Starting a retail business: grants

There are no grants for starting a retail business. Let me repeat that for emphasis - there are no grants! Con artists say they can get you a grant to start your business ... but all you'll really get is swindled. Businesses are started with personal savings and loans.

Real entrepreneurs don't need or want handouts, and anyone trying to start a retail store with an "entitlement" or "welfare" mentality is doomed to fail.

E-Commerce: big gains in holiday sales

From Nov. 1 through Dec. 26, consumers spent $14.8 billion online -- representing a 29 percent year-over-year increase. All retailers, no matter how small, should at least experiment with e-commerce. If you can establish a niche, the world will be your market.

Retail Management: skill to store

The young owner of Anna Street Studio has taken her skill with design and fabric from hobby to studio production to retail store in three years. That's a real lesson in the power of doing what you love and building a niche with unique products.

Retail Marketing: image and packaging

An article from the New York Times tells the story of Fresh, a chain of body care retail shops. Started as a mom-and-pop store, they now have international locations. The stores flourish despite paying up to $600 per square foot rent. How do they do it? They've identified a high-end niche market and created a successful image and packaging. Instead of a cookie cutter approach, each store is design to fit into its neighborhood. It's a good story. The very classy Fresh website.

Retail store management: markdowns

You can control markdowns in your retail store with pre-season planning and in-season adjustments. This article lays out the basics on getting a handle on excessive markdowns.

Retail Management: tale of two electronics retailers

A tale of two electronics retailers. One grew and grew, and tried to compete with the big box retailers. The other expanded slowly and stuck to a more focused, exclusive niche. I think you know how this story ends.

Chocolate retailer war ends

Does this story make your mouth water? For 3 years Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and South Bend Chocolate sold chocolate next door to each other in Indianapolis.

"It was just an unusual situation where you had two competing companies selling identical products next to each other," said Steve Delaney, restaurant broker with Carmel-based The Linder Co. The 2,400-square-foot South Bend Chocolate store seemed like a giant when compared with Rocky Mountain's 800-square-foot venture. South Bend is a fusion between a chocolate shop and cafe, and Rocky Mountain had a niche as a carryout store. Rocky Mountain was there first, but now it is gone.

Chocolate is a pretty small niche for two stores side-by-side. Those South Bend guys are real cut-throat competitors!

Retail Marketing: an all-natural beef niche

Reisz Natural Beef Farm store in Woodbine, Iowa sells all-natural choice beef ... frozen steaks, roasts and burgers. The integrated small company has a feedlot and does processing and packaging. No growth hormones or steroids in this meat, and calves are antibiotic free. Gift package sales were big this Christmas ("give the gift of meat"?) The Reisz brothers also set up shop in Omaha's historic Old Market, spending most Saturdays there spring through fall. Customers can also place orders on the company's web site, www.reisznaturalbeef.com.

Kiosks: retail store incubators

Kiosks let retail entrepreneurs test ideas with a small investment. Temporary kiosks and carts have become an important segment of the retail industry, especially during the holiday season. With annual sales of $10 billion, temporary store vendors earn 70 percent to 80 percent of their revenue during the holiday season. What’s more, the ranks of short-term stores swell during the holiday season when shopping centers rent open common spaces or vacant stores to peak-season-only vendors. Operating with a lower overhead than traditional stores, they test the markets for trendy items and holiday merchandise with a short shelf life.

For many startups, a cart provides a foothold into permanency. Mauricio Chediak of B. Fashions operates two fashion jewelry kiosks, with average sales of $18,000 to $20,000 per month at each location. After operating kiosks for several years, Chediak this year has begun to open permanent store locations in area malls throughout South Florida. As a kiosk tenant, Chediak spends $5,500 to rent each cart, compared to $9,000 to $12,000 to rent traditional retail space. A kiosk, he said, "is a great idea for a start-ups. The investment is affordable and you can see if it works."

Retail marketing: clicks to bricks

The Petruzzi brothers keep finding new ways to sell batteries. They started on the Internet and now are moving close to home with a store in a shopping mall. In 1999, the brothers launched batteries.com. It receives about 250,000 visitors a month. A month ago, they opened their first retail shop, which offers an array of batteries and portable power supplies, including hard-to-find sizes not available from pharmacies and discounters.

The absolutely largest selection is always a good position to hold. .

Retail management: minimum wage changes

The minimum wage is increasing in several states. If you want good help, you should be willing to pay for it. Your staff is your contact with the public ... don't save a penny and lose a buck.

E-Commerce: sell to women

 There are more women online than men, and they're also driving online retail sales.

Jewelry was the single biggest growth category, with a 113% increase in spending over last year. Women shoppers also helped make apparel the No. 1 category overall, with 16% growth and $3.8 billion in sales, according to the eSpending Report, released Jan. 3 by Goldman Sachs & Co., Harris Interactive, and Nielsen/NetRatings. Shoppers spent $1.4 billion more on clothes this year than on consumer electronics.

Is your online store merchandising to attract women?

Retail success story: Urban Outfitters

Read the story of how one little store at a university grew into the lucrative empire of Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie and Free People stores around North America and Europe. After graduating from college and deciding to start a retail store, Richard Hayne and Judy Wicks had only a combined $3,000. The couple couldn't afford both an apartment and a storefront and ended up living in the back of their store for about a year, decorating the store by painting wooden crates they took from Chinatown trash bins.

You can reach your goals, whether they're big or small. It just may take some time and sacrifice.

Retail business success: Poisoned Pen

Book retailing is competitive ... the big-box bookstore chains and Amazon.com are running many independent retailers out of business. The Poisoned Pen bookstore in Scottsdale, Arizona succeeds by specializing in hard to find Canadian and British crime fiction. 70% of sales are from mail order. Barbara Peters is branching out into a new location in Phoenix, but it won't be as specialized. Let's hope the movement away from a niche doesn't hurt this successful retail store. The Poisoned Pen website.

Find a niche! Selling imported products that aren't generally available elsewhere is a good idea. Expanding your retail marketing through mail order and the Internet is an even better idea.

Free small business marketing booklet

Duct Tape Marketing offers a free booklet at their website. Called How to Create the Ultimate Small Business Marketing System in 7 Simple Steps, it sounds like a cheesy hype piece ... but I found it to be quite interesting and useful. The 7 steps are real action items that begin with "narrow your market focus" and end with "get famous". I won't spoil the rest for you.

The Charm Bar

The Charm Bar, making your own charm bracelet, and experiential marketing. Fun and creativity sell.

Retail business trends for 2005

Are "bejeweled accessories, tartan plaid with sequins and fur, chrome yellow cars and Chinese dumplings" really going to be hot in 2005? Demand for "unique and exclusive" products is at an all time high. More retail trends for the new year.

Hefty profits from super-size shoppers

Big shoppers can fatten your retail store's bottom line. Americans are big ... really big. And the big need special whopper-sized stuff. It's a lucrative niche for clothes, caskets, furniture and more.

History of big box retail

An interesting history of category killer retailers ... an excerpt from Category Killers: The Retail Revolution and Its Impact on Consumer Culture by Robert Spector.

Retail Management: too fast growth

Retailer grew too fast, got into trouble. Shabby Shak started, expanded into a larger shop, then folded. Retailers need to manage their growth carefully, and keep a careful eye on finances.

Retail store marketing: advocacy consumerism

Advocacy consumerism ... the shopper's side of cause marketing. From organic veggies to efficient appliances, there are consumers who are looking for specific product qualities that have a low impact on the environment and society (instead of a low price). Your values as a retailer and their's as shoppers can mesh nicely. Embody a cause ... it's a way to stand out from the crowd.

E-Commerce: teddy bears & pajamas

Vermont Teddy Bear's 4 websites racked up big sales increases this holiday season. Web orders helped send holiday orders up 29% at Vermont Teddy Bear Co. For the holiday season, web sales at its flagship BearGram brand represented 65.3% of the brand’s sales, up from 63.7% last year. Online orders for its PajamaGram brand more than doubled over last year. Web and phone orders combined exceeded 105,000.

Retail Marketing: 2004 according to eBay

eBay is the world's biggest retail marketplace. $1,060 of stuff are sold every second. What can it tell us about 2004? RVs and Louis Vuitton were big ... and pink is the "new black". Building supplies listings soared in the busy hurricane season. Globalization continues - 46% of the value of goods sold on eBay are sold outside the U.S.

Retail Store Success: Butch Blum

The finest quality suits, careful attention the basics of retailing, and an real long-term plan have keep the Butch Blum stores in Seattle alive and well for 30 years. Co-owners Butch Blum and wife Kay Smith-Blum are beginning the transition to take less-hands-on roles. In addition, many of the company's longtime staffers have been shifted to new positions after Blum asked each a radical question: What would they enjoy doing most? Apparel retail marketing is a difficult business ... but you notice that it's the high-end stores that survive and prosper over the long run. The mass market is no place for a small retail business.

Retail Marketing: school supply stores to close

J.L. Hammett Co., the oldest school supply retailer in the country, is closing most of its brick-and-mortar stores and selling off the rest. The business has been around for 141 years ... they invented the blackboard eraser. The company's retail stores opened in 1974. Oh, the perils of marketing to a government monopoly.

Retail Management: RTKL's predictions

RTKL, a worldwide architecture, engineering, planning and creative services organization, has made some predictions for retail management in 2005:

-- Expect many underperforming malls to combine shopping with housing, restaurants, movie theaters and other commercial uses.

-- Cause marketing is an emerging new trend in retail today, as seen in everything from Livestrong bracelets to Target's pink pop-up stores for breast cancer research to Starbuck's Free Trade products. The next generation of consumers equate shopping with social responsibility and activism. This will impact retail environments and inform the merchandise mix that typically goes into a traditional shopping center.

-- As the diversity of US suburbs grows, ethnic neighborhoods are becoming the testing grounds for new retail formats and concepts. In fact, many ethnic neighborhoods are spawning homegrown businesses, which are on their way to becoming national concepts... they only need to be discovered.

-- Manufacturers are becoming retailers with brand stores. Can your store do a better job of highlighting its best brands?

E-Commerce: the merchant of Brooklyn

At age 14, Joseph Cohen started an e-commerce business retailing Christmas decorations and toys. Now he's 17 and earning $425,000 pre-tax profit on $1.9 million sales (not bad margins, eh?) There have been some rough patches ... like running up big advertising expenses while away at summer camp ... but he's learned quickly. His company is Polsteins.

Retail management jobs

AllRetailJobs.com is just that ... a job board that is all about retail management jobs. They have over 30,000 job openings listed. If you're looking for a new position to start 2005 off right, you may want to check it out.

Mini theme-parks as retail marketing

Some toy retailers have turned their stores into mini theme parks to attract customers. American Girl Place, Toys R Us' flagship store in Times Square, and the new FAO Schwarz are some of the leaders in "destination" toy stores. American Girl promotes their stores as a place to spend the day. Little stores can get in the act too ... at The Little House, an independent toy store in Baton Rouge, little girls can dress up and have tea parties. And, of course, other types of stores use this retail marketing tactic too ... even furniture stores. The extremely successful Jordan's Furniture in New England offers "shoppertainment", including IMAX theaters!

Closed for the holidays

In Adelaide, Australia, the government forces all retail stores to close for 6 days between Christmas and New Years Day. Retailers argue that the enforced closure costs employees over $17 million in lost wages.

Family business

Family-owned businesses form the backbone of the world economy. This article takes a look at the community benefits and long-term struggles of family-owned businesses in the St Cloud area.

Luxury boutiques are sure bet in Sin City

Luxury shopping has become part of the attraction in Las Vegas. Jimmy Choo, Burberry, Nieman Marcus, Gucci, Prada, Dior and many many more dot the casino resorts. The city racked up $2.9 billion in retail sales from tourists last year. Annual sales per square foot in the Forum Shops at Ceasar's Palace are $1,471 (160 shops).

Retail success story: Archie McPhee

Plastic ants and librarian action figures are part of the really strange inventory at Archie McPhee, an 11,500 square foot store in Ballard, Washington. Strange but fun. This just proves that no retail marketing niche is too small (or unusual). Sell what you like ... and expand your potential market with a catalog or website. A profile of the business and its owner. Maybe the rest of us take the world a little too seriously. Here's the Archie McPhee website.

Independent Retail Survival in America

Challenges of the Future is a free white paper offering strategies for the future survival and growth of independent retailers. It includes 17 informative case studies with successful independents in a variety of merchandise lines around the country. The paper outlines major trends impacting independent retailers and significant challenges and obstacles to doing business as it has been done in the past by independents. A detailed list of resources (websites, publications, organizations, consultants and other information) is also online. This may be the finest online resource for retail marketing and management.

Tsunami Relief

Amazon.com has made it easy to make a donation to the Red Cross for tsunami disaster relief. Good work.

Marketing to Baby Boomers

"Boomers", born between 1946 and 1964, are 24% of the population but account for 55% of all discretionary spending. They are a great target for retail marketing ... big spenders. Retail chains seem to be in love with youth, so the door is wide open for independent retailers. Identify products that Boomers want to buy. Promote them where the Boomers are, and use Boomer-age models in your ads. And for goodness sake, use large print in ads, signs and price tags! AgingHipsters is a fun blog about Baby Boomer news, including frequent business news.

Retail sucess story: Beecroft & Bull

Thriving in the luxury menswear retail business for almost 50 years? That's real retail marketing success. Beecroft & Bull in Virginia stays nimble, keeps up with fashion changes, and stocks quality exclusive items that aren't available elsewhere. Craig and Bryan Beecroft produce a yearly "Beecroft & Bull" magazine to keep more than 15,000 customers abreast of changes in clothing styles. The story from the Richmond Times Dispatch. Yes, the company has a good website.

Solo 401(k)

If you don't plan for your retirement, no one else will. The Solo 401(k) is a special retirement plan for sole practitioners such as store owners which allows for pretax salary deferral contributions. The plan, also called the Uni(k), Single(k), Personal(k) or Individual 401(k), is filling an obvious hole in many people's plans and grabbing significant market share. Read about it in Forbes. Manage your future as well as you manage your store.

Retail success story - JasmineSola

JasmineSola knows what women want. The eight-unit reail chain has plans to open 12 stores in the next 18 months in New England. The hip boutique targets teens and twentysomethings with its cool selection of apparel, shoes, and accessories. Unlike other specialty chains like Ann Taylor and Gap which promote their own brands, JasmineSola dishes up an ever-changing lineup of approximately 200 labels all under one roof. Result: an average $800 in sales per square foot. Sales at its high-traffic stores at Boston's Prudential Center mall and the Mall at Chestnut Hill in Newton have topped $1,400 a square foot. Article from the Boston Globe. The JasmineSola website has photos of the stores and the merchandise.

Doing well doing good

Stores are hoping to do well by urging shoppers to do good. This Christmas season, Americans are the focus of a different kind of retail marketing: kinder, gentler campaigns that appeal to the emotions as well as people's oft-stated wish to share with the less fortunate. The retail marketing campaigns also provide a new incentive for customers to visit the stores. The Gap, Build-a-Bear, and Brooks Brothers are 3 retailers cited in this New York Times article. Paco Underhill says stores are hoping to wrap themselves in a mantle that distinguishes them. Just as Whole Foods has wrapped itself in the mantle of organic, chemical-free food, this season's retailers are trying to identify themselves with charity. A significant part of our nation is getting older, and as people get older, they get less interested in sex and more interested in spirituality.

Day in the life of a retail manager

This is nothing surprising to anyone who's worked in retail, but I thought I'd post this profile of the day in the life of a retail manager anyway. A big thank you to retailers everywhere who work so hard during the hectic Christmas season!

Transactional and relational customers

An interesting blog entry at Wizard of Ads about transactional customers (bargain hunters), relational customers (buy on trust, loyalty and "gut") and a recent study by MIT. Viewing yourself as a portfolio of customers, not product lines. Best Buy is cutting back on promotions that attract transactional customers. Who do you market to?

Retail success story: A Bathing Ape

What makes an international retail success? A brand with mystique and exclusivity. Fashion, savvy marketing and bright sneakers have brought A Bathing Ape from Japan to New York City.

Vermont retailers in e-commerce

A few days ago we linked an article about small retailers in Tennessee that are succeeding on the web. Now comes an article from the Times Argus about Vermonters expanding their businesses with e-commerce. Vermont stores are selling car-racks, tires (!), Apple computers and ... of course ... maple syrup.

Retail niches

The Miami Herald takes a look at specialty stores and the niches they carve out for themselves. Kuma toy bears store is highlighted in the article.

Newsflash: your competition isn't stupid

Adam Hanft over at Inc. magazine says that businesses should try to learn from the strengths of their competitors ... but don't because we think they're stupid. They're not, of course. And if you don't learn from your retail store's competition, those other stores might eat your lunch.

Retail success story: Keepsake Corner

You can turn your hobby into a successful retail store. Consider Keepsake Corner, one of the first scrapbooking hobby stores in America. An article in the Quad City Times explains that owner Cathi Farwell now has two stores (in Illinois and Iowa) and also a small manufacturing operation making scrapbook supplies. Yes, the business has a website.

Even the big guys worry about Wal-Mart

 More about surviving Wal-Mart, this time from the perspective of the big chain retailers. Everyone agrees ... stay out of Wal-Mart's way. Which isn't hard to do, because there are millions of products in the world, and Wal-Mart stocks only a tiny fraction of them.

Retail success story - Playthings

A toy store in Madison, Wisconsin, is prospering and expanding. Cut-throat toy price-cutting by Wal-Mart and Target have giant Toys R Us ready to get out of the business, but this little store has found its niche. Playthings sells classic toys that appeal to parents and grandparents as much as kids. The business is built on carrying products from many smaller, high quality manufacturers who don't sell to the big chains. The store design helps too - sculptural trees and tree borders create a "magical garden" for shoppers in this retail store. And they have a website that expands their market by offering a large selection of toys online. Well done!

Imagination in retail marketing

George Suarez promotes New England Comics on a shoestring budget. His creative ideas included coupon giveaways at comics-related movies, presentations to clubs, intenet columns, and selling on eBay.

ZAP retail store

Just in time to lower your gas bill and help save the environment ... ZAP opens a retail store in downtown Santa Rosa. Electric bikes, trikes, scooters and the 60-mpg 2-seater Smart Cars imported from Europe are in stock. The store has unique products with advanced technology, environmental awareness and cost efficiency. 25% to 75% discounts for the holiday shopping season too. Sounds like a receipe for retail marketing success.

The Costco Way

Warehouse retailer Costco has a long-term business strategy based on treating employees and customers right. Employee wages average $16 per hour and 83% of the company's workers get health care benefits. The wage scale starts at $10 per hour and goes to $18 per hour. And the employees at the top of the wage scale get twice a year bonuses of $2,000 to $3,000. Yet the company may be the "lowest cost provider". 98% of top positions are filled internally; there's a retail career path at Costco. More cashiers were hired to speed checkouts. Result: Costco whips Sam's Club in the marketplace. Read a good long profile in the Seattle Weekly.

Ikea: values and values of retail management

At the huge international furniture and housewares retailer Ikea, community outreach and philanthrophy are the values ... and so are the fair prices on well-designed products. The company wide code of conduct systemizes the management values. Cool products, fair (low) prices, and a responsible public image ... not a bad combination for successful retail marketing. No wonder Ikea had sales of $17 billion in the 12 months ending August 31. The story from AFP.

Little retailer on the web

A basic website sells 500 to 600 lamps a month for K&T the Lamp Store in Green Hills, Tennessee. Online sales account for half of the retailer's total sales. Read about the store and other small niche retailers online in an article from the Tennessean. Extend your retail marketing reach with a website this year!

Fair trade markets

Fair trade markets are cause marketing in a pure form. They are part of a global effort to link struggling farmers and producers in developing countries with consumers in wealthier nations like the United States. Your choice of inventory for your retail store has a real impact on the world ... think before you buy.

Internet Retailer's Best of the Web

Internet Retailer has selected the 6th annual 50 Best of the Web. All excel in some way, most in many ways. The Top 50 sites represent a range of retailers from big, well-known brands to small, niche sites and manufacturers' sites. It includes online pure-plays, retail chains and catalogers. The descriptions of each of the online retailers on the linked pages are particularly informative. They even list who handles the company's email list, affiliate marketing program, and other inside information.

Size doesn't matter in e-commerce

A recent survey says that most online shoppers are just as willing to buy from a small online retailer as from a large one. Only 15% of respondents said they preferred to shop with large retailers. Security, privacy, prices, ease of use and availability of desired products do matter to almost all the respondents. Lessons? On the Internet or in a bricks-and-mortar store, execution matters more than size. Pay attention to the little things, and do what you do well.

Christmas windows 2004

HGTV is running a special about Christmas windows in retail stores. Creative window displays can be a real attraction for your business (worthy of a television special!) Get some tips from the pros. The special is airing from December 6 to the 25th. Check here for days and times.

Pop-up stores come and go

"Pop-up" or "guerilla" stores set up shop in vacant storefronts, sell trendy exclusive products, and then disappear after a short time. The temporary locations have a "get it while it lasts" appeal. The concept pioneered by Vacant has picked up steam, with big brands like Levis, Adidas, and Sony opening temporary stores in big cities to entice trendsetters to buy limited-edition products. A Brazilian cosmetics firm uses vans as traveling stores that move between events and other gathering spots. How can a small retailer use this concept? Test an expansion location in another town. Take advantage of short-term or seasonal sales at tourist destinations. Open a second, temporary location for the Christmas season. The trick seems to be stocking inventory "cool" enough to generate word-of-mouth promotion.

Online auctions move stale inventory

An owner of a small game and hobby store in Louisville, KY, shares his tips for the best ways to move your old inventory on eBay. It's a good way to increase your retail store's inventory turns, free up cash to purchase new inventory, and reach a national market. But there's more to it than just slapping up a listing.

Dreaming of a green Christmas

Identifying your business with a cause is a good way to gain the loyalty and support of customers. (What slogan is more likely to motivate customers: "Desperately trying to make a profit since 1990" or "5% of our profits go to the American Red Cross"?) One currently popular cause is environmental sustainability ... for example, ultra-trendy American Apparel has an organic cotton line. The Christian Science Monitor has a long article about "green" retailers at Christmas. Sales at greenhome.com are up 25% over last year.  

Surviving Wal-Mart

Dr. Ken Stone shares some simple advice on how retailers can survive after Wal-Mart comes to town. Don't try to compete on price, and sell products that the super store doesn't carry.

Entrepreneur's friend

Your local Small Business Development Center offers free business counseling. The SBDC staff can provide you with a valuable sounding-board and be a conduit to other resources. Here's the story of one woman's experience in Virginia. Call your SBDC and ask them to come for a chat in your retail store.

Harvey Robbins and Tuscumbia, Alabama

Successful entrepreneur sells business and invests in the dying Main Street of his home town. Revitalization and happiness result. This article from the December 2004 issue of Inc magazine demonstrates the value of retail stores to community life.

A new blog

Retailers are the Rodney Dangerfields of the business world. They get no respect, despite being the vital final meeting place between customer and products. The "rubber meets the road" in retail stores. I'm here to help retail store owners find better ways to market and manage their businesses. I hope you'll bookmark this blog and check back often. Welcome.

Business Blog Roundup

The latest Carnival of Capitalists is online at Crossroad Dispatches. Always an interesting batch of posts about investing, the economy, management, and business in general. Check it out.

Self-Serve Retail: the trouble with Lowes and Home Depot

Huge home improvement retailers Lowes and Home Depot have hit a rough spot with investors and customers. Both had soft second quarter earnings and warn of slow sales. Their stocks are down about 15% for the year, and the housing market slowdown isn't the only cause.

Home Depot is famous for rotten customer service and Lowes isn't much better.

I went to Lowes last night to look for kitchen cabinets for my new house. You may not realize it, but cabinets are a big-ticket item. Decent ones start at about $150 a lineal foot. So I was about to spend some real money. The only problem was that there was nobody manning the large kitchen cabinets section of the store.

I pushed the "call an associate" button and an announcement was made over the loudspeaker asking for customer help at my location. An employee showed up to turn off the blinking call button, but he didn't work in that department so he went to find the right person. I waited ... and waited but nobody appeared. This is no isolated incident -- my sister had the same problem getting help when she bought kitchen cabinets at Lowes a few years ago.

I'm not one to beg a store to take my money, so I picked up some product literature and left. A cabinet shop closer to my home carries some of the same brands so I'll take my business to them, even if they do charge more.

How can Lowes (and Home Depot) fix this customer service problem? Simply admit to themselves that they aren't in the service business. Like all big-box retailers, their strength is stocking a large variety of inventory on the shelves. Customers search through piles of goods to find what they really want. These stores are self-serve all the way ... and shouldn't be afraid to admit it.

But in the kitchen cabinet department, the stores aren't set up to be self-service. They supposedly offer design service and you have to order the cabinets for later delivery. Come on now; who's kidding who? No big box retailer with its cadre of minimum-wage-slave employees is going to provide that level of service. It's beyond them.

My suggestion is to create a self-service kitchen cabinet department. Stock "blank" cabinet cases (without doors) in a variety of shapes and sizes. Let the customer choose from 10 to 20 styles of doors, which should also be in stock. Make it all cash-and-carry. No delays, no broken promises of "service". IKEA already sells kitchens this way -- Lowes and Home Depot should follow suit.

Formalized Services in Retail Stores

Retail stores have always given away advice along with selling products. Now some stores are turning helpful services into a profit center.

Medical services are leading this move into retail stores. Medical clinics are popping up in pharmacies across the nation, and thousands of new clinics are planned to open in stores over the next couple years. No appointment is necessary to get quick, cheap fixed-price treatment for minor illnesses. This is a wonderful development in a nation with runaway health care costs and where fewer and fewer people even have a family doctor. The convenience will obviously draw lots of customers into the stores. Wal-Mart is even testing clinics in some stores.

Are there other services that might be popular in a fixed-price convenient retail setting? How about "instant handy-man" services at the hardware store? The handy-man could have a small workshop for repairing or assembling stuff that people bring in. Or the handy-man could follow you home to install a ceiling fan or wire a new outlet "while you wait". Garden centers could offer the same for tree-planting. Computer repair clinics would be great too, but computers are designed to be disposable these days and a small part is often too expensive to justify repair. Apple could set itself apart by designing its computers for ease of repair and then offer the services while-you-wait in the Apple brand stores.

Similar services have always been a part of other businesses. Jewelry stores offer repairs and ear-piercing. Photo development kiosks were a big deal before the coming of digital cameras (it's interesting that they were located in drug stores and discount retailers, just like the new clinics). Home centers offer kitchen planning and installation services.

Repair and design services could be added to many retail businesses. You might offer the services already -- to make it a bigger part of your business you'll have to increase awareness. Set aside an area of your store for the service and give it prominent signage. Then include it in your advertising and watch your traffic grow.

Retail Location: Malls and Towns

Malls are scrambling to find new anchor tenants. Department stores are no longer an attraction for many shoppers, so malls are recruiting restaurants and big box discounters like Target to generate traffic. "New" downtowns are cited as the hot retail location.

Obviously the "location location location" for retail changes over time, so what's a smart retailer to do? Work toward making your business a destination in itself. That way you won't rely on other magnets to draw traffic. Build the very best inventory of products in your niche, update it constantly, and you'll be on your way.

Retail Store Success: Blinds.com

Jay Steinfeld has grown his business from a single bricks-and-mortar store to a thriving online retail store success story. Blinds.com generates $45 million in annual sales and is the 10th fastest growing ecommerce site. Steinfeld opened a drapery store with his wife in 1987, and the online store started in 1994 and has grown in sophistication and sales since then.

His ecommerce business grew enough to acquire a major competitor in 2001. Read more about this retailing success. There's still plenty of opportunity for the small business in online retail -- just make sure you stake out a niche, exactly as you would with a traditional store.

Selling Overcomes Fear

Seth Godin tells a short story about effective retail selling at a farmers market. He reminds us that good selling overcomes the buyer's fear -- in this case the fear of eggplant.

If you sell products that you're genuinely enthusiastic about, you can often pass that enthusiasm on to a shopper. It's not about giving a "hard sell" ... it's about retailing good stuff with passion. If you can't wholeheartedly endorse your products then it's time to upgrade your store's inventory. 

Stock Photography for Ads

Okay, you accept my argument that professional photography is critical to marketing success for retailers and other businesses. But hiring a photographer to create custom photos is expensive and time-consuming. Is there another way? Yes. You can often use stock photos in your advertising.

Stock photography can be downloaded in an instant, and might be as cheap as $1. Yes, at online stock photo sites like IStockPhoto.com, you can license the use of pics for as little as a buck a piece for low-resolution shots. Those sites have thousands of photos to choose from.

Retailers can usually get product photos from the manufacturer, free of charge. You might get some good stuff that way, but it's surprising how often the manufacturer's photos are boring or just plain bad.

To get photography that really expresses your retail store's personality, you'll have to bite the bullet and hire a professional photographer to take custom shots. Until you're ready to take that step, use the finest stock photos that you can find. 

The Marketing Power of Good Photography

Professional photography is worth a fortune to a retailer or other marketers. Consider the famous retail catalog and ecommerce website of the Pottery Barn. Would the products be as sought-after if the photography wasn't so good?

The Pottery Barn catalog and website are like a home design magazine -- full of decorating ideas that inspire the purchase of the products. The Quality of the photography is a huge part of their success with this concept.

Or consider the marketing power of these photos of a Royal Caribbean cruise from Boston.

With just 3 photos, you can see that these cruises from Boston are active, indulgent, and fun for the whole family. Maybe not the image you had of cruising? That's the marketing power of good photography.

Don't skimp on photography when you're marketing. A talented professional can make or break your promotional campaign.

That's why you use models instead of athletes in ads

The dismal showing of the American team at the World Cup is just the latest example of why you should use models in your ads instead of athletes. Athletes can embarass themselves with crappy play on the world stage. Imagine if you'd signed a U.S. soccer player to represent your company - and then the team only scores one goal in 3 games and is (mercifully) eliminated in the first round. Yikes! Total waste of money.

Models don't bring such risks. If they have a bad hair day you just throw out those photos try again. Nobody ever sees the mistakes. Pick one of the popular Internet models (or 2 or 3) to create a new "face" for your company. Let the athletes to represent your competition -- you'll be glad you did.

Retail Store Success: Staples

Office supplies retailer Staples has become a retail success story with memorable marketing and an improved shopping experience. Their "easy button" is a wonderful iconic object that helps spread the company's message. I was tempted to buy one when I was recently in a Staples store. About a million have been sold for $5 a piece.

The easy button icon is also available on a downloadable toolbar for your internet browser -- it enables easy access to the Staples online store. The retailer backs up its marketing with redesigned stores and more training for employees.

4 Cheap Ways to Get Into Retail

You don't need an expensive store or thousands of dollars of inventory to become a retailer. Entrepreneur magazine has this article on 4 cheap ways to break into retail.

The 4 ways:
1. eBay - begin by selling unwanted stuff from around your house and then build your own niche
2. Amazon - sell your products alongside the ecommerce leader
3. Direct sales - demonstrations at home parties sell cookware, cleaning products, makeup and more
4. Kiosks - tiny stores right in the middle of the customer traffic at your local mall.

Hooters: an American success story

Hooters succeeds by catering to the tastes of men. For more than 20 years, the famous restaurants have provided girls, finger food, and beer for millions of happy customers. Like Wal-Mart, Hooters appeals to the common man (if not the common woman) with a simple strategy well carried out.

The original Hooters restaurant was opened in Clearwater, Florida by 6 partners. Beer, chicken wings, and girls (not necessarily in that order) proved to be a winning formula. The "delightfully tacky yet unrefined" business was born, and the Hooters Girls became a phenomenon.

According to Restaurants and Institutions trade magazine, Hooters is the 43rd largest restaurant chain in the nation. 2004 sales were $834 million from 388 outlets. You can read more about the company history in this article from Fortune.

SELLING HOOTERS

Hooters' promotions certainly aren't limited to the usual ads and a website. No, this is a business that uses every avenue to raise awareness. It has its own Hooters Magazine, featuring photos of the girls. There are local events at the restaurants, an Ultimate Bachelor Party Give-Away, and a Hooters MasterCard.

The Hooters International Swimsuit Pageant is a natural promotion for this company. It's been held every year since 1997. Winners of local contests across the nation feed into the international finale in Las Vegas. The events are even used to recruit new Hooters Girls to work at the restaurants.

Hooters' sexy promotional vehicles sell the business, not the models. Only the girls' first names are used in the magazine and on the website. The message is that it's not about a specific woman -- the Hooters Girls are generic examples of what you can see at the business.

Hooters does sports too. It's the national title sponsor of the NGA Hooters Pro Golf Tour. Alumni of the successful development tour include successful golfers Lee Janzen, John Daly, Jim Furyk, Tom Lehman, David Toms, and Scott McCarron. Media coverage of the tour includes local television, tournament scores in USA Today and other major newspapers, and in golf magazines.

In auto racing there's the Hooters Pro Cup Series (great name). The series consists of 30 stock car races on paved oval tracks.

GROWING HOOTERS

Hooters Air stopped flying in March, but the company continues to explore opportunities outside the restaurant business. A much more sensible fit is the new Hooters Casino in Las Vegas, which opened February 2, 2006. The 696-room casino hotel with nine restaurants is a complete renovation of the former San Remo Casino. The company hopes to draw from 61 million annual loyal customers at its locations around the world. Almost every inch of the casino has been rebranded.

The Hooters Casino is sure to appeal to blue collar men who aren't comfortable in the expensive, fancy hotels and casinos that have sprouted in Las Vegas. They're the same guys that have always liked Hooters.

DSL Customer Service

Verizon and the other phone companies catch a lot of flack for their customer service, but I recently had an excellent experience with Verizon DSL. My laptop computer self-destructed and I bought a new desktop to replace it. The new machine didn't have the correct settings to use my DSL modem, and I hadn't saved the documentation from when I'd installed it on my laptop.

So I called Verizon DSL's customer service. The tech person quickly and easily led me through the setup process. It took maybe 5 minutes. The customer service guy was polite and seemed very knowledgeable (or was working from a sophisticated script).

That's the way customer service should be, whether it's in person or over the phone. Quick, simple and personable. Kudos to Verizon DSL.

How retailers can make money from websites without selling anything

Last week I wrote about my Internet home business and how I make money from website publishing. Can retailers take advantage of the web in the same way? Yes they can.

Retailers are in a great position to make money from websites without selling anything. All you have to do is share your expertise about your products on your website. You know what questions your customers ask. Answer them online for all to see. Write product reviews. Give tips on how to use that gadget. It should come naturally for a retailer and will be very useful for people on the web.

Share your product knowledge and you'll build your reputation as an expert. That should help your retail sales. But you will also make money from the website if you put ads from the Google Adsense program on your site. Every click on an ad is money for you, and without selling any inventory!

Give this type of Internet business a try. After 3 months or so you should begin to see results. If you're not inclined to create a website yourself, it would be a good project for your teenage kid or one of your employees. Let them keep the website profits and you'll still benefit from the publicity for your store.

Internet Home Business & Life

A year ago I started a little home-based business in my spare time. It's a good thing I did -- my regular job was eliminated a few months later. Instead of finding another job, I decided to commit my time and energy to my fledgling business, which was showing great promise. It's the best decision I've ever made.

Now my little website-publishing business makes enough money to cover all my expenses, and revenues are growing quickly. I'll never work for anyone else ever again.

The business began with a travel guide to cruises from Norfolk, offering information about the ships, their sailing schedule, the cruise terminal, and the port city. Now I have several websites about a variety of topics. A work at home Internet business can be about anything! Are you an expert at something? Do you have a hobby? Turn your interest into a website, share your knowledge with the world, and start making money.

I make money from advertisements on the sites, mostly from Google's excellent Adsense program. The low-overhead of an Internet home business means that almost all my revenues are profit (the main expense is website hosting, which is cheap). My business is still in the early stages and growing fast. There's really no limit to how much money I could eventually make, given the Web's ability to reach people around the world and the multitude of possible subjects for sites.

I'm making enough to live on, but I'm truly rich in time. My business has given me the freedom to tackle a project that I've wanted to do for years -- build my own home. That would be nearly impossible to do while holding down a 9-to-5 job, but it's easy to work on the house during the day and tend to my Internet home business at night. Yes, I've created a website about the homebuilding process; I can make some money from what I learn.

I've gained control of my life with an Internet home business, and millions of other people around the world have too. From the Ebay sellers to businesses that are a lot more sophisticated than mine, we're using the web revolution to power our dreams of success.A year ago I started a little home-based business in my spare time. It's a good thing I did -- my regular job was eliminated a few months later. Instead of finding another job, I decided to commit my time and energy to my fledgling business, which was showing great promise. It's the best decision I've ever made.

Now my little website-publishing business makes enough money to cover all my expenses, and revenues are growing quickly. I'll never work for anyone else ever again.

The business began with a travel guide to cruises from Norfolk, offering information about the ships, their sailing schedule, the cruise terminal, and the port city. Now I have several websites about a variety of topics. A work at home Internet business can be about anything! Are you an expert at something? Do you have a hobby? Turn your interest into a website, share your knowledge with the world, and start making money.

I make money from advertisements on the sites, mostly from Google's excellent Adsense program. The low-overhead of an Internet home business means that almost all my revenues are profit (the main expense is website hosting, which is cheap). My business is still in the early stages and growing fast. There's really no limit to how much money I could eventually make, given the Web's ability to reach people around the world and the multitude of possible subjects for sites.

I'm making enough to live on, but I'm truly rich in time. My business has given me the freedom to tackle a project that I've wanted to do for years -- build my own home. That would be nearly impossible to do while holding down a 9-to-5 job, but it's easy to work on the house during the day and tend to my Internet home business at night. Yes, I've created a website about the homebuilding process; I can make some money from what I learn.

I've gained control of my life with an Internet home business, and millions of other people around the world have too. From the Ebay sellers to businesses that are a lot more sophisticated than mine, we're using the web revolution to power our dreams of success.

Franchises

Franchises are a short-cut to small business success. The franchise buyer spends money upfront to buy into a successful business and reduce the risk of failure. The heart of this business model is the franchise system, which spells out every little detail of how to successfully run the business.

 

A good franchise is based on concepts proven in one or more prototypes. There the system has been tried and refined to a high level. It's the proving ground that demonstrates the value of that particular franchise business. It's a model of a business that works. That's what you're paying for if you buy a franchise.

 

What a typical franchise won't do is give you the freedom to run the business your way. All the decisions are made for you. These are turn-key business operations that must be run according to all the details spelled out in the franchise manual.

 

The Great Harvest Bread Company is a "freedom franchise" that allows franchise owners to create their stores as they please. But they aren't on their own. They have the support of the company and all the other franchises. It's an interesting business model that you might want to explore.

The Fair Tax

Once a year we're all reminded how crazy our system of taxation is. There is an alternative: support the FairTax. The FairTax is a national retail sales tax that would replace federal income and payroll taxes (including personal, gift, estate, capital gains, alternative minimum, Social Security/Medicare, self-employment, and corporate taxes).

The FairTax proposal features dollar-for-dollar revenue replacement, and a rebate to ensure that no American pays such federal taxes up to the poverty level. The FairTax allows Americans to keep 100% of their paychecks, eliminates compliance costs hidden in the retail cost of goods and services, and fully funds the federal government while fulfilling the promise of Social Security and Medicare.

Importantly, the FairTax does not burden U.S. exports the way the current income tax system does. It removes the cost of corporate taxes and compliance costs from the cost of U.S. exports, putting U.S. exports on a level playing field with foreign competitors. Lower prices will increase demand for U.S. exports, and increase job creation in U.S. manufacturing sectors. Imports are subject to the same FairTax rate as domestically produced goods. Not only does the FairTax put U.S. products sold here on the same tax footing as foreign imports, but the dramatic lowering of compliance costs in comparison to other countries' value-added taxes also gives U.S. products a definitive pricing advantage which foreign tax systems cannot match.

Our wasteful and corrupt Federal government likes the current tax mess because it hides constant tax increases in many places. The current system also siphons billions of dollars from citizens and companies to tax preparation services, accountants and tax lawyers. The FairTax can end the madness.

Customer Loyalty Rewards Programs

Customer loyalty rewards programs are a fairly common way for retailers to entice repeat business. A small bookstore near me runs a "bakers dozen" program -- if you buy 12 books, a 13th book is free. They keep the records right there in the store so you don't have to remember to bring your punch card (a nice touch). 

 

The kings of customer loyalty programs are casinos. The giant Harrah's casino chain has a "Total Rewards" program that offers free casino rooms, meals and entertainment to members. We're not heavy gamblers, but twice they've given us free 2-night hotel stays at one of their Atlantic City casinos. We earn more "comps" toward meals and gifts while in the casino. 

 

Probably the only business that can afford to offer such big incentives to repeat customers is a casino. Your little retail store doesn't have to go so far -- emulate the bookstore and come up with a simple way to get your best customers to come back more often.

The Best of the Business Blogs

This week's Carnival of Capitalists presents good business blog posts from the last seven days. From "changing the rules in your market" to "5 lessons from a marketing guru" there's lots of interesting posts to read. Enjoy.