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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.

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July 2015
Volume 16 Issue 8 pp-solutions
Tom arms out
Article of the Month

The promo price list by Tom Shay

While I am writing the July newsletter, it was just this afternoon that I was visiting with a retailer and discussing this very topic.

Their concern was how to address the issue of competitors and how they price merchandise. This is the article I directed this retailer to read.

Even if this has not been a concern for you, it is good advice that you be aware of what the competition is doing.

Click on Article of the Month to read this article.

Book of the Month

Decisive: How to make better choices
by Chip Heath and Dan Heath

Speaking to a manufacturer and their sales team, one of the sales reps gave me a new book that had been written by one of their dealers. The book was fascinating and filled with great ideas.

The disappointment came with my speaking to other dealers and suggesting they read the book. While several had read the book, the consensus was that a business could not do what was suggested in the book.

It bothered me then, and continues to bother me, how people in small business make these types of decisions. I believe they are operating with flawed thinking.

This book is not going to fix the flawed thinking, but it can help you to understand it and how it occurs in each of our lives.

Click on Book Referral to see the complete list of small business books we have found that can be helpful to your business.



 
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Profits Plus
P.O. Box 128
Dardanelle, AR
72834 USA
(727) 823-7205 Voice
(727) 898-3179 Fax

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Business Advisory

Can you speak a foreign language? The language of another small business

How fortunate I was when my mentor told me that he had observed my ability to translate. As we were standing in front of a store in a mall, I was not sure what was being said.

The explanation was that most small business owners and managers look to other businesses that provide the same products and/or services to get ideas of ways they could make changes to their business.

Instead we would do well to look at other businesses and how they perform in various situations. Being able to see a scenario in one business and finding ways to adapt it to your own business is referred to as 'translating'.

A pharmacy can learn from a hardware store while the hardware store can learn from the landscaper. With each situation, the owner of one business is looking at how another business interacts with their customers. Sometimes we can learn how to provide something to your customers that has a perception of a high value yet has a low cost to the business.

Can you translate? My experience is that we can all learn to translate when we want to look outside our own industry for ideas of how to improve our business.

$$$$$$

Welcome to Independent Retailer Month Let's celebrate Independent Retailer Month. It starts today; you and your business are invited to be a part of this great event.

Visit the website linked above to sign up your business or community for the celebration. Read the information about all the advantages customers get from doing business with someone local.

We don't mean an advantage like the usual line about better customer service. Instead we outline the many advantages a community, and the residents, receive because they have done business with an independent retailer.

 

Internet Tip of The Month

Cashflow projection calculator

The number one reason why a small business fails is the lack of cash. The lack could start in the beginning of the business, or could be in the situation of an established business that has had an unforeseen challenge or surprisingly, a tremendous growth in revenue. 

This is because growth places a strain on any business. Here is a tool that any small business can use. It is a calculator for anticipating the cash needs of a business over the course of a year.

There are two versions available by following this link. One is for cash basis accounting while the other is for businesses using an accrual based accounting.

Help yourself to these free tools. You'll be glad you decided to implement them as a part of your business.

Cashflow projection calculator

The Incentive Idea of the Month

Huddle up

In sports, players talk about the value of 'huddling up'. When they are in a huddle, they talk about has happened and what they need to do. Team members often mention how they are inspired by what is said during the huddle.

What if your 'team' had a huddle when the day starts? You could recognize someone for what they had achieved the day before as well as talk about what needs to be accomplished during the current day. 

Being in the south, you can appreciate that during one of the huddles on a summer day in our business, I gave each of our staff a 'Moon Pie and RC Cola'. It was a moment of fun as well as a bit of incentive and way of saying thanks for their efforts.
 
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. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MAY 2024
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Small Business

AdvisorieS

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

News

Top Story

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.

Article of the Month

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."


Book of the Month

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.
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BOOK US

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

Advisories

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

News

 

Top Story

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.


Article of the Month

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."


Book of the Month

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.

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Profits Plus Solutions, Inc.
Tom Shay
PO Box 128
Dardanelle, AR 72834
(727)823-7205