|
Article of the Month |
Patrons or customers
by Tom Shay
This is not a play on words. I see a difference in someone that is just a customer and the individual that is a patron of your business.
While not suggesting that you want to get rid of customers, definitely the preference is for those who will become patrons of your business. They will become patrons because of the way you and your staff treat those who start as a customer.
Let me invite you to enjoy the article for October.
Click on Article of the Month to read this article. |
Book of the Month |
What every body is saying
by Joe Navarro
This book was suggested by an individual who shared the title after a presentation I gave.
Joe Navarro is a former FBI agent. He has also worked with the World Series of Poker. Joe's niche is to help you understand the message you get by watching the body language of someone.
I see that as a great way to learn how to close a sale. If your situation involves negotiation, this definitely can give you an advantage.
Click on Book Referral to see the complete list of small business books we have found that can be helpful to your business.
|
|
|
|
Contact Us |
Profits Plus
P.O. Box 128
Dardanelle, AR
72834
(727) 823-7205 Voice
(727) 898-3179 Fax
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Global Entrepreneur Week
November 17 through 23 is Global Entrepreneur Week. The purpose of the event is to celebrate entrepreneurship in every community.
Global Entrepreneurship Week is the world's largest celebration of the innovators and job creators who launch start ups that bring ideas to life, drive economic growth and expand human welfare. It is celebrated in more than 150 countries. While there are websites for many of the individual countries, this link will take you to their global site.
Global Entrepreneur Week
This event is for you; innovative and job creator. You should hold your head up proudly for all that you do for your community. Think about how many people are dependent on you.
First, your family depends on you to provide the every day basics. Your employees depend on you because you provide them with the money so that they can provide the basics to their families.
Your customers depend on you to provide the products and services they need and want.
Compared to the majority of people, you are exceptional, extraordinary, brave, and many other adjectives that should be applied to you.
The subject line of this newsletter asked if there could be too many events to celebrate.
The answer I offer is a simple, but complete, 'no'. As long as large companies - providers of services and products - continue to grow, then we, the small businesses, need to remind residents of our community how much of a difference it makes when they choose to do business with a small business.
$$$$$$
This is not wine, but definitely the e-ret@iler conversations have gotten better with age. What started in April 2009 as a conference call has grown to a program that brings to you a wide variety of small business experts.
This year you have joined Bill Kendy and me as we have visited with a Small Business Development Center (SBDC) state director, a CPA who was a former small business owner, a specialist in small business 'family issues', a well known columnist, an expert on email marketing, and more.
Thursday, October 9 will bring another expert to share with you for an hour beginning at 8:00 pm eastern.
Dr. Frank Woods, founder of Thriving With Stress, joins us to explore this thought; There will always be stress in your life. That stress can be a challenge or it can be something that you can use. It can help you or it can hurt you.
Of course, you would want the stress to be a tool for you. Dr. Woods is going to talk with us about how to achieve that.
As with all of the e-ret@iler conversations, we provide you with a toll free number, and there is no charge for your attending. During the program our guest can tell you how to contact their business, but they are not selling.
This is purely an educational session that we hope you will join us for.
oin us Thursday, October 9 at 8:00 pm eastern. Send us your questions now. We will be sure to get them to Dr. Woods in advance of the call.
If you missed the September call with Don Schwerzler, our expert on family business challenges, follow this link.
E-retailer conversations
| Internet Tip of The Month |
Cashflow projection
Many years ago, we did this calculation and posted it in a location where every team member would see it every day.
We knew the size of our average sale, and with a bit of estimating, were able to determine how many times a year a customer shopped with us. We also estimated how many years we kept a customer.
Put all of this together and we could estimate, fairly accurately, how much profit we made from each customer. The comment to our staff was that each time a customer came into our business, we were getting a part of that profit.
The idea was to have our staff understand the value of each and every customer. Today, we have that same chart as one of the calculators on our website.
We suggest you perform the math and share this with your staff.
What is a Customer Worth
| The Incentive Idea of the Month |
Humans like carrots too!
It is a wise decision for each business owner to take time in the fall to examine financials and consider those operating expenses that can be eliminated or diminished. There is something about that old saying of 'if you don't spend it, you don't have to make it', that rings true.
However, many people take an 'across the board' approach to cutting expenses. In anticipating you are going to perform the suggested exercise this fall, let me suggest one area that you give an extra review of; employee incentives.
We like the phrase 'incentive' as it implies that someone is getting a reward for doing something. The idea of a 'bonus' often becomes something an owner gives to employees without any way for the employees to understand why they received the bonus, and how the amount was calculated.
Incentives do work. If they are not working for you, change them. But definitely do not eliminate them. Humans, like rabbits, like carrots.
The second carrot is being able to have your employees read and hear what is expected of them. The incentive idea series is from the book, 'A Carrot A Day', by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton.
|
