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Technology can be the death of a small business We find a lot of the online small business discussions thinking that our small businesses should duplicate what larger businesses are doing. As an example, if you are a sporting goods store your small business should try to do what Dick's Sporting Goods is doing. Small pet stores should duplicate PetsMart; your local pharmacy should be emulating Walgreen's or CVS, and so forth.
We think quite the contrary to be true. We continually read articles about all kinds of technology that can be utilized to perform a wide variety of services for your business starting with CRM, EM and a lot of other acronyms which stand for software services they sell.
My favorite example is from the pharmacy trade. Perhaps you may deal with one of the national chain pharmacies. We hope you don't, but these companies have elaborate systems to notify their customers about prescriptions being ready and when a refill can be picked up.
Our local pharmacy has Debbie. Debbie calls each month and asks if I have been to the doctor in the past month. "Have there been any changes to your prescriptions?", Debbie asks.
"What about the over the counter items you take? Which of these need a refill? Do you want to come back to pick these up or would you prefer we deliver?"
There are surely some people who prefer automatization. However, as shown by the pandemic and the amount of time we spent alone, most of us prefer human interaction. When you next look at adding something fancy to your business, consider our story of Debbie and the service that no big business or mass merchant can provide. We have received a special recognition
We have so many free tools on our website that we find it challenging to remind people of them. Last week we were notified by Welp magazine that our monthly podcast, Small Business Conversations, was recognized as one of the top 20 programs. Accepting that recognition we hope you will join us for future programs. If this Small Business News was addressed to you, an invitation to participate in Small Business Conversations is already being sent to you; A first invitation is sent about four days before the Thursday evening program, and a reminder invitation is sent on the morning of the program. The program is 8pm Eastern. We hope you will join us.
Independent Retailer Month
Welcome to Independent Retailer Month. What we began in 2003 as an example to show how you can create your own special day or event and have it recognized by the media, has grown to a month long celebration of your business. Visit indieretailermonth.com for more information on how your business can participate.
Article of the Month - Keeping Score Measuring the success of your small business; We will agree the net profit is one way to measure. However, as a business owner wants to make a business more profitable, there is more than one component to improving the bottom line. The article of the month for July provides several areas of measurement that can benefit you and your business. Here's to a more profitable second half of 2021 for you.
Who is visiting Small Business Converations this month? - Pam Danziger of Unity Marketing  Pam has been a guest on Small Business Conversations as her niche is selling to affluent customers. Pam has been invited to discuss the four cornerstones of marketing changing from "the four Ps" to "the four Es".We find her research to be appropriate not just for the affluent market, but for every market as well as for every product category and service business.
This new research and information is fascinating and know your joining us for the July Small Business Conversations program will be a wise investment of your time.
Think how much time, effort and money your business puts into marketing. Pam Danziger will do a lot to help you tune your message and methodology.
Book of the Month - Made to stick The subtitle of the book is, "Why some ideas survive and Others Die". If you read, The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell this book continues the train of thought discussing why some ideas stick with people and others do not. The pandemic has produced many situations for all kinds of businesses. That is if you decide to take advantage of them.
Your customers have experienced a lot of changes in the past 16 months. They are very open to things being very different in your life. Your taking the opportunity to make changes in the way you do business could lead to new areas of services and products.
Reading this book could give you and your business some great insight.
Internet Tool for Your Business - Inventory per square foot Recently we visited with a small business owner who was telling of the difficulties in acquiring products to sell to their customers. They had decided to expand the size of all their orders. Whatever time period they previously ordered (a two month supply as an example), they were increasing the orders by threefold. In our example they were now ordering a six month supply in an effort to not lose sales because of lack of inventory.
Will this work? It depends on several factors starting with how much cash the business has available and if the business has the space to stock the items. This calculator can help. However, our calculator is going to take into consideration the gross margin and inventory turn rate.
Bottom line, this special calculator can help you understand where you should be placing orders. We hope you will use it and make additional profit.
Staff Incentive for Your Business - How do you pay? This past week I spent a sizable period of time visiting with a business owner and discussing their "pay plan". Like the majority of businesses, their plan is very simple; you are paid an hourly rate for each hour you are present in their business.
And like most other businesses, this pay plan does not work. Oh, you may be making a profit, but you are not getting what you are paying for. This pay plan is essentially renting a person's presence in your business.
Wouldn't you rather be paying for results (sales) as compared to just renting the person?
Even as there is a challenge in finding employees, this would be an ideal time to shift your payroll model. We expect you know what you want; sales and particularly the sales of the items and services you make the most margin with.
This is not commission, but would be a format uniquely developed for your business that will keep payroll in line with your operating expenses and reward employees for selling.
We'd be glad to respond to your questions about this and help you find an exact formula for your business.
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.
