Remarkable Retail

I'm worried about you. I'm fretful about your business. You need toughness. Mental toughness. Emotional toughness. Physical toughness. The title is the question of the day for many retailers - not only independently owned retailers. The problem with the question is delusion. We can look at ourselves and see ourselves as better than we really are. Past success is a hinderance. We look at our net worth as owners and we're not likely to change. I blogged about the pain necessary to bring out change. I won't repeat it all here. I encourage you to read it. In almost every endeavor of life I have learned that no matter what the competition is doing - if we focus on being tough to play against, we can dramatically improve our odds of finding (greater) success! There's a sadness I feel weekly these days. I confess it during today's show. It's a very real pain and worry. Thank you for listening, Right Click Here To Download The Audio

I've sat in plenty of meetings like this. The manager or owner gets up. He's an ape with a sign. He's a life-sucking ape. Everyone's life is made worse by him, and his meeting. Don't be an ape with a sign when you conduct a sales or store-wide meeting. Your job during each sales or store meeting is singular. It's got a purpose. That purpose can be summarized in one statement: to make those who attend the meeting better. To help them perform at a higher level. To help them feel important. To help them understand where they belong in the grand scheme that is your business. That objective must be at the forefront of all your communication - every meeting. Effective meetings happen when you give people something that benefits them. Always deliver value when you conduct a meeting.

Picture courtesy of DaddyClaxton.com SuperBowl fans, welcome to Dallas! Last Sunday temperatures were above 70. By midnight Monday night, we were approaching freezing. By morning light Tuesday, we were well below freezing. Rain was followed by sleet. We've been under a sheet of ice ever since. Retail businesses of every ilk have suffered a week of below normal sales. It's been made worse by the expectation that this week would be a banner week driven by SuperBowl crowds. By 6am this morning - Friday, February 4th - we had multiple inches of snow in the Metroplex. As I write this, outside The Yellow Studio, there's at least 5" of snow covering an inch of ice. How do you plan for that when an average winter involves little to no snow? Today's show isn't about the weather, but it's about being prepared. It's about how you should approach planning for disaster in your small business. Don't just listen to today's show. Do something to better prepare your business. Do it today. Don't delay. Thanks for listening, Right Click Here To Download The Audio

Marketing, marketing, marketing. That's what we need. It'll fix what ails us. Or will it? We need more traffic. Traffic fixes a lot of problems. More is better, right? Today's episode is designed to provoke some thought. Click play and let's see if it works. I want to hear your comments about it. Yes, comments are now open! Right Click Here To Download The Audio

Phil Simon is a remarkable guy with remarkable insight. Phil Simon has written two other books - both published in 2010 - WHY NEW SYSTEMS FAIL and THE NEXT WAVE OF TECHNOLOGIES. Phil earned his undergraduate degree in policy and management from Carnegie Mellon. He has a graduate degree in industrial and labor relations from Cornell. The New Small contains powerful, not overly technical and often quite simple lessons. Many small business owners today are overwhelmed. Phil Simon un-complicates the emerging technologies that can help any small business join the ranks of The New Small. Some of the points in today's show are: • Where can we find meaningful work? Why is that question so important? • The role crowdsourcing played in writing the book. • Why "fidgety" is one word Phil uses to describe The New Small. • With so many choices in technology, how do The New Small decide which tools are best for them? • The New Small don't think all business is good business. In fact, they're rather quick to steer clear of "bad business." • Voices.com and other case studies in The New Small teach us the importance of letting information be free. • How can the old small join the ranks of The New Small? • Salesforce.com leads the way in showing us the opportunities available to support The New Small. • Results are the primary aim of The New Small. • Speed is a critical component of The New Small. Click play and listen to about 50 minutes of insightful conversation with author Phil Simon. Few books - aimed at helping small business - provide more practical, real-world application than Phil Simon's The New Small. Interesting stories and case studies demonstrate how businesses are using the five enablers to solve their problems. Phil Simon's research uncovered these enablers that seem so common place among The New Small: 1. Cloud computing 2. SaaS 3. Free and open source software 4. Mobility 5. Social technologies (social media and social networking) You can connect with Phil Simon in these places: - Phil Simon Systems - The New Small - Twitter @philsimon and @thenewsmall Thanks for listening. Right Click To Download The Audio

An athlete goes down writhing in pain. He's holding his right knee. Collectively, we all think the same thing, "Oh, no! He's blown out his knee." Doctors use terms most of us don't know or understand. "Blown out" is not medical terminology - at least I don't think so. The diagram illustrates one part of the knee that susceptible to injury in athletic competitions - the MCL (medial collateral ligament). The MCL is one of four ligaments that is responsible for making the knee joint stable. The knee joint is no longer stable when it's torn or strained. There is an MCL that helps stabilize your retail business. Just like the MCL in your knees, this MCL can be strained or torn - and when it is, your company's stability is weakened. M stands for MANAGE. C stands for COLLABORATE. L stands for LEAD. Today's show briefly walks through these 3 components necessary for any retail business to be stable. Stable enough to grow. Stable enough to move forward. Over at the home base, Bula Network, I'm doing a word a day, a video a day. Today's word was "manage." Here's the video. Damage to our knee's MCL can be repaired, but recovery can take a very long time. It depends on the degree of damage. A torn MCL can rob a professional athlete of an entire season though - and some players never return quite the same. If the MCL of your retail business is damaged, you may not survive it. Recovery may be improbable, or impossible. And it's quite like other health-related issues (business or physical), prevention is easier, cheaper and more effective than remedy. I urge you to give MCL the attention it deserves in your retail company. Be strong in every area. Exercise every area so you grow. Right Click Here To Download The Audio

In the Spring of 2010 I began to encounter a growing resistance among some retailers. I saw it coming. That didn't make it any easier to face. The phenomenon was mostly among retailers who were at least 20 years in business. They had experienced success. After all, they had been able to launch, build momentum and sustain profitability for many years. Some have called it a "God complex" and I suppose there's truth to that. Success can breed the belief that we know all we need to know. We're good. Nobody is going to tell us anything we don't already know. Just look at our past success. Time after time I found the most difficult challenge facing small retailers was often their stubbornness to hang onto what once worked, even if I could show them empirical evidence that it was no longer working. Changing the business model is tough sledding for a retailer who has had prior success. The faltering business is often more open-minded. They know they need help, but so many retailers are in trouble, but their disease is in the early stages. Sickness hasn't sent them to bed yet. They feel okay - not terrific, but who does? We've all got aches and pains. Too many retailers were once remarkable, but now - they're not. Too many retailers have yet to experience the euphoria of being remarkable. I think it's time to elevate the expectation. It's time to focus on the area of our business where we can dominate. It's time to cut out a sliver of the pie and happily let the rest of the pie go to others. This isn't some credo against greed, although I'm fully opposed to greed. Rather, it's about knowing what will make our retail business thrive. The fact is, our business can thrive on much less than a single big box store. We're minnows, not whales. We don't eat as much as a whale. We're much lower maintenance than a whale. But sometimes our eyes get fixated on what life must like as a whale. And we want what whales wants - what whales need. It's just as ridiculous as it sounds. It's just not logical because our success - outrageous success - doesn't require the entire pie, or even a big piece of it. We can do well - really well - if we can just earn a sliver of the pie. In 2011 I'm focusing much of my work on helping independently owned retailers adjust, adapt, morph and innovate their business models so they can grow and reach remarkability by taking sniper-like aim at the sliver of the market where they can dominate. Right Click Here To Download The Audio

If you've followed me for any time at all you know I'm a big fan of great questions. Since the early 1980's I've preached the message - the quality of our business is determined by the quality of our questions. Experience taught me that truth. It continues to be reinforced every single day. Show me a business that struggles and I'll show you a business that doesn't ask or answer great questions. In fact, far too many small business owners don't ask questions of themselves. They'll interrogate an employee unmercifully, but ask them a tough question about their business, and they'll deflect. Is that you? Don't let that describe you. If it does, then get busy embracing change. WHY? It's the most important question. • Why do we do what we do? • Why is this our business model? • Why do we do what we do? • Why do we do it this way? • Why do we seem to always experience these same constraints and challenges? There are tons of WHY questions. And they're worth asking, but more importantly - they're worth answering. There is one why I want you to refuse to ask in 2011. It's a powerful, life-sucking question that too many independent retailers spend time asking. It's a major distraction. It saps energy from you, your leadership team, your employees, your suppliers, your financial partners and your shoppers. I want you to jettison it before January 1, 2011. Here it is. "Why me?" There are variations of it. Why us? Why is Wal-Mart selling this item that cheap? Why don't our vendors help us more? Why isn't business the way it used to be? They all serve the same purpose - to help us feel sorry for ourselves. To make us feel victimized by our industry, by competition, by the government, by our market, by our employees, by the entire world. Why me? The year 2011 is not the year of the victim. Is there ever a year like that? No, I don't think so. Each year goes to the strong, competitive, resilient and determined. Each year belongs to those with the tenacity to be remarkable. Be remarkable! Finish the year strong. Keep your eye on the ball. Don't focus on transactions - yes, I know sales are vital - but focus on the people who pay you. Behind every wallet and credit card is a real live person. Concentrate on them. It's people who matter. It's people who make up your customer base. Focus on them and your cash flow, your revenues, your profits, your inventory turns and all those other vital signs for your business will improve. Happy New Year! Right Click Here To Download The Audio

There is an area where no big box competitor can touch you. If you'll focus on that area and re-focus your attention, you'll be able to increase your sales. However, if you continue to take aim at the wallet of your shopper, you'll lose. Constantly I'm reminded by older heads in independent retail that the seven steps to selling, and proper closing and adding onto the transaction are how they insist on doing business. Too many independent retailers are steeped in processes and philosophies of a bygone era. If they don't wake up soon, they'll fade and die. And they should. Those of us who are committed to soar by establishing new higher standards for retail will likely find even higher success at the expense of big box operators and at the expense of our independent brethren who foolishly hung onto the past. Your retail store has a collective knowledge that is the bedrock of your future. Give today's show a listen and please give heed to the message. Your company's life depends on it. 2011 can be a break-through year for your business if you'll learn to adapt to a world that is poised perfectly for what you have to offer - expertise! Free of charge. With no strings attached! Right Click Here To Download The Audio

The holiday season can give us an excuse to let some details slip. Everybody is working longer hours. There's more hustle and bustle in the store. We're busy making sure shelves and racks are stocked. Merchandise has to be priced. But, does it really matter that nobody swept the front walk? Or that a thin layer of dust is on some shelves? Yes. It does. Right Click Here To Download The Audio

Movie Videos & Movie Scenes at MOVIECLIPS.com The circle of trust has been made famous by Robert De Niro's character, Jack Byrnes, lecturing Ben Stiller's character, Greg Focker, on the value of being inside the circle of trust. Can you really trust people? Here's a segment of the script from the 2000 comedy, Meet The Parents. Jack: Let me ask you a question, Greg. Let's just say you have kids... and you wanna get out of the house, spend a night on the town. So, you hire a baby-sitter, someone you think you can trust. References, work experience — it all checks out fine. But then how do you really know for certain... that your loved ones are safe with this stranger? I mean, can you ever really trust another human being, Greg? Greg: Sure, I think so. Jack: No. The answer is, you cannot. Let's morph Jack's circle of trust into a valuable circle of loyalty. You can grow your retail business if you'll keep your attention focused on building loyalty. Today, I want to introduce you to this circle of loyalty. It's especially urgent today because during this holiday season your store will likely experience the heaviest foot traffic of the year. You need to properly see the opportunity to dazzle shoppers because more shoppers presents more opportunities! Give me about 33 minutes of your time, then call the audio feedback line and let me know what you think. 214-736-4406 Thanks, Right Click Here To Download The Audio

This is Michael Hyatt. He's the chairman and CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishing in Nashville. He's also among the very best blogging corporate leaders. He's also an accomplished contributor to the Twitter stream. In today's show I reference this post from his blog - Using Email Templates To Say "No" With Grace.* * I confess I purposefully misled you in today's show about this post, but click PLAY and you'll be shocked once I tell you why I misled you. The post got lots of attention the day I recorded today's show - Saturday, November 27, 2010. You should subscribe to his blog. You should follow him on Twitter. You will learn about the proper use of social media by observing what he does - and more importantly, by what he does NOT do. Here's a sampling of his most recent blog post titles: - Clear Your Desk, Clear Your Mind - I Thank, Therefore, I Am - Why You Must Confront Seemingly Indispensable But Disrespectful Team Members - The Easiest Way To Overcome Bad Habits - How To Set Up A Vanity URL Shortener For Hootsuite What do these blog posts have to do with selling you books published by Thomas Nelson? Well, that's precisely the point of today's show. It's the social media marketing mistake you must avoid. Here are the blogging guidelines for Thomas Nelson Publishing. You may find these helpful as you develop your own guidelines. Right Click Here To Download The Audio

How's morale in your retail store? Do you think your people are happy? Maybe you think it's just how retail works. It's hard work. This time of year, it's long work. You just think your employees need to suck it up and do what's needed. Let me give you a strategy that might be counter to anything you've done before. The holiday season begins a week from today. Next Friday is what north Americans know as Black Friday. For many of us, the balance of the year will represent our annual profits for 2010. No pressure, right? Extraordinary pressure. We want to drive our sales as high as possible. These are the times we live for - the times that make or break our retail business. We've sweated making payroll. Month after month we've been chasing cash flow. Now, the 10 plus months of pressure is bearing down on us. The opportunities of the next 40 days or so are smack dab on top of us. The pressure is intense. What do we do? We now put that pressure on our employees. Don't they understand what we're up against? They're just going to have to dig deep and sacrifice. So what if they have to skip days off? So what if the hours are insanely long? That's just how it goes. Come on, we're running a retail operation. They've got to do what we need them do. It's so simple to let our pressure affect our staff - negatively! Resist it. Don't do it. This year, try something different. Make it your objective to build all the momentum you can. We want our retail business to have a terrific Thanksgiving holiday weekend, but we also want a killer December. And wouldn't a great January 2011 be a great way to start off the first quarter of the new year? Sure. It's possible. You need to do everything in your power to give it every chance for success. I know of NOTHING - let me repeat, NOTHING - that will give you higher ROI than doing what I recommend in today's show. Do it. Make it the priority of your daily work for the next 40 days. Then do it again for the month of January. And then, think about keeping it up to see if it doesn't make a meaningful difference. It's the way toward running a remarkable retail business! Happy selling. Right Click Here To Download The Audio

Retailers consistently tell me, "I've got to get our business on Facebook." I may hear that more than any other single comment. Translation, "Facebook would really help my business." I used to respond with a simple, "Why do you need to get on Facebook?" The question started out with my own curiosity of what the retailer thought about social media and how it might help them. After a gazillion responses of, "Well, everybody's on Facebook and I need to be where everybody is at" - I morphed the question to something more in order to pull the retailer back to reality (and to draw out more information). "How will you execute a marketing strategy on Facebook?" You can plug in "social media" for Facebook. Let's include them all. Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, Foursquare, Gowalla, YouTube, Vimeo, Blip.tv, yada, yada, yada... It makes sense that retailers would look to social media to solve some of their biggest problems. After all, that's where all the people are. That's exactly what retailers are thinking about. But let's tap the brakes a bit because we need to think about what we're doing. Sometimes retailers, no different than other business owners, suffer from knee-jerk reactions. An idea pops into our head and we think - "Yes, that's the ticket!" Maybe it is. Maybe it's not. Let's think this through. The Lure Of Social Media We've never seen anything like this before. Social media has many platforms. Many have come - and are now gone! The growth and demise of a social media platform (Xanga, for instance) can explode quickly...and die just as quickly. Social media over-produces content on social media. There are Tweets about Twitter. Facebook entries about Facebook. Linkedin groups about using Linkedin. The conversation about social media is loud. Consistent, too. It never slacks off. Social media never takes a vacation. Facebook is larger than most countries of the world. And growing. Still. At a rapid rate. Twitter is a virtual conversation pit without clock or calendar. Enter any time and you'll find a big crowd talking about anything and everything. Enter location-based applications like Foursquare and Gowalla. The enticement grows. Facebook and others are adding geo-location. We take for granted location based services when we're out and about. And if all that isn't cool enough for you... There's mobile. Apple's iPhone, Google's Android and RIM's Blackberry have all changed the game in mobile communications. It's mobile computing. For the upcoming generation it's the screen of choice. Just look around at the restaurant where you eat lunch. Computing and communication is a non-stop activity. I get tickled watching people sitting across from each other at lunch without looking at each other, speaking to each other. They're busy in Facebook, or texting with somebody else. Nobody ever said that we're growing more polite. But we are connected. The vastness of it all compels us to follow our marketing instincts - find a hungry crowd. We think of social media and we're tempted to forget the "find a hungry" part. I mean, come on! Look at how big this CROWD is. We'll worry about finding a hungry part of it later. We just need to jump into the space and be there. Like a full-metal mosh pit, we just want to leap and let the body surfing begin. I confess it's tempting. Look Before You Leap Sometimes an inviting jump can be dangerous. Many years ago I had a friend who had a college aged son. With a group of buddies they visit an east Texas lake. On a hot summer day in Texas few things are more appealing than a dip into a body of water. My friend's son dove head first off a dock without looking closely. One instance of impulsive behavior should not have such a high price tag. He hit something, broke his neck and was instantly paralyzed. A life changed in an instance. Social media can look more appealing than an east Texas lake in August. It can also be dangerous if you don't know and understand it.

Donald's assistant flew down to Houston to pick up the car. It had arrived from Germany just weeks ago. Donald couldn't be bothered fetching it so he sent his minion. The minion would be held accountable to getting the car back to Dallas safely, unscratched. For the past 2 years Donald's retail business has been suffering. The first thing he did was sit down with his advertising agency to review the expenditures. He told them he needed to reduce his advertising costs by 35%. Presto! Chango! It was done. They didn't even bother giving Donald an alternate strategy. Maybe they knew there was little use in having meaningful dialogue with Donald. He's not often given to listening to anybody. They'd worked for Donald for years and knew following his directions was the best way to keep him as a client. Within days of cutting the advertising budget Donald sent word to his managers with a list of names of employees who he wanted gone. Each was an hourly wage earner, a support person. None of them earned more than $10 an hour. A few of the managers privately talked with each other lamenting the decision. They even calculated the total savings in dollars against the loss of efficiency in the various areas of support. Nothing about it made any sense to them, but none of them spoke up. They knew Donald was not a man given to debate. They each prompted eliminate the jobs of these people. Each was told to tell the terminated employee, "We're eliminating your position." Donald gathered the troops of his corporate office. Dressed in his usual custom made $3200 suit, he informed the staff that effective immediately there would be a 10% reduction in pay. He told them he hoped this "rollback" wouldn't have to exist for very long, but under the present distress, "We simply have to all make sacrifices." Bewilderment was evident on everybody's face as they wondered if this meant they'd lose the pay altogether, or if by "rollback" he meant he wouldn't pay it for a time, but might make it up to them later. Deep down, they all knew he had no intention of ever making them whole. Donald simply wasn't a man who did things like that. They all knew it. That all happened almost 2 years ago. Since then Donald has found new ways to reduce his expenses. At least, that's how he terms it - "reducing expenses." The troops see it differently. They see an owner unwilling to invest in his business. They see a leader incapable of successfully leading his company through the current times. The perspectives of Donald and these employees isn't even in the same universe. They are worlds apart. I wish I could tell you that Donald is a rarity. I'd love to tell you that during stressful times men and women often step up to the challenge. "Rise to the occasion" and all that. Sadly, I'm seeing too many leaders - business owners - who lack the most fundamental, sound leadership behaviors. I think I know why. Click play and I'll share my thoughts on why a lack of leadership is killing too many independently owned retail businesses. Right Click Here To Download The Audio