opportunities before you. As you visit the site, you will find information about these new topics.
More, next month. Enjoy the website.
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Internet Tip of The Month |
Accounts receivable turnover calculator
Remember the question last month about your not being a banker? We are still in that vein, as I invite you to calculate how well you are doing at turning over your accounts receivable. Turning over refers to how quickly you are collecting your receivables. Remember that receivables sitting on your balance sheet is the same as loaning money to someone and not expecting any interest to be paid to you.
Accounts receivable turnover calculator
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The Power Promoting Idea of the Month |
Benefiting from your donation advertising
Spring is in the air and with that there are sure to be people knocking on your door asking for 'donation advertising' for things like high school and college year books, or social events for which they publish a booklet or directory.
Too many of us simply write a check for $50 or $100, give them a business card to utilize and send them on their way. Let me suggest your adding a bit of creativity. As an example, a store that sold spas got the school baseball team to sit in a spa for a picture that appeared in the yearbook. A hardware store put the cheerleaders for the school on ladders that surrounded the signage on the front of the store.
The saying is that, 'a picture is worth a thousand words. Get your thousand words worth of advertising by being creative and do something other than hand them a business card with that check.
We list the next 60 days of travel in the e-retailer as we often hear from readers who are asking about opportunities to hear a presentation when I am in your area. And we are always glad to help you obtain an invitation to those events.
March 1 Atlanta, Georgia
March 5-7 Nashville, Tennessee
March 18 Reno, Nevada
March 27 Tucson, Arizona
March 28 Lake Ontario, Ontario
April 2 Mohave, California
April 29 Providence, Rhode Island |
