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Redeeming gift cards and selling used items Let's start with the celebration! This is the 300th edition of Small Business News. This is the start of our 25th year of visiting your inbox on the first day of the month. We start the month with a bit of explanation regarding accounting. If your business sells gift cards, you will want to pay attention. Your accountant might not be explaining this to you. Our example is a customer who buys a $100 gift card. You may ring that up on the register but it is not truly a sale. Instead, the customer is giving you $100 in cash, a credit card, or a check. Your business now has a "deferred liability" to that customer for $100. Your balance sheet should show this $100 as a current liability, while your current assets will show $100 in your checking account. When the gift card is redeemed, you have a sale! That explains why the chain stores, mass merchants, and big box stores, promote so heavily your redeeming the gift card you received. They want to register a sale to satisfy their stockholders. The last news item for December comes from a visit to our favorite hardware store and a story referencing a new book written by Barbra Streisand. We went to the hardware store looking for grass clippers. We found several pair of used clippers for sale. Looking further there were other used items for sale; not an overwhelming selection, but items that a customer would not likely use very often. Streisand was on a program promoting her book and giving a tour of her home. As she showed one of her rooms of clothing, she showed a blouse and told how she had purchased it for $10 and that it was a used item. These two experiences are the basis for my sharing with you the suggestion of your looking at your business to consider if there might be additions you could make with regard to what you sell. Article of the Month - Checking for the Exits As we come to the end of the year, many small business owners take the time to think about next year. And with some, there are thoughts about leaving the business. Perhaps the reason is retirement while for others it may be the opportunity to do something else. This month's article is appropriately titled, "Checking for the Exits". We offer some thoughts of what should be considered before making that important decision. Book of the month - Pendulum by Roy Williams This month we have another book suggestion from a reader with a high recommendation for reading. Pendulum by Roy Williams talks about trends in values that society uses to judge what is acceptable. There was a peak in 1963 and an opposite in 2003. The author states that if you would like a peek into the future, this will be a good book for you to read. Internet Tool for Your Business - Speaking to several groups in the service industries this past month, there have been discussions about accounts receivable. Mentioned in the discussion was how people are excited when they get the sale but do not have the same excitement with regard to collecting their accounts receivable. While collecting the accounts receivable is the end goal, close attention should be given to how long it takes to collect those receivables. This month's calculator will perform the task of analyzing the receivables for you. 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 scenes, 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 Fort Smith, Arkansas is the home to the U.S. Marshals Museum. If you are in the area, it can easily fill a half-day with fascinating information about the marshals service. While having only recently opened, some of their staff have been there for several years. They have a tradition of recognizing the work anniversary date of each employee on social media. Each recognition has the employee's photo and a story of their work at the museum. It is interesting to note the many comments each posting receives. A bit of recognition goes a long way. And to prospective employees seeing a posting of someone celebrating a number of years of employment, it offers a sign that this is a good place to work. 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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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.
