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June 2010 Volume 11 Issue 7
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National Independent Retailers Week I do not remember how many years ago we created this event, but I do notice that every year we gain some additional support and inquiries. That is what makes the event unique. As I visited with the Main Street program from El Dorado, Arkansas this week, I explained that in creating the event our idea was to create some broad guidelines for the event. We leave the details to each community so they can adapt the event to fit the needs of their community. Regardless of how your community decides to celebrate National Independent Retailers Week, the statistics I share with you remain the same. Spend a dollar with a local business and sixty cents will stay in the community. That same dollar spent with a chain store means only twenty cents stays in the community; spent with the box store and only six cents stays locally. That is 60 compared to 20, compared to 6. Another report says a dollar spent at a locally owned store is usually spent 6 to 15 times before it leaves the community. From $1, you create $5 to $14 in value within that community. Spend $1 at a national chain store, and 80% leaves town immediately. One more bit of information: For every square foot occupied by a local firm, the impact on the local economy is $179. Yet that same square foot occupied by a chain firm results in a local impact of only $105; a difference of $74 per square foot! Are local businesses important to a community? Do local businesses make a difference? How could anybody possibly think that a locally owned business is not important? I say thank you to all of you for allowing me to play a small part in helping your business be that important ingredient. I do have a favor to ask of everyone. I would like to see how much we could do to get people to recognize the importance of a locally owned business. Please invite your city, county, and state officials to issue a proclamation to recognize this week. You can share with these individuals the website we have created for the event, NationalIndependentRetailersWeek.com $$$$$$ The May e-retailer conference call was about your attending trade shows. In both good and bad times, attending a trade show is important to your business. You learn industry trends, you see new products and services, and you are surrounded by some people that are working to improve their business. If you missed the opportunity to participate, you can follow this link to the directory page of the May conference call as well as all previous conference calls. You can listen online or download them as an mp3 file. E-retailer conversations conference calls For June, the conference call is going to be held on Tuesday, the 22nd of the month. We are going to talk about pricing. From several visits to businesses lately, I continue to see those that simply take the cost of an item and apply a multiplier factor to it. This technique of pricing most often creates two problems. The first is that the business will have some items that are priced too high, leaving the business as being the expensive local independent. The other problem is that the business has a lot of items in which they are leaving way too much margin on the table as the business is priced higher than the competition. Join us for this session. I PROMISE you will get ideas that you can implement immediately and see extra profit in the next 30 days.
Debt to net worth ratio This is a simple, but little understood ratio. This one does exactly what it says; compares how much money you owe to how much your business is worth. I have always thought of this as a 'feel good' ratio. It is one where I see what I am doing in my business as making progress by decreasing my debt and increasing my ownership of the business. While it is a feel good for me, it is one that is important to your bank. To the bank it is similar to how your personal credit score is determined. Knowing how to calculate this and what your accountant is looking for can do a lot to keep you in the good graces of the bank that is in charge of any loan you have with them.
Flags in the yard
I remember when I saw this promotion many years ago; I was so surprised and very impressed with the actions of a local business. This power promoting idea is timed for this month to give those of you in Canada and the USA some time, but not a lot of time, to implement it in time for Canada day or July 4. Locally it was done by a real estate office. They ordered American flags that were approximately 4 inches by 6 inches. They were mounted on what looked like a clear straw and the business card for their agency was attached to the stray. During the night of July 3, they enlisted a lot of help and in all the parts of town they considered to be a part of their market, they stuck a flag in the front yard, near the curb, at every house. While the neighborhood I live in was not a part of their marketing area, I did not see the first flag until I went for a drive. Seeing the first street with a bunch of flags, I decided to detour to take a look. Imagine my surprise to see more and more streets on which the flags were placed. The agency even got some great publicity as people called the newspaper, television and radio stations to tell them what had happened in their neighborhood. You could do this for your community. You can find more ideas like this in our promotions books. You can order your copy by clicking on the link below; each book is only $9.95 plus postage.
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