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November 2022
November 25 & 26 - A weekend for all kinds of small businesses Small Business Saturday began in 2010. While it is a great way to celebrate small businesses the day after the traditional, "Black Friday", that seems to have a focus on chains and mass merchants. We have always thought it was brilliant marketing on the part of American Express.
With all the marketing material that American Express offers, I have seen a second side of Small Business Saturday as a way to get more businesses to accept the American Express card.
We understand the reluctance in accepting the card, but from personal experience in our business we saw that any negative points were well offset by the benefits of accepting the card; primarily more sales and a larger average ticket.
Plaid Friday is now the "Black Friday" for small businesses. We love the explanation given for the theme. The plaid pattern represents weaving the individual threads of small businesses together to create a strong fabric that celebrates the diversity and creativity of independent businesses.
The American Independent Business Alliance (AMIBA) gives credit for the creation of the event to Kerri Johnson of Oakland, CA.
Ms. Johnson said, "At the time Plaid Friday was conceived, there was a growing movement to boycott all shopping on “Black Friday.” I, as well as many of the people I knew, avoided the craziness of that day.
Most small businesses didn’t even open. At the time, I had a small artist-run gallery that I ran with my husband Jason, and we would turn the gallery into a pop-up shop featuring local artisans for the holidays. I thought why not turn this crazy day into something relaxing and enjoyable, giving people an alternative to shopping at the malls at 3 am.
The idea was to get up late, grab a coffee, and explore the neighborhood, discovering small businesses and shopping local. A win-win for everyone.”
We have one other idea we want to share. It is a promotion that we were first told about some 20 years ago. When you read through this neat tradition you can start for your business during the Christmas season, you will see at the bottom of the page, a "signature" of D Wendal. He was the graphic designer for Profits Plus when our business first started.
Using this promotion with your customers will give you and your customers an extra reason to connect. This is the story of the "Magic Santa Dust".
Article of the Month - Who is your customer? Your business cannot be everything to everybody. Perhaps you have heard that expression. In the south, a similar expression states, "The better you niche, the more you get rich". (Niche is pronounced so that it rhymes with rich instead of rhyming with quiche.)
Why is this important? Any business - product or service oriented - is going to do a better job of making sales, and saving on expenses, by determining WHO their target customer is.
Sometimes you get to decide; sometimes the market you are in decides for you. The key is having the alignment between your business and your customers. This month's article will explain further.
Book of the Month - Deep Work The full title of the book is, "Deep work; Rules for Focused Success in a distracted world". Written by Cal Newport, I think this book is written for me. There are four key points the author makes; Work deeply; Embrace boredom; Quit social media; and drain the shallows.
This reminds me of the meme (yes, on social media) that states that I have 25 tabs open on my computer; am on the phone; participating in a Zoom meeting; and wondering where the music is coming from.
If you are like me and enjoy intense work, I believe we can both find a happy medium with the ideas shared by Cal Newport.
I am going to start with learning to embrace boredom.
Internet Tool for Your Business - Determining your "sales to inventory" ratio Let us suggest your not getting caught up in all the conversation the media has been publishing with regard to inventory and the challenges many of the mass merchants are having. What matters is your business; only your business.
The internet tool of the month is relative to your business by calculating the sales to inventory ratio. While there are very broad generalities that say the number should be between 1.0 and 1.2, again what matters is your business. Look at a balance sheet and income statement from each of the past five years. Do the math to see what your ratio has been in each year. Is it improving?
Each month we highlight one of the 47 free tools on the Profits Plus website; we call them "calculators". While some provide analysis by numbers and ratios, some are assessments and others are self-examination questions. Many are downloadable while others, because of the complexity of the calculations going on behind the scene, are a part of the website and allow you to print your answers. None of them require you to give any personal information nor are there any "cookies" tracking you or your information.
Staff Incentive for Your Business - "Nice job, Bob" is not enough Hopefully, each of us knows the benefits of recognizing an employee for their efforts in our business, especially if the recognition is given in front of their co-workers.
Our staff incentive idea for November is that you consider expanding your recognition to include multiple details of what the employee has done. Give the specifics of what you like that has caused you to recognize the employee and their work; how quickly the task was completed; what a customer has said about their experience with your employee; attractiveness of a display; cleanliness and organization of service work done for a customer.
The expanded recognition of the employee in front of their co-workers gives an employee reason to know their employer does see what they are doing and they are appreciated.
We want to recognize A Carrot A Day by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton, whose book provides the basis for each month's incentive idea.
PROFITS PLUS, FOUNDER OF...
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MARCH 2026
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With over 25 years of frontline experience Tom Shay is America's leading Small Business Management Expert. He's a "Must Have" for your next event.
Small Business
Every time I see the logo for Target stores, I think about small businesses and the need to know which people to target as their customers. Of course, of most importance is the person who has spent any money with your business.
I ask businesses if they know how much the average person spends with their business. Most offer a quick response with a dollar amount. That answer is incorrect as they are telling me what the average existing customer is spending. The average person in any community spends no money with that small business.
Looking for new customers without any plan of how to do so is just spending money. That is why every small business needs to know how to find and use information. Find ideas in the March Small Business Advisory.
Small Business
Employee retention; is it important? Or is it easier to lose an employee and wait for the next applicant to walk in the door? The Small Business News for March shares some statistics of the expense you incur when you make the change instead of working to retain a current employee.
It is baseball season and we use the sport as an explanation of the cost of growing your business. In Boston's Fenway Park, left field has a wall that is know as the green monster.
And that is what growing your business is - a monster! You can't successfully grow your business without a plan and knowing you will have the cash on hand to pay for the growth.
Are you selling something or persuading the customer? With your employees are you repeatedly telling that employee or are you persuading them to excel?
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Ciaidini is our suggested book for March 2026. Most definitely an appropriate read.
All this plus the Internet Tool for Your Business and a staff incentive idea for your business.
