Information and ideas for the retail world.
Saturday, March 13, 2021
Sometime you just need a little help and when you do, you can count on Peggy and Mike Taylor who are based in Western North Carolina and focus on independent retail business owners issues and barriers to greater success. Peggy knows how to make a retailer successful based on operating her own clothing store and owning Willow Wisp Farm Studios and Gallery. Mike brings tremendous analytical talents and knowledge of budgeting, strategic planning and business management gleaned from years of experience in international corporations.
Wednesday, March 10, 2021
Sunday, July 31, 2011
The Art of Being a Good Buyer
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by Peggy H Taylor
The decisions of the person who purchases merchandise for your store can make or break your business. Successful buyers ought to stay on top of the changing market place by reading trade journals, staying tuned in to online retail events, by going to trade shows, and by maintaining a good relationship with their reps.
To be effective, buyers must be knowledgable on all aspects of the business they are buying for so they can ensure they have the right stock at the right price at the right time. To accurately achieve this goal you must know about inventory management, sales planning, forecasting, and open to buy planning.
Buyers must consider style, price, quality, and availability when ordering merchandise; in addition, reliability and support from suppliers is also a key factor. Feeling confident about the reliability of your supplier is critical for buyers since the well being of your store is in both your hands and theirs. Delayed deliver of inventory could result in a loss of business and customers.
Good buyers have the uncanny ability to assess which styles and merchandise will sell in their store by anticipating what their customer’s appetite will be the following retail season. Failure to be a good picker could result in a loss of profits and customers for the company. To work through this process successfully, the buyer needs to study past sales, inventory levels, and the historical sales performance of product manufacturers.
In most small independent retail stores, the owners are also the buyers. More often than not, they do a good job of selecting the goods to sell in their stores. Buyers who fail to be successful at picking good merchandise for their store should be replaced or at lest assisted by someone who is good at selecting merchandise, even if it is the owner who has to step aside for the good of their store.
How do you rate yourself as a buyer?
Friday, July 15, 2011
Make sure your perspective is perceptive
By Harvey Mackay
We've reached a point in our country's history where authority and power seem to be manifested by the need to shout down the other person. Discussion and compromise are words freely bandied about, but they've largely lost their meaning.
What is really lost is perspective.
Just as there are two (or more) sides to every story, there are plenty of different ideas on how to get things done. No one person has a corner on that market.
A lot depends on who is doing the looking. Consider the story of three people of different occupations as they looked at the Grand Canyon:
The priest said, "What a glory of God!"
The geologist said, "What a wonder of science!"
The cowboy said, "What an awful place to lose a horse!"
How we approach an issue often colors our thinking about the result we wish to achieve. What we want may not line up with the next person's desired outcome. Our motives are not wrong, just very different. We need to respect each other's views and consider that our own may not be the only one with real merit.
Sure, that's easier said than done. But it can be done! And some of the most creative and powerful people in the world have offered very helpful suggestions for expanding our perspective so that we can truly work together.
For example, Thomas Watson, Jr., the late chairman of IBM, shared some wisdom from his father, Thomas Watson, Sr., founder of the company: "Father was fond of saying that everybody, from time to time, should take a step back and watch himself go by."
If you did that, would you like what you saw? Be honest!
Will Rogers, a uniquely American humorist known for his homespun wisdom and keen wit, summed up perspective this way: "You must never disagree with a man while you are facing him. Go around behind him and look the same way he is looking and you will see that things look different from what they do when you're facing him. Look over his shoulder and get his viewpoint, then go back and face him and you will have a different idea."
Note that both of these examples are from an era gone by, when folks seemed to be kinder and less contentious. We haven't necessarily improved our society since then -- in fact, I would contend that we've gotten meaner. How does that seem to be working?
Perspective is critical in competitive situations. If you can't see solutions from a competitor's point of view, you can't compete. How will you know what they are doing better than, different from, or instead of you? Who are they appealing to with their approach? How are their customers responding?
I love to ask customers what their ideal product would be. What would their ideal supplier do differently? More than once I have been stunned at the simplicity of the solutions. Those questions open up a new line of communication and trust which benefit both sides. Don't just file away that information -- use your new perspective to prepare for your next customer and competitor.
Whatever you do, don't fall into the trap of dismissing issues with statements like "it's all just a matter of perspective." That is too often another way of saying that the other person's perspective is not as important as yours.
Have you heard about the aging race horse that tried and tried but just couldn't run fast enough to win any races, or even finish in the money? His impatient owner told the jockey, "Either that horse wins some money in today's race or his next assignment is going to be pulling a milk wagon."
The jockey loved the horse and did everything he could to spur the horse on. He muttered sweet words to him as they went around the first turn. And on the backstretch, he shouted loud words of encouragement. But as the horse faltered in the stretch, the jockey started laying on the whip with terrible force.
At this, the horse turned his head to the jockey and said, "Hey, man, take it easy on that whip. I've got to get up and go to work in the morning."
Mackay's Moral: The difference between a horse's front end and back end is a matter of perspective.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
The 10 Most Innovative Companies In Retail
01 / Groupon >>
For integrating web and the real-world shopping experience, changing consumer behavior, democratizing small businesses, and spawning an entire new category. The fastest-growing company in web history, Groupon's flash deal site marries cents-off coupons to a Friday-after-Thanksgiving shopping frenzy. The company broke into the black just seven months after inception; globally, more than 500 copycat sites have already sprung up.
02 / Trader Joe's >>
For becoming bigger than Whole Foods while retaining its down-home image. The grocery chain's limited-selection, high-turnover model allows it to buy large quantities, secure deep discounts, and stock its shelves with a winning combination of yuppie-friendly staples (cage-free eggs, organic blue agave sweetener) and affordable luxuries. Its 344 U.S. stores sell an estimated $1,750 in merchandise per square foot, more than double Whole Foods' tally.
03 / Marks & Spencer >>
For its aggressive pursuit of sustainability. In the past year, the U.K. company has pioneered charging for plastic bags, significantly reduced packaging, and launched a clothing recycling venture with Oxfam. It has also committed to becoming the first major retailer to ensure that six of the key raw materials it uses--soya, cocoa, beef, leather, coffee, and palm oil--will come from sustainable sources that do not contribute to deforestation.
04 / Amazon >>
For leading the way into the digital book market with the Kindle--and setting off a major shift in the public's reading habits. And alhough competition is fierce in the e-reader universe, Amazon is still the dominant player in online commerce.
05 / eBay >>
For leading the charge on mobile commerce. This year alone, eBay expects to sell $4 billion in goods via smartphones and tablets, more than double its figures from 2010 and well above those from any other retailer. Its core iPhone app has been downloaded some 15 million times, and the company is releasing a series of interest-based mobile apps focusing on fashion, motors, electronics, and home and garden.
06 / Apple >>
For creating platforms and products that breed entirely new businesses, including the App Store, the new iTunes 10, the Apple TV digital storefront, and the iPad, a screen that's better suited than the iPhone to leverage online buying.
07 / Starbucks
For listening to its customers--really. Although the feedback site MyStarbucksIdea.com was originally panned, almost 98,000 ideas have been submitted, and 100 have been adopted. Among them: donating unsold pastries to local homeless shelters and food kitchens, giving baristas name badges, selling reusable sleeves, and bringing back Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate.
08 / Shopkick
For bridging the in-store and mobile retail experience. Beyond rewarding users with perks as soon as they enter a store, Shopkick's location-aware smartphone app also guides users through physical retailers, letting them see reviews and multimedia content. Best Buy, Macy's, and American Eagle have already signed on as partners.
09 / Ikea
For attacking waste by selling its used furniture online in Sweden, and making its venture capital unit's first investments. Ikea Greentech is dedicated to supporting ventures in alternative energy solutions and lighting that might lead to the development of products for Ikea. The company has also bought German and French wind farms to cut its carbon footprint.
10 / Urban Outfitters
For nurturing very distinct, successful, and quirky retail brands, including the youth-oriented Urban Outfitters, the romantic and sophisticated Anthropologie, and the high-end, bohemian Leifsdottir.
Monday, July 4, 2011
Small Business Lemonade Stand
By ELMIRA BAYRASLI
It couldn’t be the 4th of July without the neighborhood lemonade stand – that all-American symbol of entrepreneurship. So many American start-up tales involve lessons learned from this childhood exercise. The one Suzie runs in this Verizon commercial offers many.
Here are a few that other entrepreneurs might consider:
* Suzie hires for the future. While she may go to a greying boardroom to raise capital, she recruits those with little experience but tremendous potential (and knowledge of the market) to help her implement her idea. Execution isn’t a concept. Make sure you have people that can deliver.
* Suzie hires an adult as an assistant. She recognizes that experience doesn’t just come at the top. There is benefit to having those with stories and scars to help at the ground-level. Grey does, after all, start at the roots.
* Suzie doesn’t let go of her interests. “A slide or monkey bars,” will do just fine for this young lady as she talks to an architect helping her design her lemonade empire. She may have swapped pigtails for tailored suits, but won’t give up the things that make her happy – or allow her to have fun.
At the end of the day, fun is what entrepreneurship should be. Happy 4th of July.
It couldn’t be the 4th of July without the neighborhood lemonade stand – that all-American symbol of entrepreneurship. So many American start-up tales involve lessons learned from this childhood exercise. The one Suzie runs in this Verizon commercial offers many.
Here are a few that other entrepreneurs might consider:
* Suzie hires for the future. While she may go to a greying boardroom to raise capital, she recruits those with little experience but tremendous potential (and knowledge of the market) to help her implement her idea. Execution isn’t a concept. Make sure you have people that can deliver.
* Suzie hires an adult as an assistant. She recognizes that experience doesn’t just come at the top. There is benefit to having those with stories and scars to help at the ground-level. Grey does, after all, start at the roots.
* Suzie doesn’t let go of her interests. “A slide or monkey bars,” will do just fine for this young lady as she talks to an architect helping her design her lemonade empire. She may have swapped pigtails for tailored suits, but won’t give up the things that make her happy – or allow her to have fun.
At the end of the day, fun is what entrepreneurship should be. Happy 4th of July.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
by James Hallman.
…let's talk about bananas. Bananas are an interesting fruit- they come in their own zip-lock covers, and they are good for you. I personally love to eat bananas. So do a lot of other people. So, to better understand what inventory turn means, and also to help answer the question of "How do you do it?" let's go into the banana business together...
Let's say we own a little fruit stand, and from this fruit stand we sell bananas. We buy our banana stock from a local wholesale market. We pay 50 cents for each banana, and we sell it to our customers for $1.00. We sell, on average, 100 bananas per week (remember, it's a small fruit stand). So, bright and early, each Monday morning, before our stand opens, we go to the wholesale market, show our ID cards to prove we are real-life retailers and have a right to buy at this wholesale market, and we buy our 100 bananas.
We pay $50 for these 100 bananas. Our inventory investment in these 100 bananas is $50. We work hard for six days, and by Saturday night, we have sold all of our bananas. We made a $50 profit on our $50 investment. We turned (bought and sold) our inventory of bananas one time that week. We take Sunday off- we deserve the rest!
Now, we begin to exchange notes about our business - how can we do more business? "Well," you say, "almost every customer who comes by the stand to buy bananas asks me if we carry apples. I think we could sell some apples, if we had them." I agree, since many of my customers also asked about apples.
We decide to do some high-tech market research. All the following week, whenever anyone asked us about apples, we put a hash mark on a sheet of paper. By doing this, we determined we could sell at least 50 apples per week. We can get the apples for 50 cents each, and sell them for $1.00, just like the bananas.
We only have one problem. We don't have an extra $25 to buy the 50 apples! We only have $50, and we need that $50 to pay for our 100 bananas. All the meager profit we make each week goes to pay the rent on the fruit stand, and for us to live on. We think about borrowing the extra $25 from your Mom, but you don't want to ask her - and she doesn't like me at all! Oh, what can we do?
"Eureka!", you exclaim. "I know what we can do! This Monday morning, we'll go to the market as usual, but instead of buying 100 bananas, we'll only buy 50 bananas. With the $25 we save, we'll buy our week's supply of apples!"
"But if we only buy 50 bananas, we'll run out of bananas", I note. "Not really", you say, "because we'll make an extra trip to the market Thursday morning, and with the money we made from selling all 50 bananas and half the apples the first half of the week, we'll buy the other 50 bananas we'll need for the second half of the week". So, that's what we do, and of course, here is what happened:
Rather than investing $50 once per week to sell the 100 bananas which brings us a $50 profit, we invest only $25 to buy 50 bananas, we sell those for a $25 profit, get our original $25 back, and then re-invest it in another 50 bananas which we sell the other half of the week.
Now, we are making the same $50 banana profit on a $25 investment because we buy 1/2 the bananas twice as often during the week.
With the other $25, we buy our week's supply of apples. By selling the apples, we make another $25 profit.
So now, our same $50 invested in fruit is returning us a profit each week of $75, rather than $50.
That is what inventory turn is all about: buying, selling, and rebuying the inventory more often during the same time frame.
And, it won't take us long to realize that we don't really need to buy our entire week's supply of apples all at one time, either.
After all, some customers have been asking about oranges...
Note: To improve your fruit stand's inventory turn, it is vital, even critical, that you know how many bananas you can sell per week. And apples, and maybe even oranges. That is where sales forecasting and inventory planning comes in...
Sunday, May 1, 2011
3 Proven Ways to increase Sales Without Going Broke
Even if we continue to see modest gains in retail sales, many businesses are still struggling to grow sales with limited, or even nonexistent budgets. If you are looking for ways to increase sales without spending much, try these ideas:
Maximize upsell opportunities
Upselling is a highly profitable tactic for increasing sales and profitability per customer. It involves inducing a customer to purchase additional or more expensive products and services than they had originally intended. The incremental cost of achieving the additional sales is negligible. The customer was already intent on making a purchase.
As consumers we are continually exposed to upselling. When you order a hamburger and are asked if you want the “meal deal” – which adds french fries and a soft drink – that is an upsell. Being asked to upgrade to run flat tires when you purchase a sports car is also an upsell.
Upselling can be applied to virtually any type of customer and industry. It can also be used effectively across multiple sales channels: your website, call center, retail space and more.
Execution is important. Using deception or acting desperately are poor ways to conduct upselling. It’s critical to ensure that your employees understand this and that your incentive scheme does not inadvertently promote bad behavior. Adding a quick survey at the end of a customer’s buying process to assess how the sales person treated them may counteract the desire to upsell too aggressively.
Facilitate impulse purchases
An impulse purchase is an unplanned decision to buy a product or service which is usually made right before a planned purchase is consummated. These are emotional, not rational, purchases. Recent studies estimate that about 20 percent of purchases are unplanned. A recent study by Miller Zell, a leading retail strategist, indicates that 51 percent of buyers make unplanned or impulse purchase decisions.
Some proven tactics for increasing impulse purchases include:
•Using in-store signage that attracts attention and is positioned at or close to the point of sale
•Making the process as simple as possible, ensuring that the buyer won’t be delayed by making the impulse purchase
•For online and call center sales channels, including impulse purchases as part of the standard check-out order flow and script.
To determine the success of your impulse purchase campaign, establish benchmarks for sales based on recent performance by category, location, channel and employee. Consider implementing a management dashboard to assist with the process.
Optimize your selling environment
Paco Underhill, president of Envirosell, a behavioral research and consultancy firm focused on commercial environments, is also the author of “Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping” which discusses his research and methods for enhancing retail sales. One area covered in the book is organization of inventory. There are many tactics that can be used to make it easier for your customers to access higher-priced and higher-margin products. Steps like placing preferred items on shelves at eye-level, adjusting lighting and optimizing the floor plan can generate material increases in the sale of high-margin products.
Will all of these tactics work as planned? No. Nothing ever does! But it is definitely worth trying them out.
Mike Periu is the founder of EcoFin Media, LLC an independent producer of financial, economic and entrepreneurial content for television, radio, print and the Internet. Over the past ten years he has started three companies and advised over 50 companies on financial strategies including fundraising. Mike also hosts regular small business webinars on a range of topics relevant to business owners.
Maximize upsell opportunities
Upselling is a highly profitable tactic for increasing sales and profitability per customer. It involves inducing a customer to purchase additional or more expensive products and services than they had originally intended. The incremental cost of achieving the additional sales is negligible. The customer was already intent on making a purchase.
As consumers we are continually exposed to upselling. When you order a hamburger and are asked if you want the “meal deal” – which adds french fries and a soft drink – that is an upsell. Being asked to upgrade to run flat tires when you purchase a sports car is also an upsell.
Upselling can be applied to virtually any type of customer and industry. It can also be used effectively across multiple sales channels: your website, call center, retail space and more.
Execution is important. Using deception or acting desperately are poor ways to conduct upselling. It’s critical to ensure that your employees understand this and that your incentive scheme does not inadvertently promote bad behavior. Adding a quick survey at the end of a customer’s buying process to assess how the sales person treated them may counteract the desire to upsell too aggressively.
Facilitate impulse purchases
An impulse purchase is an unplanned decision to buy a product or service which is usually made right before a planned purchase is consummated. These are emotional, not rational, purchases. Recent studies estimate that about 20 percent of purchases are unplanned. A recent study by Miller Zell, a leading retail strategist, indicates that 51 percent of buyers make unplanned or impulse purchase decisions.
Some proven tactics for increasing impulse purchases include:
•Using in-store signage that attracts attention and is positioned at or close to the point of sale
•Making the process as simple as possible, ensuring that the buyer won’t be delayed by making the impulse purchase
•For online and call center sales channels, including impulse purchases as part of the standard check-out order flow and script.
To determine the success of your impulse purchase campaign, establish benchmarks for sales based on recent performance by category, location, channel and employee. Consider implementing a management dashboard to assist with the process.
Optimize your selling environment
Paco Underhill, president of Envirosell, a behavioral research and consultancy firm focused on commercial environments, is also the author of “Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping” which discusses his research and methods for enhancing retail sales. One area covered in the book is organization of inventory. There are many tactics that can be used to make it easier for your customers to access higher-priced and higher-margin products. Steps like placing preferred items on shelves at eye-level, adjusting lighting and optimizing the floor plan can generate material increases in the sale of high-margin products.
Will all of these tactics work as planned? No. Nothing ever does! But it is definitely worth trying them out.
Mike Periu is the founder of EcoFin Media, LLC an independent producer of financial, economic and entrepreneurial content for television, radio, print and the Internet. Over the past ten years he has started three companies and advised over 50 companies on financial strategies including fundraising. Mike also hosts regular small business webinars on a range of topics relevant to business owners.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Spring Forward to Success
by Peggy Horne Taylor
I know you are probably grateful to have survived the long slow months of the first quarter of the year, but to what degree have you survived? Do you have money in the bank or are you wondering where your next dime will come from? If you ask around, people will tell you things are picking up and sales are improving. Will this improvement mean you will be getting ahead or will it simply allow you to keep from going under? As a retail business owner, what can you do to sleep better at night and not worry about every little hick-up in the economy?
Open-to-buy planning allows you the ability to look ahead into the future and see what your sales will be and what your merchandise needs will be throughout the year. Okay, I can hear you saying this now, “Sure you can, there is no way you can predict what is going to happen, especially in this economy. I don’t need to know this nonsense, I need more customers walking through my door.” By now you must be wondering what secret wizardry is used to produce this impossible feat.
You will be surprised to find out it really is not secret wizardry, and you might also be shocked to find out you just might not need all those extra customers to walk through the door either. Now don’t get me wrong, extra customers are good and they will help you increase your sales, but you can still put more money in the bank without them, and this is how it works. First of all, without even going in your store I am assuming you probably have too much inventory because more retailers do, and sadly, they don’t realize it. Idle inventory sitting on your shelves could be money in the bank, but instead it will become excessive markdowns which result in less profit for your business. There is an optimum amount of inventory you need to be a fine tuned retail machine; too much inventory results in less profit due to excessive markdowns late in the season and too little inventory results in lost sales. So, if you know the ideal amount of inventory you will be a much more profitable business.
Open to buy planning as I said earlier gives you the ability to read tomorrows newspaper today, so to say. Information is collected from your sales history and your POS system or your manual inventory. Your information is then crunched by retail analysts who compile and translate the numbers, and get them back to you as set of plans you can understand. These plans show you where you are under or over stocked based on your sales history. The plans tell you how many dollars you should spend in each department in your store. If the plans show you are overstocked in certain classes, your analyst will recommend you have a big sale to liquidate excess stock. Keeping a handle on your inventory is essential if you deal in clothing because after a few months it is almost impossible to sell no matter how much you reduce the price. The plans will also forecast what your sales should be if you stick to the recommendations the plans provide for purchasing and marking down items, and they are a great source of buying knowledge when you go to market.
All of this being said, open to buy planning is only as good as the seriousness of retailers who want to take their business to the next level. If you succumb to temptation and buy too much, you will continue to tread in the murkie waters of retail gloom. You can sweep the idea that you might need to make some changes under the carpet, or you can take charge of the situation and work to make your business more profitable now.
I know you are probably grateful to have survived the long slow months of the first quarter of the year, but to what degree have you survived? Do you have money in the bank or are you wondering where your next dime will come from? If you ask around, people will tell you things are picking up and sales are improving. Will this improvement mean you will be getting ahead or will it simply allow you to keep from going under? As a retail business owner, what can you do to sleep better at night and not worry about every little hick-up in the economy?
Open-to-buy planning allows you the ability to look ahead into the future and see what your sales will be and what your merchandise needs will be throughout the year. Okay, I can hear you saying this now, “Sure you can, there is no way you can predict what is going to happen, especially in this economy. I don’t need to know this nonsense, I need more customers walking through my door.” By now you must be wondering what secret wizardry is used to produce this impossible feat.
You will be surprised to find out it really is not secret wizardry, and you might also be shocked to find out you just might not need all those extra customers to walk through the door either. Now don’t get me wrong, extra customers are good and they will help you increase your sales, but you can still put more money in the bank without them, and this is how it works. First of all, without even going in your store I am assuming you probably have too much inventory because more retailers do, and sadly, they don’t realize it. Idle inventory sitting on your shelves could be money in the bank, but instead it will become excessive markdowns which result in less profit for your business. There is an optimum amount of inventory you need to be a fine tuned retail machine; too much inventory results in less profit due to excessive markdowns late in the season and too little inventory results in lost sales. So, if you know the ideal amount of inventory you will be a much more profitable business.
Open to buy planning as I said earlier gives you the ability to read tomorrows newspaper today, so to say. Information is collected from your sales history and your POS system or your manual inventory. Your information is then crunched by retail analysts who compile and translate the numbers, and get them back to you as set of plans you can understand. These plans show you where you are under or over stocked based on your sales history. The plans tell you how many dollars you should spend in each department in your store. If the plans show you are overstocked in certain classes, your analyst will recommend you have a big sale to liquidate excess stock. Keeping a handle on your inventory is essential if you deal in clothing because after a few months it is almost impossible to sell no matter how much you reduce the price. The plans will also forecast what your sales should be if you stick to the recommendations the plans provide for purchasing and marking down items, and they are a great source of buying knowledge when you go to market.
All of this being said, open to buy planning is only as good as the seriousness of retailers who want to take their business to the next level. If you succumb to temptation and buy too much, you will continue to tread in the murkie waters of retail gloom. You can sweep the idea that you might need to make some changes under the carpet, or you can take charge of the situation and work to make your business more profitable now.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Progressive Profit
Some Details About Retail
- Going out of business sales draw lots of shoppers; figure out a way to get them through the door before you are out of business. 39 minutes ago
- The placement of merchandise in your store can determine how quickly it will sell. In the front and to the right is prime real estate. 3 days ago
- People like to do business with people they like; smile, laugh and enjoy what you are doing and your customers will keep coming back. 5 days ago
6 Tips for Planning a Corporate Retreat on a Budget
by Shiva Levine
Team bonding via private jet to Lake Tahoe is the kind of corporate spending you just don’t see anymore. That’s a good thing when it comes to long-term job stability — but those were good times, no?
Well, here’s some good news for management: there are still plenty of ways to say “thank you” and “lets keep working together” to your staff and clients without blowing through next year’s budget. Corporate retreats are a special way to generate good will and unity amongst staff and management. Yet, if there’s nothing else the recession taught us, it’s that it’s important to be prudent. An office getaway does not have to max out your budget.
In fact, these office getaways are an opportunity for management and executives to learn leadership skills while exercising some renewed creativity in a way more relaxed environment. The corporate retreat isn’t a paid vacation. (Would you really choose to travel with all your colleagues for fun?) It’s more a breath of fresh air — literally — and a reprieve from the post-traumatic horrors of being over-worked and way stressed out.
A small business with a small budget can benefit from corporate retreats as much as a huge corporation with lots of money. In fact, with most large companies nixing their retreats because of budgetary concerns, many destinations are vacant and hungry for business. So look for discounts!
Here are a ways to think frugally when planning a corporate retreat.
Stay Local
There’s no need to fly your staff across the country when there are great locations merely a drive away. Take advantage of destinations in your backyard or in regions of the country that aren’t as costly, and are in need of tourism and business travel dollars.
Most states have an array of activities. Look into the great lake and Rockies areas, or, southwest through the Midwest — and don’t forget the New England coasts and the Appalachia region. Focusing on high-end retreat hotspots in California, Florida and Colorado isn’t cost-effective, and they can be limiting when fully-booked. Renting a van or bus, however, is mandatory. Packing everyone into cars for a three-hour drive is bound to be an episode of The Office — only those in the car won’t be laughing hysterically.
Don’t Head for the Most Popular Destinations
Remote locations and retreats with a small business mentality versus those that are part of a corporate franchise frequently provide five-star accommodations at a lesser cost. Sometimes they even throw in accoutrements like fine local wines and thoughtful spa services.
Consider Hobby Sports vs. Luxury Sports
Golf retreats are expensive, but canoeing, kayaking, fly fishing, mountain biking, rock climbing and the like can be less expensive, invoke more team-building, and are less likely to get so competitive that someone has a meltdown and ruins it for everyone. Leave the golfing and skiing retreats to the Fortune 100 executives.
Negotiate Prices, or Barter
With big corporations sitting out on the big spending, there are a lot of places with empty facilities. The owners of these spots want your business, and want to attract more business to their towns, so when negotiating a good deal, throw in a barter of services. Offer to include the retreat information in your company’s newsletter or pass the word on to clients about what a productive, creative and relaxing experience it was (if it was).
Make Sure the Deal You Got Has What You Need
Although you may be out in the boondocks, you’re going to need meeting rooms and the necessary infrastructure to get some work done. While you’ll need places to set up your computers and working Wi-Fi for sending emails, be prepared for what retreat centers won’t have. You probably won’t find office luxuries, like the tech gadgetry for Power Point slideshows and hi-res color digital printing, so be prepared.
Hire a Corporate Retreat Planner
It might initially sound like a waste of money, but their experience will save you a ton of time — as well as potentially save you money, since they’ll know where to find the best deals. Outside of the fee paid to the corporate planner, he or she will be responsible for calling around, negotiating, bargaining, setting up and finalizing details. A corporate planner also comes armed with a Rolodex of contacts that may offer excellent deals to often-used customers.
Team bonding via private jet to Lake Tahoe is the kind of corporate spending you just don’t see anymore. That’s a good thing when it comes to long-term job stability — but those were good times, no?
Well, here’s some good news for management: there are still plenty of ways to say “thank you” and “lets keep working together” to your staff and clients without blowing through next year’s budget. Corporate retreats are a special way to generate good will and unity amongst staff and management. Yet, if there’s nothing else the recession taught us, it’s that it’s important to be prudent. An office getaway does not have to max out your budget.
In fact, these office getaways are an opportunity for management and executives to learn leadership skills while exercising some renewed creativity in a way more relaxed environment. The corporate retreat isn’t a paid vacation. (Would you really choose to travel with all your colleagues for fun?) It’s more a breath of fresh air — literally — and a reprieve from the post-traumatic horrors of being over-worked and way stressed out.
A small business with a small budget can benefit from corporate retreats as much as a huge corporation with lots of money. In fact, with most large companies nixing their retreats because of budgetary concerns, many destinations are vacant and hungry for business. So look for discounts!
Here are a ways to think frugally when planning a corporate retreat.
Stay Local
There’s no need to fly your staff across the country when there are great locations merely a drive away. Take advantage of destinations in your backyard or in regions of the country that aren’t as costly, and are in need of tourism and business travel dollars.
Most states have an array of activities. Look into the great lake and Rockies areas, or, southwest through the Midwest — and don’t forget the New England coasts and the Appalachia region. Focusing on high-end retreat hotspots in California, Florida and Colorado isn’t cost-effective, and they can be limiting when fully-booked. Renting a van or bus, however, is mandatory. Packing everyone into cars for a three-hour drive is bound to be an episode of The Office — only those in the car won’t be laughing hysterically.
Don’t Head for the Most Popular Destinations
Remote locations and retreats with a small business mentality versus those that are part of a corporate franchise frequently provide five-star accommodations at a lesser cost. Sometimes they even throw in accoutrements like fine local wines and thoughtful spa services.
Consider Hobby Sports vs. Luxury Sports
Golf retreats are expensive, but canoeing, kayaking, fly fishing, mountain biking, rock climbing and the like can be less expensive, invoke more team-building, and are less likely to get so competitive that someone has a meltdown and ruins it for everyone. Leave the golfing and skiing retreats to the Fortune 100 executives.
Negotiate Prices, or Barter
With big corporations sitting out on the big spending, there are a lot of places with empty facilities. The owners of these spots want your business, and want to attract more business to their towns, so when negotiating a good deal, throw in a barter of services. Offer to include the retreat information in your company’s newsletter or pass the word on to clients about what a productive, creative and relaxing experience it was (if it was).
Make Sure the Deal You Got Has What You Need
Although you may be out in the boondocks, you’re going to need meeting rooms and the necessary infrastructure to get some work done. While you’ll need places to set up your computers and working Wi-Fi for sending emails, be prepared for what retreat centers won’t have. You probably won’t find office luxuries, like the tech gadgetry for Power Point slideshows and hi-res color digital printing, so be prepared.
Hire a Corporate Retreat Planner
It might initially sound like a waste of money, but their experience will save you a ton of time — as well as potentially save you money, since they’ll know where to find the best deals. Outside of the fee paid to the corporate planner, he or she will be responsible for calling around, negotiating, bargaining, setting up and finalizing details. A corporate planner also comes armed with a Rolodex of contacts that may offer excellent deals to often-used customers.
51 Ways To Reward Employees Without Money
by Mike Michalowicz
Sure, many companies feel strapped right now and may duck their head and run in the other direction at the mere mention of bonuses. But tough times don’t mean that you should just forget about rewarding your employees. There are many ways that you can reward employees without handing them money, and many of these are things you can do right now, with very little effort.
Here are a whopping 51 things you can give your employees that don’t include cutting them a check:
1. Let the employee dump the one project they like least to you.
2. Use of the president’s office for a day.
3. The front parking spot.
4. A handwritten thank you note.
5. Name the conference room or lounge after them.
6. Inviting their spouse in for a lunch on the company.
7. A reserved parking spot.
8. A video game for the employee to give to their child.
9. A vacation day.
10. Brand-new desk, chair, or other piece of office furniture.
11. Bouquet of flowers.
12. Prepare a short video montage that celebrates the employee’s accomplishments.
13. A public thank you.
14. Send a birthday card to them at their home address.
15. Pay for them to take a fun class, such as cooking or skydiving.
16. Find something they like to collect, such as stamps or coins, and give them one for their collection.
17. Let them suggest a way they would like to be recognized.
18. Write a note to their family, sharing how important the person’s contribution to the company has been.
19. Keep the break room stocked with their favorite drink or snack.
20. Buy them tickets to a concert, show or other event.
21. Give them a small gift card from their favorite store.
22. Pick up a book or CD for them by their favorite author or artist.
23. Pick up the tab for them to have a family portrait taken.
24. Pay for their child to go to camp.
25. Buy a few extra boxes of Girl Scout Cookies from their daughter.
26. Give them a pair of movie tickets.
27. Help them with gas prices by giving them a gas card.
28. Provide them with a formal letter of appreciation for their personal file.
29. Create a “day pass” that they can turn in to take any day off, no questions asked.
30. Find a deal on a couple of three-day cruise tickets and set them up with a short vacation.
31. Allow them to be flexible with their hours.
32. Let them choose one day a week to work from home.
33. Have a birthday cake delivered to the office on their birthday.
34. Get each employee to write something positive about the person on a piece of paper, and give them the box of collected sayings, or frame them for the employee.
35. Start a company “Wall of Fame” and add them to it.
36. Find out what they are passionate about and give them a gift that relates to it.
37. Create and give them an award that they can keep and frame for a job well done.
38. Surprise them with an outdoor catered picnic.
39. Have a mobile car wash come to the business and clean their vehicle.
40. Get them a subscription to their favorite magazine.
41. Pay for a membership in a trade association of their choice.
42. Have a staff appreciation day once a month to provide them with a catered lunch.
43. Give them and their colleagues a catered breakfast.
44. Give them a new, improved job title.
45. Provide them with some one-on-one mentoring.
46. Institute a “playtime,” where employees can play games or shoot some baskets.
47. Host an annual award ceremony and give awards to employees for their contributions.
48. Celebrate the anniversary of their joining the company.
49. Allow them to dress casually on Fridays.
50. Have a massage therapist come to the office once a month and give a massage.
51. Create a relaxation room, where the employee (and other people you are rewarding) can go during the day, to read or even play a video game on their break.
Clothes Makers Join to Set ‘Green Score’
Here’s an interesting article about some changes being made in the clothing industry.
By TOM ZELLER Jr.
With just a few clicks on Google Maps, anyone can call up a satellite image of blue dye and other chemicals washing downriver from textile mills in Xintang, China — the world capital of blue jeans production.
Enlarge This Image
Danish Siddiqui/Reuters
A fabric dyeing factory in Mumbai, India. A group is creating sustainability scores for clothes.
But American shoppers in a typical department store encounter no obvious connection between those polluting plumes of dye — or really any other environmental impact — and their favorite pair of designer blues. In many cases, the company whose name appears on the label is only marginally better informed.
But a new and prominent assemblage of retailers, clothing manufacturers, environmental groups and academics plans to change that.
Calling itself the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, the group intends to announce Tuesday that it is developing a comprehensive database of the environmental impact of every manufacturer, component and process in apparel production, with the aim of using that information to eventually give every garment a sustainability score.
Later, the coalition hopes to produce a label that would share some version of that score with shoppers, giving them a much more detailed view into the supply of fabrics, zippers, dyes, threads, buttons and grommets that come together to form the clothing they buy, as well as what impact the creation of that clothing has on both people and the planet.
The coalition includes middle-market companies like Wal-Mart, J. C. Penney, H&M and Hanes, along with more traditionally environmentally minded manufacturers of rugged outdoor clothing like Patagonia and Timberland. The 30 founding members also include Duke University, the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund, the labor rights group Verité, and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Americans spent roughly $340 billion on clothing and shoes last year, which is about 25 percent of the global market, and virtually all of it — 99 percent for footwear and 98 percent for clothes — came from somewhere else, according to the American Apparel and Footwear Association. And the various pieces and parts of any single garment — a jacket, say, or pair of pants — often come from such a diverse multinational chain of fabric mills, dye operations and assembly plants that quantifying the environmental impact of a single item is nearly impossible.
Initially, the coalition wants to help individual companies clean up their supply chains. Company members have all agreed to chip in some money to begin the effort, with the larger companies being asked for additional “seed funding” to support the development of a sustainability indexing tool. Rick Ridgeway, who heads sustainability efforts for Patagonia and is the chairman of the new coalition, estimated that the group would spend $2 million by the end of 2011 on developing the tool.
“People are at such different points on the sustainability journey, and working together can accelerate our ability to make change,” said Alex Tomey, a vice president for product development and design at Wal-Mart, which has worked closely with Patagonia to get the coalition off the ground.
The obscure nature of the global supply chain for apparel has long been a concern to many environmental groups, including Greenpeace, which reported on the Xintang textile mills in December. While individual manufacturers and smaller segments of the apparel industry have begun trying to quantify their effects, a robust study of the entire life cycle of the apparel and footwear industries is only now getting under way.
“The apparel supply chain is long and quite complicated, and many of our current apparel companies — brand companies — don’t really own all the production facilities and factories,” said Huantian Cao, an associate professor of fashion and apparel studies at the University of Delaware. “So even for a company that has a label or brand on the product, it might not be easy to study the whole life cycle of that product, because so much of that supply chain is out of their control.”
The coalition’s tool is meant to be a database of scores assigned to all the players in the life cycle of a garment — cotton growers, synthetic fabric makers, dye suppliers, textile mill owners, as well as packagers, shippers, retailers and consumers — based on a variety of social and environmental measures like water and land use, energy efficiency, waste production, chemical use, greenhouse gases and labor practices.
A clothing company designer could then use the tool to select materials and suppliers, computing an overall sustainability score based on industry standards. If the score exceeds the company’s own sustainability goals — or if competitive pressures arising from a consumer label are compelling the company to bring scores down — designers could revise their choices with the tool.
Such a tool is a work in progress. It draws heavily from two earlier efforts — an environmental design tool developed by Nike, and an “Eco Index” begun by the Outdoor Industry Association last year. But these afford only a partial or approximate look at the potential effects of discrete industry segments.
By TOM ZELLER Jr.
With just a few clicks on Google Maps, anyone can call up a satellite image of blue dye and other chemicals washing downriver from textile mills in Xintang, China — the world capital of blue jeans production.
Enlarge This Image
Danish Siddiqui/Reuters
A fabric dyeing factory in Mumbai, India. A group is creating sustainability scores for clothes.
But American shoppers in a typical department store encounter no obvious connection between those polluting plumes of dye — or really any other environmental impact — and their favorite pair of designer blues. In many cases, the company whose name appears on the label is only marginally better informed.
But a new and prominent assemblage of retailers, clothing manufacturers, environmental groups and academics plans to change that.
Calling itself the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, the group intends to announce Tuesday that it is developing a comprehensive database of the environmental impact of every manufacturer, component and process in apparel production, with the aim of using that information to eventually give every garment a sustainability score.
Later, the coalition hopes to produce a label that would share some version of that score with shoppers, giving them a much more detailed view into the supply of fabrics, zippers, dyes, threads, buttons and grommets that come together to form the clothing they buy, as well as what impact the creation of that clothing has on both people and the planet.
The coalition includes middle-market companies like Wal-Mart, J. C. Penney, H&M and Hanes, along with more traditionally environmentally minded manufacturers of rugged outdoor clothing like Patagonia and Timberland. The 30 founding members also include Duke University, the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund, the labor rights group Verité, and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Americans spent roughly $340 billion on clothing and shoes last year, which is about 25 percent of the global market, and virtually all of it — 99 percent for footwear and 98 percent for clothes — came from somewhere else, according to the American Apparel and Footwear Association. And the various pieces and parts of any single garment — a jacket, say, or pair of pants — often come from such a diverse multinational chain of fabric mills, dye operations and assembly plants that quantifying the environmental impact of a single item is nearly impossible.
Initially, the coalition wants to help individual companies clean up their supply chains. Company members have all agreed to chip in some money to begin the effort, with the larger companies being asked for additional “seed funding” to support the development of a sustainability indexing tool. Rick Ridgeway, who heads sustainability efforts for Patagonia and is the chairman of the new coalition, estimated that the group would spend $2 million by the end of 2011 on developing the tool.
“People are at such different points on the sustainability journey, and working together can accelerate our ability to make change,” said Alex Tomey, a vice president for product development and design at Wal-Mart, which has worked closely with Patagonia to get the coalition off the ground.
The obscure nature of the global supply chain for apparel has long been a concern to many environmental groups, including Greenpeace, which reported on the Xintang textile mills in December. While individual manufacturers and smaller segments of the apparel industry have begun trying to quantify their effects, a robust study of the entire life cycle of the apparel and footwear industries is only now getting under way.
“The apparel supply chain is long and quite complicated, and many of our current apparel companies — brand companies — don’t really own all the production facilities and factories,” said Huantian Cao, an associate professor of fashion and apparel studies at the University of Delaware. “So even for a company that has a label or brand on the product, it might not be easy to study the whole life cycle of that product, because so much of that supply chain is out of their control.”
The coalition’s tool is meant to be a database of scores assigned to all the players in the life cycle of a garment — cotton growers, synthetic fabric makers, dye suppliers, textile mill owners, as well as packagers, shippers, retailers and consumers — based on a variety of social and environmental measures like water and land use, energy efficiency, waste production, chemical use, greenhouse gases and labor practices.
A clothing company designer could then use the tool to select materials and suppliers, computing an overall sustainability score based on industry standards. If the score exceeds the company’s own sustainability goals — or if competitive pressures arising from a consumer label are compelling the company to bring scores down — designers could revise their choices with the tool.
Such a tool is a work in progress. It draws heavily from two earlier efforts — an environmental design tool developed by Nike, and an “Eco Index” begun by the Outdoor Industry Association last year. But these afford only a partial or approximate look at the potential effects of discrete industry segments.
Rethinking Customer Analytics for the Age of All-Channel Commerce
As the economy slowly emerges from recession, retailers face another obstacle: price-sensitive consumers who simultaneously spend less while demanding higher service levels. Surmounting this hurdle will require retailers to up their game in the areas of personalization, customer engagement, and most importantly, relevance. This requires not just gathering customer data, but performing the analysis that will yield actionable insights into who customers are as well as what, when and how they buy. And just to add another layer of complexity, retailers also need to understand how customer behavior differs from channel to channel, while still maintaining a single view of the customer and providing a seamless shopping experience across all of their touchpoints. More comprehensive customer analytics are a critical part of retailers’ transition to integrated, all-channel retailing.
The economic recovery depends upon consumers spending again. And consumers know it. When they do buy, they start by arming themselves with information gleaned from cross-channel, cross-retailer research, and then seek the best deal—including standout service. They gravitate to retailers that seem to offer just what they want, when they want it, in the way they want to buy it. Capturing consumers’ reluctantly spent dollars today demands three things from retailers: being engaging, personal, and relevant. To get there, retailers must attain a deeper understanding of customer wants and needs. They must be able to collect, analyze and act on customer information in near-real time, across channels.
The good news is the unprecedented tide of consumer data now available for this purpose. In addition to traditional sources such as demographics, psychographics, syndicated data, market research and loyalty/purchase history, retailers can tap
e-commerce searches, customer ratings and reviews, redemption rates and activity on social media sites by customers and those who influence them. “Never before has so much up-to-the-minute data been available about customer attitudes and intentions,” says Joe Skorupa, Group Editor-in-Chief, RIS News. “The challenge is wrestling all of this data into actionable insights to shapedecisions across the retail enterprise in time to capture customer attention when they’re ready to buy.” Relevancy is the ultimate goal of retail efforts such as analytics, personalization and loyalty programs. With relevancy,
retailers can go beyond simple customer satisfaction and into the area of customer enthusiasm. Shoppers who are enthusiasticabout a retailer’s products, services and overall brand will be more loyal to that retailer—and will be more likely to give
that retailer permission to learn even more about them, and increase their relevancy even further.
Yesterday’s analytics technology was never designed for this level of granular real-time response. Retailers looking to take their businesses to the next level must rethink their
approach to customer analytics in order to be continually relevant in the face of constantly shifting customer desires. The Currency of Customer Data Historically, customer data has served retailers in aggregate, helping to shape marketing programs and shed light on merchandise trends. The possibilities in all that data have long outstripped retailers’ capacity to make use of it. Staying ahead of the tidal wave of data is even harder today thanks to the addition of channels including e-commerce,
mobile commerce and social media. “Social media in particular presents a golden opportunity for retailers to capture,measure and influence customer intentions, but they must find a way to balance that with other sources of customer insight to gain true perspective and predictive capability,” says Skorupa. Adding to the complexity, retailers also need to understand how customer behavior differs from channel to channel,
while still maintaining a single view of the customer and providing a seamless and relevant shopping experience across all touchpoints. According to Aberdeen Group’s March 2010 “Cross-Channel Customer Loyalty” report, best-in-class retailers are leveraging these additional channels to retain their most profitable customers. For example, FreshDirect, an online grocer based in New York City, evolved into a high-growth, profitable company by capturing a wide array of customer data and applying it throughout the business, according to Forrester Research’s “Case Study: FreshDirect Drives Business Success Through Customer Intelligence,” November 19,
2010. FreshDirect is “intensely focusing on operating the business in real time by leveraging customer intelligence to improve customer experience and drive business success.”
Today retailers can’t afford to leave anything on the table. Customer data can inform decisions throughout the enterprise, including:
• Merchandising
• Targeted promotions/cross-sell opportunities
• Marketing
• Product selection/assortments
• Loyalty building
• Optimal location of stores and distribution centers
Retailers view customer intelligence technology as providing them with a number of hard benefits that relate directly toimportant business goals and performance indicators. A September 2010 RIS retailer survey reveals that 63.3% of respondents believe customer intelligence helps them increase customer wallet share, and 60% say it supports higher margins, increased comp store sales and reduction of wasted marketing dollars. RSR Research has found that 40% of retail winners rated using customer data to improve the business as a top three opportunity for customer programs, compared with just 7% of laggards. “Winners see the opportunity to use customer data not just for customer-facing activities, but as a launching pad to improve the entire business—to focus everyone on delivering on customer expectations, not just
channels,” according to RSR’s “The State of Personalization in Retail” (August 2010).
Unfortunately, access to customer data and the analysis tools required to make use of it has been limited within retail organizations. Many retailers still lack a central repository
for customer data that can serve as the basis for an enterprise-wide CRM system. Such a system is essential foractivities such as customer segmentation and for deep ad hoc queries into shopping behaviors—necessary for developing the most relevant
communication and promotions for each customer group. However, according to the RIS/RSR Research 2010 Cross-Channel Tech Trends Study, only one-third of responding retailers use a shared enterprise-level solution to support their customer behavior and purchase history analytics functions. Further, 54% of best-in-class retailers are able to analyze customer data across channels, versus 27% of average retailers and 20% of laggards, according to Aberdeen Group’s “The Roadmap from Multi-Channel to Cross-Channel Retailing,” (November 2010). Many retailer efforts to fully
integrate processes and systems across channels are in their
early stages.
(Excerpted from RIS Though Leadership Series)
Two Sets of Three
by Peggy Horne Taylor
Recently I was reading a magazine when I came across a few quotes from John Wooden, the famed basketball coach who was loved by all who knew him. I was so inspired by the article I purchased a book of his to add to my list of reading material.
Apparently John Wooden was fond of quoting his father as well, and the following caught my attention. John’s father’s “two sets of three”: never lie, never cheat, never steal” and “don’t whine, don’t complain, don’t make excuses.”
So how do these simple rules of life apply to you and your retail business? I often hear retailers complain about how hard it is to make money these days. They whine about how people aren’t walking through their door, so they can’t make the same money they used to just a few years ago. When I explain to them I am a retail consultant, and I would like to schedule an appointment to show them our services because we can help with those concerns, they start to make excuses about how they don’t need any assistance; they have gotten along fine for 30 years, it is the economy that is the problem, and their POS system gives them all the information they need.
Sadly, we have often passed by some of those same stores again, only to find them permanently closed. If the retailer had not lied to themselves and us, they might have been able to save their stores and still be in business. Those retailers cheated themselves by not finding out what services are available from outside sources to see if someone else could help them become more successful. Their dreams were stolen away by their fears or ignorance.
One big mistake small businesses make is thinking they can do everything by themselves or thinking they can’t afford to get outside help, when in reality the can’t afford not too. Where do you see yourself in this picture? The cost of holding your business together and making it run as a finely tuned machine is much less expensive than closing your door and walking away. Ignorance is not bliss in most cases.
Your life and your business are a result of the choices you make; if you buy too much inventory you are losing money, if you buy too little you are losing money. There is an optimum amount yo need to buy. Do you know what that is?
In the end, you are responsible for the choices you make, and only you are responsible for the outcome. You can’t go through life taking credit for everything good that happens and making excuses for all the failures. You have to bone up and accept responsibility for the greatness in your life and the failures.
Enjoy these quotes from John Wooden:
•”Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.”
•”Don’t measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you
should have accomplished with you ability.”
•”If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?”
•”It’s what you learn after you know it all that count.”
“It will take focus each and every day to push a startup forward, even if you are working another job and developing your business in spare hours. But if you eventually want to get paid business wages, you can’t treat it like a hobby.”
~Keri Jaehnig,
Culturally Connected
A Great and Funny Open to Buy Planning Video
This video was made by some of our Management one associates. If you are in retail you should watch this funny video!
Every morning in Africa, a Gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a Lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest Gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn’t matter whether you are a Lion or a Gazelle… when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.
— Source Unknown
Preventive Medicine for Your Retail Store
by Peggy Horne Taylor
You go to the doctor when you feel sick, but do you also go when you are feeling fine just to make sure you won’t get sick? If there is heart disease in you family, you would not consider missing an annual physical. When you were young you were subjected to all those nasty injections kids hated. Now you get a Flu shot every year just to keep the flu at bay. If you lived internationally at the time when disease was rampant in the majority of the world, and you would never consider leaving the country without a long list of shots. Let’s not forget mammograms, prostate exams and the unthinkable dreaded colonoscopy. We do all of these choices to protect our own health, so why don’t we think we need to protect the health of our business?
Most retailers do not have degrees in business, marketing, or anything relating to retail. For the most part, retailers are just ordinary folks who wake up one day with a “great idea”, they decide they are going to open a store. Or, it might have been someone who worked for Macy’s and thought they could do it better.
The number one reason small businesses fail is because they believe they are too small to do all of the things big businesses do to be successful. You need more than an idea to endure, you need a plan; you need a goal and a budget written down on paper; this is your road map to success. You need to sit down and assess what needs to be done in your business for it to be successful and endure. What jobs can you do, what jobs can you delegate and what jobs require outside help? Do you have a training program for your employees or do you just through them on the floor and hope they actually know how to engage a customer and sell to them? Do you think you can’t afford to do these things? It is must less expensive to stay well than it is to pay your hospital bill, and the same is true for your business. Success comes from being informed, not by sticking your head in a hole in the ground and pretending everything is fine.
If you have been in business for many years, you need to stop thinking you know everything, because you probably don’t. Do you have too much inventory, do you have to take deep markdowns to get rid of your stock? Do you have goods in your store more than 90 days old? All of these are signs of a store that is not healthy and not making the money it could be making if the owner knew what to buy, when to buy it, and when to mark it down. Idle merchandise sitting in your store, that is not selling, is money you do not have in the bank. This is a major cause of cash flow issues. Heavy markdowns lead to reduced profits.
There is a method to the madness of large retailers. It seems they are marking the goods down almost as soon as they come in the door. This is not just to get you in the door, but also to get rid of goods that aren’t selling, and to free up money so they can buy the next bunch of goods coming in. If you have merchandise in your store that is still there after the season is over, get rid of it any way you can. Shoppers are very savvy these days; because of the internet they know what is hot and what is not, and after a while, they don’t want your old inventory no matter how cheap it gets.
Give your business a check-up to determine what you need to do to keep your store healthy, or what you need to do to get it back to where it was in the good old days, so you can move on to even greater success.
You go to the doctor when you feel sick, but do you also go when you are feeling fine just to make sure you won’t get sick? If there is heart disease in you family, you would not consider missing an annual physical. When you were young you were subjected to all those nasty injections kids hated. Now you get a Flu shot every year just to keep the flu at bay. If you lived internationally at the time when disease was rampant in the majority of the world, and you would never consider leaving the country without a long list of shots. Let’s not forget mammograms, prostate exams and the unthinkable dreaded colonoscopy. We do all of these choices to protect our own health, so why don’t we think we need to protect the health of our business?
Most retailers do not have degrees in business, marketing, or anything relating to retail. For the most part, retailers are just ordinary folks who wake up one day with a “great idea”, they decide they are going to open a store. Or, it might have been someone who worked for Macy’s and thought they could do it better.
The number one reason small businesses fail is because they believe they are too small to do all of the things big businesses do to be successful. You need more than an idea to endure, you need a plan; you need a goal and a budget written down on paper; this is your road map to success. You need to sit down and assess what needs to be done in your business for it to be successful and endure. What jobs can you do, what jobs can you delegate and what jobs require outside help? Do you have a training program for your employees or do you just through them on the floor and hope they actually know how to engage a customer and sell to them? Do you think you can’t afford to do these things? It is must less expensive to stay well than it is to pay your hospital bill, and the same is true for your business. Success comes from being informed, not by sticking your head in a hole in the ground and pretending everything is fine.
If you have been in business for many years, you need to stop thinking you know everything, because you probably don’t. Do you have too much inventory, do you have to take deep markdowns to get rid of your stock? Do you have goods in your store more than 90 days old? All of these are signs of a store that is not healthy and not making the money it could be making if the owner knew what to buy, when to buy it, and when to mark it down. Idle merchandise sitting in your store, that is not selling, is money you do not have in the bank. This is a major cause of cash flow issues. Heavy markdowns lead to reduced profits.
Give your business a check-up to determine what you need to do to keep your store healthy, or what you need to do to get it back to where it was in the good old days, so you can move on to even greater success.
9 Tips on Managing Your Inventory for 2011
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Dec 20, 2010 - The holidays are in full swing and products are flying off the shelves.
But have you thought about your inventory strategies for next year?
Here are a few ways to manage your inventory in the new year:
Be careful with end-of-year purchases“The holidays are almost here, which means that unless you are looking at egregious holes in your assortment, sell what you have,” advised Ted Hurlbut, principal at Hurlbut & Associates, a business management consultancy in Foxborough, Mass. “At this point, anything that you bring in will sell in place of something you already own. Then, you will have to go through the clearance process on what you already own.
“One of the real margin killers during this time of year is bringing in last minute purchases.”
Mark down poor sellers“Identify your weak sellers and mark them down to move before Christmas, when your traffic is at its peak,” Hurlbut said. “If you wait until you take everything at 20 percent of after Christmas, you will have to take your weak sellers to 50 percent off, instead of the 20 percent off you could have done before the holiday.
“The markdown will cost you less now than it will later.”
Cycle inventory “Retailers have a tendency to fall in love with their inventory, so they keep it past the time they should,” said Peggy H. Taylor, co-owner of Progressive Profit, a retail consultancy based in Fairview, N.C. “If it doesn’t sell within 90 days, you need to get rid of it. If you’ve had something in your store for a year, chances are you will never sell it. Donate it to good will and you can write it off on your taxes.”
Use the garbage can“Identify your sludge and dispose of it,” said Hurlbut. “For example, if you have a rack filled with great clothes and one mustard yellow shirt, some customers will be turned off to the entire rack because of that shirt. Get rid of it. If you have it heavily marked down and it still isn’t moving, it has no retail value and could be dumpster fodder.
Want more financial management tips? Check these out:
“Then, you can take a tax credit for it. By keeping it, it is poisoning everything else.”
Record everything“Make sure that all of your material is properly recorded,” said Jon Schreibfeder, president of Effective Inventory Management, Inc., an inventory management consultancy based in Coppell, Texas. “Otherwise, you will have no idea what is in your store or warehouse, which means you would be forced to overstock to maintain a high level of customer service. You also might be reordering products way too early or too late.”
Display seasonal items“Don’t pack away any seasonal items unless it can’t be prevented,” Hurlbut said. “Maximize your cash recovery now. Cash is more valuable to you now than in six or nine months. If you put something away, new things will come along and make the item not as valuable.”
Forecast, forecast, forecast“Make sure you have the best possible forecast,” Schreibfeder suggested. ”A good forecast is made up of five different elements: past sales, trends in popularity of an item, external factors such as weather and the economy, collaborative elements such as events, and the time of a forecast—today’s date less a product’s lead time.”
Write a list“Develop an approved stock list and know what your customers want you to have in stock,” said Schreibfeder. “A lot of small business owners have stock and then they have stuff, which are the things the customers don’t want or don’t expect you to have. Liquidate the stuff; it will free up space and cash.”
Stay informed“Even if you’ve had a tough time in your business, you should be going to market,” Taylor advised. “You should go to market no matter what. That is where you see new things. Even if you don’t buy anything, you can be mentally shopping and ordering for the future.”
Katie Morell is a Chicago-based freelance writer specializing in small business concerns.
Dec 20, 2010 - The holidays are in full swing and products are flying off the shelves.
But have you thought about your inventory strategies for next year?
Here are a few ways to manage your inventory in the new year:
Be careful with end-of-year purchases“The holidays are almost here, which means that unless you are looking at egregious holes in your assortment, sell what you have,” advised Ted Hurlbut, principal at Hurlbut & Associates, a business management consultancy in Foxborough, Mass. “At this point, anything that you bring in will sell in place of something you already own. Then, you will have to go through the clearance process on what you already own.
“One of the real margin killers during this time of year is bringing in last minute purchases.”
Mark down poor sellers“Identify your weak sellers and mark them down to move before Christmas, when your traffic is at its peak,” Hurlbut said. “If you wait until you take everything at 20 percent of after Christmas, you will have to take your weak sellers to 50 percent off, instead of the 20 percent off you could have done before the holiday.
“The markdown will cost you less now than it will later.”
Cycle inventory “Retailers have a tendency to fall in love with their inventory, so they keep it past the time they should,” said Peggy H. Taylor, co-owner of Progressive Profit, a retail consultancy based in Fairview, N.C. “If it doesn’t sell within 90 days, you need to get rid of it. If you’ve had something in your store for a year, chances are you will never sell it. Donate it to good will and you can write it off on your taxes.”
Use the garbage can“Identify your sludge and dispose of it,” said Hurlbut. “For example, if you have a rack filled with great clothes and one mustard yellow shirt, some customers will be turned off to the entire rack because of that shirt. Get rid of it. If you have it heavily marked down and it still isn’t moving, it has no retail value and could be dumpster fodder.
Want more financial management tips? Check these out:
- Inventory: The Crucible of Success
- How Well are You Managing Your Inventory?
- Applying the 80/20 Rule to Your Inventory
“Then, you can take a tax credit for it. By keeping it, it is poisoning everything else.”
Record everything“Make sure that all of your material is properly recorded,” said Jon Schreibfeder, president of Effective Inventory Management, Inc., an inventory management consultancy based in Coppell, Texas. “Otherwise, you will have no idea what is in your store or warehouse, which means you would be forced to overstock to maintain a high level of customer service. You also might be reordering products way too early or too late.”
Display seasonal items“Don’t pack away any seasonal items unless it can’t be prevented,” Hurlbut said. “Maximize your cash recovery now. Cash is more valuable to you now than in six or nine months. If you put something away, new things will come along and make the item not as valuable.”
Forecast, forecast, forecast“Make sure you have the best possible forecast,” Schreibfeder suggested. ”A good forecast is made up of five different elements: past sales, trends in popularity of an item, external factors such as weather and the economy, collaborative elements such as events, and the time of a forecast—today’s date less a product’s lead time.”
Write a list“Develop an approved stock list and know what your customers want you to have in stock,” said Schreibfeder. “A lot of small business owners have stock and then they have stuff, which are the things the customers don’t want or don’t expect you to have. Liquidate the stuff; it will free up space and cash.”
Stay informed“Even if you’ve had a tough time in your business, you should be going to market,” Taylor advised. “You should go to market no matter what. That is where you see new things. Even if you don’t buy anything, you can be mentally shopping and ordering for the future.”
Katie Morell is a Chicago-based freelance writer specializing in small business concerns.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
9 Tips on Managing Your Inventory for 2011
Katie Morell about Facebook® RecommendThe Facebook® Recommend button is incorporated only in select, public areas of the American Express OPEN website. To learn more about the Facebook® Recommend button, click here.
Dec 20, 2010 - The holidays are in full swing and products are flying off the shelves.
But have you thought about your inventory strategies for next year?
Here are a few ways to manage your inventory in the new year:
Be careful with end-of-year purchases“The holidays are almost here, which means that unless you are looking at egregious holes in your assortment, sell what you have,” advised Ted Hurlbut, principal at Hurlbut & Associates, a business management consultancy in Foxborough, Mass. “At this point, anything that you bring in will sell in place of something you already own. Then, you will have to go through the clearance process on what you already own.
“One of the real margin killers during this time of year is bringing in last minute purchases.”
Mark down poor sellers“Identify your weak sellers and mark them down to move before Christmas, when your traffic is at its peak,” Hurlbut said. “If you wait until you take everything at 20 percent of after Christmas, you will have to take your weak sellers to 50 percent off, instead of the 20 percent off you could have done before the holiday.
“The markdown will cost you less now than it will later.”
Cycle inventory “Retailers have a tendency to fall in love with their inventory, so they keep it past the time they should,” said Peggy H. Taylor, co-owner of Progressive Profit, a retail consultancy based in Fairview, N.C. “If it doesn’t sell within 90 days, you need to get rid of it. If you’ve had something in your store for a year, chances are you will never sell it. Donate it to good will and you can write it off on your taxes.”
Use the garbage can“Identify your sludge and dispose of it,” said Hurlbut. “For example, if you have a rack filled with great clothes and one mustard yellow shirt, some customers will be turned off to the entire rack because of that shirt. Get rid of it. If you have it heavily marked down and it still isn’t moving, it has no retail value and could be dumpster fodder.
Want more financial management tips? Check these out:
* Inventory: The Crucible of Success
* How Well are You Managing Your Inventory?
* Applying the 80/20 Rule to Your Inventory
“Then, you can take a tax credit for it. By keeping it, it is poisoning everything else.”
Record everything“Make sure that all of your material is properly recorded,” said Jon Schreibfeder, president of Effective Inventory Management, Inc., an inventory management consultancy based in Coppell, Texas. “Otherwise, you will have no idea what is in your store or warehouse, which means you would be forced to overstock to maintain a high level of customer service. You also might be reordering products way too early or too late.”
Display seasonal items“Don’t pack away any seasonal items unless it can’t be prevented,” Hurlbut said. “Maximize your cash recovery now. Cash is more valuable to you now than in six or nine months. If you put something away, new things will come along and make the item not as valuable.”
Forecast, forecast, forecast“Make sure you have the best possible forecast,” Schreibfeder suggested. ”A good forecast is made up of five different elements: past sales, trends in popularity of an item, external factors such as weather and the economy, collaborative elements such as events, and the time of a forecast—today’s date less a product’s lead time.”
Write a list“Develop an approved stock list and know what your customers want you to have in stock,” said Schreibfeder. “A lot of small business owners have stock and then they have stuff, which are the things the customers don’t want or don’t expect you to have. Liquidate the stuff; it will free up space and cash.”
Stay informed“Even if you’ve had a tough time in your business, you should be going to market,” Taylor advised. “You should go to market no matter what. That is where you see new things. Even if you don’t buy anything, you can be mentally shopping and ordering for the future.”
Katie Morell is a Chicago-based freelance writer specializing in small business concerns.
Dec 20, 2010 - The holidays are in full swing and products are flying off the shelves.
But have you thought about your inventory strategies for next year?
Here are a few ways to manage your inventory in the new year:
Be careful with end-of-year purchases“The holidays are almost here, which means that unless you are looking at egregious holes in your assortment, sell what you have,” advised Ted Hurlbut, principal at Hurlbut & Associates, a business management consultancy in Foxborough, Mass. “At this point, anything that you bring in will sell in place of something you already own. Then, you will have to go through the clearance process on what you already own.
“One of the real margin killers during this time of year is bringing in last minute purchases.”
Mark down poor sellers“Identify your weak sellers and mark them down to move before Christmas, when your traffic is at its peak,” Hurlbut said. “If you wait until you take everything at 20 percent of after Christmas, you will have to take your weak sellers to 50 percent off, instead of the 20 percent off you could have done before the holiday.
“The markdown will cost you less now than it will later.”
Cycle inventory “Retailers have a tendency to fall in love with their inventory, so they keep it past the time they should,” said Peggy H. Taylor, co-owner of Progressive Profit, a retail consultancy based in Fairview, N.C. “If it doesn’t sell within 90 days, you need to get rid of it. If you’ve had something in your store for a year, chances are you will never sell it. Donate it to good will and you can write it off on your taxes.”
Use the garbage can“Identify your sludge and dispose of it,” said Hurlbut. “For example, if you have a rack filled with great clothes and one mustard yellow shirt, some customers will be turned off to the entire rack because of that shirt. Get rid of it. If you have it heavily marked down and it still isn’t moving, it has no retail value and could be dumpster fodder.
Want more financial management tips? Check these out:
* Inventory: The Crucible of Success
* How Well are You Managing Your Inventory?
* Applying the 80/20 Rule to Your Inventory
“Then, you can take a tax credit for it. By keeping it, it is poisoning everything else.”
Record everything“Make sure that all of your material is properly recorded,” said Jon Schreibfeder, president of Effective Inventory Management, Inc., an inventory management consultancy based in Coppell, Texas. “Otherwise, you will have no idea what is in your store or warehouse, which means you would be forced to overstock to maintain a high level of customer service. You also might be reordering products way too early or too late.”
Display seasonal items“Don’t pack away any seasonal items unless it can’t be prevented,” Hurlbut said. “Maximize your cash recovery now. Cash is more valuable to you now than in six or nine months. If you put something away, new things will come along and make the item not as valuable.”
Forecast, forecast, forecast“Make sure you have the best possible forecast,” Schreibfeder suggested. ”A good forecast is made up of five different elements: past sales, trends in popularity of an item, external factors such as weather and the economy, collaborative elements such as events, and the time of a forecast—today’s date less a product’s lead time.”
Write a list“Develop an approved stock list and know what your customers want you to have in stock,” said Schreibfeder. “A lot of small business owners have stock and then they have stuff, which are the things the customers don’t want or don’t expect you to have. Liquidate the stuff; it will free up space and cash.”
Stay informed“Even if you’ve had a tough time in your business, you should be going to market,” Taylor advised. “You should go to market no matter what. That is where you see new things. Even if you don’t buy anything, you can be mentally shopping and ordering for the future.”
Katie Morell is a Chicago-based freelance writer specializing in small business concerns.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Free 2011 Business Growth Planning and Goal Setting Session for Independent retailers.
Progressive Profit is offering a free 45 minute “Business Growth Planning and Goal Setting Session” for independent retailers.
“5 Benefits” of signing up are:
•create a sense of clarity about the success you really want to have in your retail business.
•learn the essential building blocks for having the retail business of your dreams.
•discover the #1 thing stopping you from having the success you want.
•identify the most powerful actions you need to take to move toward the success you desire.
•complete the consultation with the excitement of knowing EXACTLY what to do next to create the successful retail business you always wanted.
Sessions will begin December 1 and continue until January 31. Space is limited; to take advantage of this free one-on-one consultation, call Progressive Profit 828-628-9021.
Progressive Profit is a retail consulting firm located in the Asheville, NC area providing a wide variety of services to independent retailers in Western North Carolina, the Upstate of South Carolina, and Eastern Tennessee. For more information about Progressive Profit, go to their website: www.progressive-profit.com
Click the button below to go straight to the form to request an appointment. Fill Out My Form!
Saturday, October 30, 2010
A Tale of Existance, Persistance, and Success
by Evan Wise
Levy’s Menswear of Nashville, TN recently celebrated its 155th anniversary in the menswear business. The owner, David Levy, has been a client of Management One® and Tom Licking (Tucson, AZ) for twelve years. Evan Wise interviewed David and learned about Levy’s over the years.
Levy’s in Nashville has been taking chances and making them work since Zadoc Levy bought some fabric and opened a dry goods and tailor shop in 1855. To put that in perspective, Franklin Pierce was president and Abraham Lincoln was still a lawyer in Illinois! Imagine running a tailor shop on a dirt road that turned to mud in the rain and at a time when an outhouse was a luxury that many did not have. Zadoc overcame the obstacles of the day and kept the shop going through the Civil War and the Reconstruction afterwards.
Taking chances and making them work is the continued story of Levy’s. The Levy family went on to survive two world wars and the Great Depression. Zadoc’s sons, grandsons, great grandsons and finally David Levy, his great great grandson, took over the store in 1998. During that time span, the Levy’s overcame generational challenges, family difficulties, several large floods and great cultural change. In 1962, a water main burst and flooded the basement of the store. Fortunately it only ruined a storeroom full of old goods for the sidewalk sale. The insurance company bought out the sale goods that year!
Changing styles created challenges as well. “When lapels suddenly got smaller in the 70s, we ended up selling off a million dollars of inventory at half cost. People still come in and brag on the great deals that weekend,” David recalls. He remembers when leisure suits made retailing difficult as the look became more casual. “How do we sell suits now?” David posits and explains the preppy days kept people from replacing their wardrobe – but then along came the Italians to reinvent the luxury clothing market. “We took an early risk with Ermenegildo Zegna, however it paid off.”
Levy’s grew to several branch stores but as people were able to travel more easily, the decision was made to consolidate to one store in Green Hills. “We were transferring goods daily from the downtown store, where the merchandise was not selling, to our current location, where it was flying off the shelves! Focusing on one store made sense, but the challenge of getting out of leases and dealing with our bank to make it work made surviving this current recession look like a cakewalk. We really had to balance our cash then!
David took a risk and bought out his cousin, placing full responsibility on his own shoulders. ”As far as I know, I am the only family member since Zadoc to purchase stock from the corporation and family,” he explains.
Evan Wise is an owner of Management One, a retail and business consulting service.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Thursday, September 23, 2010
by Richard Branson Thanks to Ann Adley
1. On big companies vs. small companies
“Small is beautiful,” Branson said. “This may seem like a peculiar boast,” he added, but he doesn’t see size as a competitive advantage.
His Virgin Records label is not the biggest in the music industry, but in 1992 it attracted the Rolling Stones. Virgin Airlines has a mere 37 airplanes versus the 700+ maintained by its competitors. It’s better to spin off a company into a second smaller company (as Virgin Atlantic spun off Virgin America) than grow larger, Branson believes, because smaller companies can stay both more nimble and more customer-focused. They can also maintain the style and “cheekiness” of their early trailblazing if they stay relatively compact.
2. On the foundation of a brand
Branson believes that “outstanding brands are built around great people who deliver consistently great customer service every day.”
Ultimately, a brand is only as good as the products behind it. A business’s top priority is to get its products right, and then wrap a great brand around it. “You can’t kid people,” Branson said.
3. On his inspiration in nature
Virgin has a “lot in common with bumblebees,” Branson says. The aerodynamics of the bee’s biology suggest that it shouldn’t be able to fly. “But it just goes out and does it.”
4. On seeing things through your customer’s eyes
His inspiration for Virgin Airlines grew out of his own miserable experience as a passenger on commercial airlines replete with “dreadful service.” Virgin went head-to-head against the “well-oiled marketing machines” of the “big, boring competition,” Branson said.
“We didn’t know how much we didn’t know,” he added. “We had no idea how serious airlines were supposed to be run—so we looked at it entirely from the passenger’s perspective.”
5. On positioning
Virgin decided to compete on service—rather than price—as a way to set itself apart from other air carriers. Virgin also “focused on what we knew best—entertainment,” Branson said, positioning his airline as a “well-priced product [that would] make flying fun again” via perks like onboard bars, massages, power plugs at every seat, the flexibility to order food in your seat when you want it, and so on.
“We weren’t out to be the biggest, but definitely to be the best,” he said.
6. On hiring
More companies look for employees with relevant experience first. But from its outset, Virgin “hired friendly over experienced,” Branson said. It sought out employees who had fresh perspectives, great attitudes, and were eager to have fun, and then trained them to do their jobs. Those who arrived with experience from other air carriers were those who essentially “had learned how to not do their jobs,” he said.
Branson also believes in promoting from within. “We try to take people on from within,” he said, because “we know their weakness and strengths.” What’s more, he said, he often promotes people above the position they expect. “We take a risk. You can start off as a cleaning lady and go to the top.” Also, hiring from within “doesn’t demoralize people in company,” Branson added.
7. On listening to customers and employees
Branson is well known for his personable management style. Early on, he wrote monthly letters to all Virgin Group employees, and every employee was given his home telephone number. He extends that openness to customers, too, at times randomly calling select customers to inquire about their experience on his airline, for example.
Have a “fearlessness of engaging with people,” Branson said, because “conversations can change the world.”
“We like to listen to our customers, because it’s an opportunity to be creative,” Branson said.
8. On social media
For businesses, social media offers both challenges and opportunities, Branson said. For example, an unhappy Virgin passenger might use the megaphone of a social media platform to complain, when a push of an onboard call button would resolve the issue, Branson said. But at the same time, social channels can help your customers find one another and allow them a change to interact, which makes an onboard community on an airplane, for example, a “smaller, warmer, friendlier” place.
Branson believes that when businesses carefully monitor and respond, social media helps businesses anticipate needs. For example, when a Virgin passenger expressed his concern on Twitter about whether he might make his connecting flight, Virgin staffers made sure he made it.
Social channels can also offer immediate feedback on what your customers will respond to: When Virgin America announced a fare sale on Twitter, it became the fourth highest sale day in the airline’s history.
9. On having a sense of humor
Approaching business playfully, and with a healthy sense of humor and fun, is critical. Virgin “built its business on free advertising, and largely with a sense of humor,” Branson said. A “cheeky” approach to business and “fun, gentle digs at competitors help put your name on the map,” he added.
10. On failure
Entrepreneurs take risks, Branson said, and as such “mustn’t be afraid of failure.” Failure doesn’t damage a reputation as much as some fear, he said. And anyways, it’s more fun to challenge yourself to succeed than to not act out of fear of failing, especially as success begets success: “If you can run one business well, you should be able to run any business well.”
True entrepreneurs “love challenging themselves, and love challenging the people around us,” especially when it comes to succeeding in otherwise established markets, where most businesses are “diabolically run.”
11. On his fascination with space travel
Branson founded Virgin Galactic in 1990 with a goal of making commercial space travel viable, but the idea grew out of a longtime passion for an idea that he worked hard to make a reality. (Which is, by the way, exactly what entrepreneurs do more generally, in other industries.)
His fascination with space travel took root when he (along with the rest of the world) watched the first manned spacecraft land on the moon in 1969. After seeing Apollo 11, he said, “I assumed I’d be going into space.” And decades later he worked to develop a reusable, safe spaceship that could make suborbital spaceflight a reality. Now, he says, commercial space travel is only a year or so away.
12. On the importance of company culture
Everything comes down to the people you hire to run your company, Branson said. Those running the company have to love it, and they also have to believe in the products you sell. The CEO must care as much about the cleaning ladies and switchboard operators as well as the company’s other directors.
The Virgin Group tries to maintain an equal number of men and women on its boards and in it’s staffing. Too often corporate boards are overwhelmingly male, Branson said, but he believes companies benefit from a more equal split.
13. On partying with employees
It’s important for higher-ups to get to know people on a personal level, outside of work. “We encourage as much partying as possible,” he said.
For executives, that means staying at the same hotel where your staff stays, and hanging out at the bar with them, after hours. “You’ll get the honest feedback at a bar,” Branson said.
14. On success
With success comes wealth and fame, but also enormous responsibility to help other people and improve the world we live in, Branson said. He now spends most of his time on humanitarian and social issues.
15. On which business is his favorite
Branson doesn’t run any business daily, as he’s become expert at the “art of delegation,” he said. But those businesses that interest him most tend to be the ones that are struggling.
“The businesses I become closest to as those that are like a child getting bullied; I tend to spend more time with them than with other businesses” to help steer them onto the right track.
Image credit: Charles Nicholls
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