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Article of the Month |
Eliminating Dead Inventory
by
Tom Shay
Inventory that has been sitting on the shelf, or hanging on the rack for a long time represents dead money. While the article of the month gives some ideas for getting rid of this dead inventory, the important consideration is that the inventory can only work for you if you get something for it and get that money back to work.
Think about an item that sells for $20 and has been sitting on the shelf for the past year. If you were to sell the item for $5, just to get rid of it, you could then take the $5 and buy something you could sell for $10. The first time you sell this new item, you have made back your initial investment.
Allowing inventory to sit is a bad choice. Not only from the financial perspective, but it makes the business looks bad as customers see old things sitting on the shelf.
Take a look at the ideas in the article and consider getting your money back to work.
Click on Article of the Month to read this article. |
Book of the Month |
Reinventing the Wheel
by Chris Zane
I was very honored that Chris Zane sent a copy of the book to me. To say that Zane is a bike dealer is a tremendous understatement.
This book was so engaging that I had it read within a couple of hours. My hope is that as you read it, you would become engaged by Zane's story of how he did what ever it took to win the customer.
The ideas were very engaging and I think everyone could get ideas from this book. It gets a solid recommendation from me.
Click on Book Referral to visit this page on our site.
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Profits Plus
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The idea is 'translate'
There have been several instances of late that have caused me concern about some of the small business owners I have met. Over 20 years ago as I first wrote magazine columns, there was an editor by the name of Jim Cory that had first told me of the issue.
The challenge comes as small business owners hear, read, or see information that can be applied to their business. As Jim said, we accept explanations in the context of our own experiences. It means someone that sells Hallmark cards often has a hard time hearing the lesson from an American Greetings dealer.
The Ace hardware dealer can struggle with the story as told through a Pro hardware dealer. A Good Neighbor pharmacy can have a similar situation with a Leader pharmacy story.
In the past month, a person 'heard' me giving an example of pricing using a glass of water. They could not (chose to not?) understand the example because they did not sell glasses of water.
Another person could not 'see' the application of a merchandising example because the picture shown was that of a floor covering store. As their community did not have a floor covering store, the lesson was determined to not apply.
We can learn lessons from every type and kind of business out there. The challenge, responsibility - the opportunity - is to learn from every observation and use it to better our own businesses.
Translate is the word I use; it is the idea of learning from another business and finding a way to adapt it for your business. My experience has been that businesses that are able to adapt are those that thrive. The others are working on surviving.
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Did you notice that the e-ret@iler conversations conference calls are now toll free? Not only are the calls free, but you do not pay for the long distance charges in either Canada or the US.
The conference call for June is probably going to be Tuesday, the 14th. The topic for this call is near and dear to my heart. It is the point that can cause one business to stand out - to be distinguished - to be able to eliminate that price factor from the equation.
Instead of a business giving that old and tired comment about 'giving great customer service', this conference call is where we will discuss how to make that claim a reality.
Follow this link to the page which indexes all of the previous e-ret@iler conversations conference calls.
E-ret@iler conversations
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Thirty days and counting. Independent Retailer Month starts on July 1. We have partnered with NOLCHA, an organization from New York that has been celebrating the independent fashion retailer in several cities across the US. Now that we are together, we have expanded across all areas of retail and across all international borders.
The new website is www.indieretailermonth.com and is ready for you to visit. If you are in a position to know those individuals in your city, county, or state government, we are asking you to take the proclamation form from the site and ask those officials to complete the proclamation. Getting your local media to promote these proclamations will further the cause for your part of the world.
For those of you in the Twitter world, we will be using a hashtag of #indieretail while are also on Facebook. For both of these we are using the NOLCHA names. Join us and help celebrate what you bring to the unique mix of retailer.
| Internet Tip of The Month |
Small business knowledge test
This was one of the very first calculators we created on the Profits Plus website. This one is a 20 question multiple choice challenge to help you find out what you know about the management and operation of a small business.
Answer the 20 questions, click on the 'get score' button and you will get the results from your effort. You will even see a grade; much like you got in school. The important part of the challenge is to show you some of the components of a small business.
Small business knowledge test
| The Power Promoting Idea of the Month |
Give your customers an advantage
This is a promotional idea I cannot make a claim of having created. However, I was the beneficiary, as a customer, of the business that created it.
The business, which did a great job of planning all of their advertising efforts well in advance, would send special notes to their customers. If there was going to be a sale starting on June 25, the business would send postcards to their existing customers, inviting them to come to the business, starting June 15, to be able to take advantage of the sale some 10 days before the general public gets an invitation.
This is a great way of saying to existing customers that their business is appreciated and that the business wants to do something special for them. Want your customers to know how you feel? This could do it for your business.
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