With the holiday shopping season just months away, it’s the perfect time to examine gift cards and their benefits for small businesses.
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An unexpected surge in retail sales is a welcomed surprise, especially if you can fulfill your orders with confidence. But what happens when you're not positioned to scale your business quickly in order to sustain the newfound momentum?
When it comes to business "success", measuring, ranking, and benchmarking accomplishments are straightforward and also elusive. These practices are straightforward when the unit of measure is constant, which it no longer is.
In search for a point of reference, we often look for grounding by asking operational business questions like:
A compelling story makes us think and feel. It can speak to us in a way that webinar presentation slides and data can't. What makes storytelling powerful is its ability to connect people and help us make sense of our personal experiences in this world.
For businesses - including yours - a good story communicates your values and your beliefs to those to need to know them most.
So many businesses are pivoting left and right. They accepted the challenge to mobilize early and are thinking creatively, collaborating differently, and accumulating small successes. And yet...
There are so many businesses managing multiple survival strategies:
So what happens to those small business owners, makers, and creative entrepreneurs whose pivot is not happening as fast?
Raise your hand if you're working on your marketing strategy! Anyone that's ever developed and executed a marketing effort - of any size and any scope - will tell you it's risky business.
Whether you're a planner-at-heart like a Chief Marketing Officer or an entrepreneurial maverick who flys by the seat of her pants, if you need help with the mindset of putting yourself out there, you'll want to click play on this week's episode.
Did you know that the #1 thing you need to do before the economy bounces back is build deeper relationships? And that now is a great time to upgrade your marketing strategy?
Building a community of loyal customers plays a huge part in profitable selling.
Did you know that the best way to get what you want is to ask for what you want? And that the most effective way to do this for your business is with a call to action?
Asking customers to do what you want them to do plays a huge part in what you should and shouldn’t say on video.
Raise your hand if:
You and I have these challenges in common. In fact, every “non-essential” inventory-based business finds themselves in this boat.
The questions from merchants like you are coming in hot and fast so I hosted a live Q&A session created specifically for small retailers and makers.
There are as many work from home (WFH) styles as there are people. Our adult work styles are shaped over time, most commonly by:
Whether you WFM full-time or have been asked to WFH, the circumstances have changed and so should the way we craft our new WFH life.
Are you looking ahead and playing the long game? I think you are so it’s best to nurture your star players now, or you might not have the team to get you where you want to go and who you want to go with.
The business rules we typically play by are changing. Everything — EVERYTHING — is up for reinterpreting, reimagining, replanning, and refocusing, including business partnerships.
Are you ready to discover what to do and how to do it so that you can inspire customer loyalty and improve your customer retention rate?
The conversations about how to grow sales and increase profit are taking a turn for the better as small and creative business owners search to understand the financial and non-financial implications of attracting new buyers.
When it comes to improving your small business profit, there is an almost unlimited number of resources available for retailers, small-batch manufacturers, and makers. Type a question into your search box and answer-after-answer awaits.
But do you want to know all the information about running a profitable inventory-based business that exists online? Of course not! It’s humanly impossible.
During a time when every merchant and business owner I know is setting big goals for the new retail season, I'm doing something else.
I’m focusing on habits and think you should be too. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not knocking the value of goal setting. I do it myself. I even teach merchants how to do it more effectively. But I do think you’ll have an easier time reaching your goals if you focus on the mundane, repetitive, perhaps boring habits that make achieving your goals a foregone conclusion.
Look, if you want to sell more this holiday season, then stop scrolling and pay attention.
What I’m about to teach can help you transform an uncontrollable, busy, and blur of a holiday selling season into 13 weeks of profits. Listen, everyone knows that when you have an uptick in customer traffic you have the potential to sell more, and when you sell more you make more. But what most small businesses don’t know is that you don't have to wait for the holidays to make the most out of the Golden Quarter. The Science of Inventory Management: How to Up-level Your Business with Simple Retail Reporting7/19/2018
In the search to study and learn from the success of others in our industry, you’ll be hard pressed to find a merchant who willingly ignores the growth potential inherent in understanding their financial results.
Even the most intuitive retail buyers — ones that lead with gut and instinct — look to key performance indicators to evaluate the choices they’ve made around customer experience. When I come across a blog post, podcast episode, or event invitation with the words "growth hack," I assume the intended audience is in the tech space. I'm certain that I'm not the only merchant who feels this way.
However, as I took the time to answer interview questions from Stitch Labs, an inventory management software provider, one thing rang out loud and clear: I've been growth hacking retail and manufacturing brands for over 20 years. It's likely you've been growth hacking your own business too. As a small business owner it’s challenging to find the time to work on strategic pieces of your business.
Yet every once in a while a critical decision needs to be made quickly even though your choice won’t impact the day-to-day business for months or even years. Without having the time to really roll up your sleeves to explore the opportunity — whether you’re considering opening another location, doubling your current square footage, or exploring a design and development collaboration — you start looking around for answers. I can’t remember my first pop-up shop experience, but they were a fixture of my childhood. They ranged from a vendor at an open air market who sold just one product to my very own Tupperware-selling mom hosting a sales party in our living room.
No matter how you “slice it, dice it, cut it, or chop it,” — classic sales copy to this day — temporary retail shops have been around since the birth of retail. As a modern retailer, you should think about how best to take advantage of this sales model to help drive your business. Pop-up retail is not just a fad, it’s a sales channel. Modern pop-ups shops are a subtle art, and you can unlock incremental sales by really understanding this strategic channel. Here’s the thing to keep in mind about slow-moving stock — not every item you bring into your store or that you sell is going to be a winner.
Unfortunately, this is a reality of merchandising and selling. Some items are top-sellers, star performers. Others are slow-sellers, dogs. Blame it on the human condition. Despite retail art and retail science, there’s no accounting for taste. Even within your narrowly-defined customer demographic.
Do you think that quarterly realignment of strategic initiatives with long-term goals is just for big businesses? Done well, a structured quarterly business plan can serve as a silent, well-informed, and influential business partner to help keep independent retailers on track and accountable.
I share three tips to help ensure the successful execution of your thoughtful business planning exercise, as well as three pitfalls to avoid.
How is your business year shaping up compared to your goals and expectations? Any time of the year is a great time to assess the most pivotal areas of your business and take action. Learn how to think long-term about your business success today and every day.
What is happening with brick-and-mortar retail closures and how do these mass closures impact shopping in stores? As with most things, more (in this case products, locations, and square footage) is more until it's too much.
In this trend report for Independent Retailers & Makers I share insight into the mass store closures we'll continue to see and offer an elevated view point of what's happening in the industry. The goal? To better prepare Small and Independent Retailers for the rocky road ahead.
Happy Holiday Hangover Day! Today is the day most American's head back to work after the holidays and (like Cyber Monday) it's a huge shopping day.
This week I share how to extend the holiday selling season past the holidays. If planned and executed well, you can drive healthy post-holiday retail sales through the January.
In this week's trend report, I share my analysis on holiday retail sales, specifically post-Thanksgiving sales results.
I compare industry financial forecasts and prediction with results from Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday. Then I identify your next steps to optimize your business for the weeks ahead. |
#1 THE FUTURE OF RETAIL
#2 HOW TO DESIGN A FOOLPROOF BRAND EXPERIENCE #3 5 STEPS TO SELL SLOW-MOVING STOCK #4 CREATING A COMMUNITY (AND LOYAL CUSTOMERS) #5 LEARN WHY SHOPLIFTING HAPPENS AND HOW YOU CAN PREVENT IT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR MORE? When you do, you'll get insightful how-to resources, retail inspiration, and time-sensitive deals.
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BUILD RETAIL PROFIT IN SIMPLE, ACHIEVABLE STEPS
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HI, I'M CHRIS GUILLOT!
I made my first sale when I was eight years old and started teaching retail business classes at 20. Now, 23 years after guiding my first clients, I'm here to help you build more profit.
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