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April 2023 Lessons from two days in April Thursday, April 27, 2023 is "Take our daughters and sons to work" day Saturday, April 29, 2023 is "Independent Bookstore" day With the first event in April, "Take our daughters and sons to work" day, it is of special significance to me as the fourth generation of my family to have been a small business owner. I also think about the many times that generation five took a day from school to come and work in the family business. In later years, the Shay twins even hosted an episode of our Small Business Conversations podcast. Perhaps what brings it home better than anything else, is this letter we received years ago from a reader of this newsletter. We want to share it with you and invite you to carefully read the component about the next generation. We have titled this piece, "letter from Ron". The second date in April, "Independent Bookstore" day is one in which we marvel at how a single segment of small business has done a great job of separating itself from mass merchants and online businesses. We particularly like the social media meme we see that suggests our buying a book from a business that wants to promote reading as compared to buying from a business that wants to colonize the moon. In addition to the Saturday event, they also have "Cider Monday". While the weekend after Thanksgiving has "Black Friday", "Small Business Saturday", and "Cyber Monday", a bookstore owner in New Hampshire created "Cider Monday" suggesting you visit a local bookstore for a cup of hot cider and finding a new book to read. All of this came from one person's efforts. Kind of like "Independent Retailer Month", which is this July and has been since 2003. It was something easy to create which we did. What about your creating something for your small business and others like you? Article of the Month - How do you do that? We remember a business that had a slogan to the effect of, "An educated person is our best customer". That slogan is the basis for the April article of the month. If your business is landscaping, we are suggesting your teaching the customer how they can handle the minor details of maintaining their lawn or irrigation system. If you sell clothing, it can be how to color coordinate or care for clothing. A pet store has many aspects of pet care that can be shared. Each of us want to see our business as being the "go-to" source of information. Read this month's article for our ideas of increasing the loyalty your customers show for your business. Who is visiting Small Business Conversations this month? Jerry Obarski - expert on aspects of internal and external theft Having Jerry Obarski as our guest for the April Small Business Conversations podcast was already scheduled when we began to read the many news articles dealing with theft, shoplifting and other forms of business loss. The most recent articles have included speculation about the reasons Wal-Mart chose to close some stores in Oregon. We know first hand of businesses that have closed because of their inability to control this illegal activity. Jerry's career focus has been dealing with this month's topic. How can you calculate the amount of theft? Are there signs that will hint at theft by employees? There are many questions that all of us would like answered to help us decrease the loss of profit as represented by theft. As always, the Small Business Conversations podcast will be on a Thursday evening at 8pm Eastern. Invitations will be sent on the Sunday before the program and again the morning of the program. In addition to listening to the live event, the recording is available through 18 of the most popular podcast services. Book of the month - Built to last The book suggestion for April, Built to Last by Jerry Porras and Jim Collins is 29 years ago. So, why would we be suggesting a book that old as a current day suggestion? We think that sometimes there is more to learn from what has happened as compared to what is going on with a business in current time. So, while this book is talking of Disney, Proctor and Gamble, and Marriott, what has happened with each since Porras and Collins heaped all that praise on them. As an example, Disney has since purchased ABC, Marvel, 21st Century Fox, and others. What do you think? Are they still an awesome company? The same could be asked for Marriott and Proctor and Gamble. These questions should prompt you to think about your business and continuity. And, that is why we make the suggestion of this book for April 2023. Internet Tool for Your Business - Inventory turn at cost We have what has become a popular seminar titled, "How much is that doggy in the window? the cost of holding dead inventory". The seminar teaches how much profit a business is losing by not getting rid of old inventory and investing that money in inventory that turns. When shown using this calculator; Return on Investment. The factor that drives the additional profit is the inventory turnover. We have a calculator that will tell you what your inventory turnover rate is. However, in sharing this information, we first offer an explanation that inventory turnover can be calculated at either "cost" or "retail". While we understand those who want to tell us that calculating at retail is more important, there is a challenge to that thinking. The answer you will get when calculating inventory turn at retail is accurate only if you do not have any markdowns in prices. Hence, we like inventory turnover at cost, because the cost of any inventory is not going to increase or decrease. 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 - How much does it cost? Each month the Small Business News has featured an idea for a staff incentive. Something we have not discussed is the cost of your creating any incentive for your staff. With our family business we found incentives worked; employees engaged and did a great job of selling. Employees made a point of knowing and understanding the products and services our business offered. What I remember was a comment my father would make about using incentives to educate and engage our employees. He would reference the money we spent on advertising and marketing. And his comment was to the effect of, "why should we spend money to get people to do business with us and those people find we don't know what we are talking about or how to be good salespeople?". Incentives do not cost; they pay. 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.
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MAY 2024
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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
The May Small Business Advisory is titled "Planning for a successful accountant" and is appropriate for many with the April 15 tax deadline having passed.
Did you work with your accountant? Or, did you just give them a bunch of papers and wait to receive a completed tax return?
Successfully working with an accountant requires a partnership. This month's Small Business Advisory gives suggestions of how to make this happen in 2024.
Small Business
We see that many small business owners have too much of a focus on the "top line" of their income statement.
Increasing revenue is great, but it is not a cure all for any challenges your business is facing. And sometimes, incresing revenue can create a challenge.
Who is your customer? Some small businesses have no focus. Their customer is whoever calls or walks in the door.
And some small businesses have determined which customers, in sufficient numbers, they should spend their efforts to attract.
The article of the month shares an old Southern rhyming couplet about business; "The bertter you niche, the more you get rich."
Lean Startup by Eric Reis is our suggested book for May.
As the title suggests, the reader of the book would be someone that is starting their business. However, we see more value than just that.
Perhaps you have been in business for many years. We think this book could give insight to items, and methods, that a small business owner should think about with their business today.
