rick segel

i just added a new link under the business links.... http://www.ricksegel.com/blog/ he offers so much good discussion on the retail issues and just business in general.....
hes very what i would call real world....its general but not totally generic...he is really interested in retail......not like the marketers who have the same generic advice for everybody from construction companies and gift shops....i see so much of that....
its nice to read someone who is really about stores and obviously knows tons about us......
enjoy....

this time of year is so wierd....normally, we dont really have lots of christmas gift sales.... .... and not much furniture going out either... so december always feel scary to me....this year with all the news it feels even worse....
we arent behind our normal pace....but its such a letdown compared to all the people who flow thru here in summer and fall....december always brings up feelings of doom and rejection... not good!!! especially with 3 or 4 workers most days and a very full store to juggle and make work.....
so after fluffing as best as i can im concentrating on some good projects....making signs....
they might not sell till summer....but i can look at someones pay for the day and figure we have turned the time into money ......
i want a giant jolly wanker sign....wonder if it would offend anyone?

also working on online selling....not sure on that at all...but trying to make a framework that could give it a try....

where we sell

1.store
2. mall, slightly
3. on line , slightly

problems/ questions

1. what works in a small poor county?

2.where can i find a cyber forum about brick and mortar stores?
not about start ups,
not about stay at home moms,
not about go girl,
not about web selling..
i need this for brainstorming and for sharing the thrills and chills of retail....im considering gift beat...but figure its more mall oriented than we are....im on www.giftshopforum.com , very nice and growing, but so far not much talk from stores like ours...also they have a great online magazine....,
im on www.small-business-forum.net , which is great for web and the tekk side but no stores like us..
..im on www.makeminepink.com , which is great for pretty sites..and web ,and pink encouragement, but not much for brick and mortar
, i used to be on country business but it changed so much and lost most of its conversations....
im on prim and rustic on delphi, so great for for cyber country...
im on victoria, but not many stores... lots of neat sites tho...
i dont want one with recipes , crafts or pushy christians,i love old fashioned christians like my devout grandfather , but i dont get the new ones, they can be kind of scary....im not against recipes or crafts either,...but not what im looking for in cyber business chat..

3.how to be a better destination store

4.where would be the best place to put effort and money to promote our wholesale?

5.what to stock that isnt cheaper at the big chains?

6.how should a store like ours use the internet ?

7.how to navigate thru the current economic turmoil?
8. how to be more useful to our customers?
these are the subjects i like to talk about and explore......any ideas ? you can comment easily here....i would really like to hear some discussion on any of these brick and mortar issues....private or not... ..if you are on a forum that discussed this kind of stuff please tell me where....

what worked this year...

1....the better the display the better it sold
2... the foo foo room.. this has turned into a real draw and favorite...pink white romantic ....i need more merchandise here...
3...black has sold more than white...
4...people need computer desks and tv stands
5...country is strong....or we are about the only ones stll around selling it....not sure....but its really selling for us...
6...the big draw seems to be the quantity and the seperation of categories in the store....
7. reasonable prices for good stuff...

this year...

our huge hurdle this year has been the fall of so many small stores and show dealers....stores we used to sell to....so many have slowed down terribly or closed...
now our survival depends on mainly retail....this is so hard for me because our first 20 yrs were mainly wholesale....now im having to do retail and im not good at it...im faced with all kinds of jobs im not qualified for....wholesale is so great....all i had to do was find it, show it, give a good price, and tell everything ,,,and then the store owner would decide...
and my old customers could see the thing whether it was on a dirt floor or fluffed up and dusted....
i would love to find a cyber home to talk to other stores and wholesalers who are still trying to make it ...i have never worked for anyone since a short stint in the 70s.....

do your own thing.......

thats always my goal.....and our customers.....they are so fun and creative.........thats what i love about the junk/antique/recycled business.... ...

good moves

some of the things that have helped us grow are kind of unplanned,,,
,sometimes things just fall together and fit nicely.....

.....meaning once in a while we are smart enough to answer when opportunity knocks...

....several years ago when jon gave me a yardlong picture for christmas....it was so nice.we had carpenters, we had julie who could run off to pennsylvania, ..and walla...a new big business for a few years.....we sold them at market sq at heritage and by mail..

..another time ..jon ,with a new wife and baby...we had the stuff she was smart enough to do the computer so we had 5 good years on ebay...still on but barely..4000+ feedback tho!!!

now with 2 customers with huge needs.....we are trying to be totally accomadating, we are working hard to fill their needs, and in the best way for them, that we can muster.....all our connections are aimed at getting the right stuff for one of them.....and making the right stuff for the other......everybody we deal with, meaning buy from, knows we need a certain kind of buffet,.... and all our carpenters are up to date on the needs of the other woman....they really care!! if she likes something...

my point is that those 4 ideas/people, keep/ kept us going ,....pumped up the business in a long term manner....and they werent exactly planned....but they did present themselves and we reacted....

.farther back for us , in the good antique time, were 3 or 4 good customers who we totally catered to, great customers who bought over 30,000 a year from us...our suppliers would bring something in and say this is for ruthie....and never met her...she was from alabama. that was wonderful ..
..but all that changed.. the whole antique world as iwe knew it crashed before our eyes.....
..still have the friendships tho!!!

when we cater to and try to bend over backwards to deal with someone it only works if it is on terms acceptable to us...still no credit or layaway or delivery....a few exceptions...it has to be honestly win/win.....

.
... every new idea sure hasnt worked.and we have passed up on lots im sure, that could have worked...but i sure hope im open and paying attention when the next big opportunity happens...

snafu

i hate when this happens....the lady was nice about it...but mad....and it wasnt her fault......our place is real big with lots of parts... outside was a big double wash tub....a lady asked me the price...and i told her...she went in and paid for it....but wade the guy selling outside also sold it....at about the same time....

our safety net on this is when someone says i will take this we put a sold tag on it....the lady who paid first didnt say that....and the lady who didnt pay first said that....and we didnt put the sold tag on it for her......we dont have it figured out for sure who actually should have been first.......

not a good situation!!!! it shows how important our policies are....and how we should really think about the customer....as in if you want this for sure you have to tell me so i can put your name on it....that can sound kind of pushy but pretty important here.......wade was perfect for this except for not getting the tag on it like he should have.he is so tactful and nice and kind of salvaged it as well as possible...

...i think he grovelled and said , his ladyship i would have his guts for garters for messing it up... he told me that later, when i asked him how he solved it......

it was a mess....we ahd about 15 carloads of buyers in the place at that time....

props for shops

what i really dont want in my store is
a bunch of commercial units
to show my merchandise...
i dont want plastic, or particle board or some cheapie thing that comes in a box..., or even another companies name on something...

i want big strong things that put lots of merchandise at eye level...
and i want them with a little inner beauty and archetectural interest....
things you can nail into
interesting things...that tell my customers... you arent at
hobby lobby, walmart or hallmark!!!!..

we try to make our cupboards, counters and cabinets for stores who feel the same way..the neatest ones we come up with have cool old parts in them.... like the big 2 door display in the picture..7 ft tall and 4 ft wide....and heavy!!!...
good, useful displays and visual merchandising is so crucial......you can see lots of our displays at work here http://www.greenoakantiques.com/

##also i like to use big garden things inside....every christmas i use a nice big arbor somewhere..., to walk thru or to hang huge amounts from...they are just natural big focal points...


###and antiques, to a point....but you cant nail into antiques... and once they are covered up they dont sell...

####and definitely big natural things ...like saplings.....

i would love to have something as dramatic
as the old trucks they put into old navy..
.so neat....

word on the street

about everything im hearing is bad......except the cash and carries in pennsylvania and madison wi .......... they sounded really good...
.talked to a busy rep yesterday and she said shops are really being careful..and sales down..and her travel costs are going up so bad she is trying to plan her trips better....

a favorite customer was here and said about the same thing...

what really tells me how bad it is is when we get the returns from our dealer mailing.... that is a mailing to actual stores we have sold to.we just mailed out to our big list for our february sale.....a couple dozen came back as no such person, meaning closed ..
a big question is what to stock....what to get that isnt in hobby lobby,target,gordmans, lowes..etc etc
..the big gift companies are jumping right over us to sell to the big boxes...and the independants are supposed to get 8$ for what gordmans sells for 4$....how does that work?

here...we are holding even and thankful...and hoping our new lines will be exciting for our customers...

early spring problems.....

this is always a hard time of year.... we have tons of warm weather product coming in....and jan and feb are usually our slowest months.....
so it takes a lot of money and optimism to make the big orders like we have....coming this week...3 pallets of iron and later this month a full load of garden iron....
i hate to do a lot of credit......but cant really avoid it right now...

my job now should be to work on the marketing for all this garden product thats coming in....that would be...

#figuring out good recurring ads in 3 or 4 places and a good email plan to customers...

#figuring out the best layout....involving, gazing balls, fountains, chimes, birdhouses, patio iron, outside garden iron etc etc etc....

the weather hasnt been our friend this year....but lots of time to work on all kinds of projects....and some good sales.... but freezing rain and heavy snow have cost us!!!

i rarely consider cancelling orders....i think it would really look unprofessional...and yes you could do it..but what kind of service would you get from the company next time?
we dont do layaways but its kind of like backing out of a layaway imho...

easy rules

CASH.....if you take cash dont put it in the drawer until you have given them their change...... if someone gives me a 20$ i touch it and pull it back towards me...but leave it insight....on the counter...and then get their change....and saying thats 15 out of 20....

DONT PROMISE ANYTHING...keep your promises as low as possible.... dont say i will call if we ever get that...unless you really have a system to make you call in the future...maybe the far future....THEY REMEMBER EVERYTHING...

THEY HEAR EVERYTHING....so watch your talk

SPEAK AND MAKE EYE CONTACT......besides all the other good reasons its supposed to cut down on theft...

sale theory

this whole week has been extra slow....my theory is that they got their postcard monday about our february sale so they are waiting for the weekend!!!

that seems to be right and thats why i try and get the announcement out as late as possible....the sale is annual...but the dates change a little...
mainly we have spent the week flluffing the store, putting tags on every piece of furniture, getting the half price areas right, etc etc.... the better we prepare the better we do.....

for half price i look at
old merchandise for sure,
also things i wont be reordering,
things that i wouldnt have ordered if i saw them in person,
tail ends...

then in general its a storewide sale...

its a real sale....and they know it... most of my customers have to make a fairly big effort, in miles and time , to come, so we try to make it worth it...
the cost of this sale is about 1000$ in stamps, and ads and food on the days and a little extra help....so about 2000$

this one is easy compared to the other 3..
.garden party,
yardsale,
and holiday openhouse....

reps

this is a post from www.giftshopforum.com by www.moodswingsonthenet.com
i thought she made some great points..

Reps should be helpful, curteous, take notes, know where the product is being sold into close to your store and know the top ten selling items in each of their lines and be willing to go the extra mile. These are some of the qualities I find in a rep that is working hard to sell lines in AND keep the line successful. It is one thing for a rep to push a line and then you can't retail it and they say, "oh well, buy more and that will get it moving." There is also nothing worse than a rep who says, "such-and-such down the road re-orders this line daily..." when you are struggling to keep it moving. However, I have had the experience that indeed buying more does work sometimes, when you have a plan. Reps are the sounding boards of the market. They shop your competition daily and typically have ideas about display work. This is what I ask of my reps...1) Please put any catalogs from newly acquired lines in the mail to me within a week. 2)Show me all your lines and don't assume what I will or won't buy. 3)Work quickly, both of our time is money. 4) Email me specials at any time they occur. 5) When I place an order with a company that is new to me and has a very long wait time tell me. (we pre-pay everything, but the money is still ear marked for that vendor) 6) Take care of me and I will take care of you, ensuring that all orders I place are sent to you. In exchange my order will be processed within 24 hours and you will let me know which items are out of stock so I know what to expect for displays. I feel it really helps to establish expectations in advance. If a rep doesn't follow through with my expectations or let me know why they can't, I place orders direct. Placing orders direct doesn't sit well with sales managers and principals of rep groups. Why? Some vendors don't pay a full commission if the order is direct, also the sales managers and principals want to know why that rep isn't meeting the needs of their customers. Working as a sales rep is hard work, and only the best make money and survive, no...thrive. Most reps do not get paid for gas/mileage, and almost all work on 100% commission, which by the way is about 7.50%. The principal of the rep group gets about 7.5% and the rep gets the other 7.5%. So if a rep makes $7.50 for every $100.00 order or $75.00 for every $1,000.00 on average. In order to make a $1,050.00 paycheck gross, they have to sell $14,000.00. (I am speaking in general using general industry percentages) They often pay for hotel expenses out of pocket and meals for sure. Don't expect them to buy your coffee, they have to pay for it. If you are having trouble, "connecting" with your rep and it is a line that you want/need, ask to speak to the principal of the group. (There are several types of reps and the group I am using as an example, rep many independent gift lines)Another note; you should repsect their time when you have an appointment with them. Provide a spot to work where they can show samples and the two of you have room to flip through catalogs. Consider it a business meeting because it is. Value their time and they will value yours. Take notes, be ready to make buys by knowing what your open-to-buy is, and or what type of lines or products you are seeking. Don't answer your phone if possible. I have found early morning appointments before the store opens work well and provides for uninterrupted conversation. Kind of a scattered post but my biggest kudo is to the reps that lead me to lines that sell well and we have both made money from selling. Peace,

store display ..

this is what we call
a great display piece.... its about 7 ft tall and 4 ft wide.
..big and dramatic enough
to be a good focal point ..

we made it out of 2 big old doors,
with iron brackets holding up the shelves.
.and nice 100 yr old legs holding up the base...
you can see things from all angles.... its strong enugh to nail into or even add brackets on the sides....
this one sold the second day out.....
they run from 200 to 400$ ...

at knee level it sticks out an extra foot..
..so something tall can sit there...
we use these all over the store..
.this one was grungy white with robin egg blue over it.... we had it filled with birds and brown nests and candleholders etc...
these have sold to all kinds of stores, from spas to florists to lots of very nice gift stores...
it works great...
it joins old and new in a modern way...

ikky situation and tolerance

today a nice young boy was playing with a 45$ b b gun and i took it away from him and kind of explained to the dad i didnt want him playing with it....i hate kids handeling my stuff...its expensive and not for kids....
the nice boy was with 2 families who came with a trailer, had driven about 3 hrs to come to our store, stayed about 4 hours and spent about 2000$...i didnt know this at the time!!!......the little crisis passed and it became obvious that these people loved our stuff and were here to buy....

. i felt kind of pathetic...and real thankful that the parents didnt get huffy about the gun...usually when i step in like that the parents get mad.... thankfully these didnt...the moms were great and loved what they got...


the last time this happened was witha 100$ fragile charlie mc carthy puppet..nice and big and really fragile,,,..the little girl was playing with it and had handled things all over the store.... i took it away..and the mom just had a fit....
thankfully this doesnt happen very often...

good info for online

just found this site.. http://www.junctionjournal.com/ kind of good info for any business but aimed at on line....

real down to earth and you can tell she has had a lot of experience....

mindmapping

ive gotten some good insights from it....very relaxing and deep...
other times it just seems silly and pointless....
.but you might give it a try....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map

january and february

january and february are so great.....

..starting with making resolutions for the coming year..

.a good time to look back on the past year and take lots of notes, about all the good thngs and also what went wrong , what we could change..

..i try for lots of talk about the year and what to do different.....dh gets all our numbers out...with charts!!! so nice...and lots of good discussions with him...

..

i try to get everybodies input, from my favorite discussion place, country busines, to dh and jon and whoever will talk about business with me.

...my feeling for the year is ...its going to be tough so i want to be real careful and get some good things going..

and keep our prices as low as posssible......

..

..this year we .......

.. actually reset lots of areas of the store...i so believe in this...but its a lot of work...and often it doesnt get done....but this year we did better than usual...fluffed the foo foo...went deep into key west, complertelly changed the antique dishes, have great plans for the garden gazing balls and fountains...

..... did the 80/20 thing, to help figure out what to carry.. and then studied the chicago gift show website and then went to chicago and bought like crazy....hopefully lots of things the buyers will like..

..

......finally got the blog thing going... in january i really had the time to go thru the horrible learning parts...im still at a loss on lots of parts of this...but its kind of perfect for me...lots of little parts that i can do in snippets of time....my dil...terri...set the 2 blogs up in just a few minutes... amazing!!! now im kind of hooked...and hoping to get some good content on them....the other one is http://www.magpiecottage.blogspot.com

..

.....also have worked on the wholesale part of our business...mainly making flyers and direct mail..... we have the right stuff, imho, but we are in the economically depressed cornbelt...and dont plan on moving....we live in a woods and have the grandkids across the street..and an established 28 yr store still going strong, .so somehow we have to keep getting buyers to come to us....

..

also found some new places on the internet.

.new chat, new forums, new ideas,

..

business and weather has been horrible for most of january..

..

.. but im happy with all the stuff ive gotten done..

.and im definitely trying to stay hopeful for the spring and the new year....

sale problems

this is always a little delimma....our big feb sale is about a week away...... we want to talk it up in the store...on the other hand we could be talking someone out of buying right now...the customer easily thinks well i wil just wait....
so this years solution is ...we arent mentioning it much but this weekend we will have flyers about the sale in every bag....
and they should get their postcard in the mail about the sale next monday...and an email announcement if they are on the email list....

display

we divide our store up into different categories..

the foo foo

the prim

the good oak

the white shabby/cottage elegant

the rough room

etc etc....

each section has a chance to shine...you just couldnt put a group of old crocks and a copper boiler and a crazy quilt next to all this pretty white.........

if someone loves prim they dont even venture into the foo foo room... if they love antiques they know where to go when they come to the store....

this picture shows an old buffet rehabbed and painted with our white combination......usually about 220$ for a small one like that..

..the mirror is from a fabulous victorian dresser...long separated....also painted white... about 200$

this separation of categories makes every section more dramatic imho...and shows its parts in its natural habitat.....

what were they thinking?

a friend of mine had a husband with an antique store...she put in a darling little boutique within his store....special things she had made ...BUT when i came to see, there was hardly anything there.....she had almost all put on layaway....leaving her with no inventory and no money......and her dh was tripping over it in the back room.... and the paper work....

in the auction world, where we started our business, there is no credit and little whining...its all , as is ,where is and pay immediately...and if its broke, tough luck..,

..so we always needed ready money.... . and learned to eat our mistakes...

all this helped make good strong policies for our store...

if we cant do something right and mostly hassle free we dont even go there....

our mark up is average or low...so tons of service just cant be in the price...we dont want to be a service business.... we want to be a cash and carry business..

..we have always had no credit, no layaways, no special orders, almost no deliveries and it works great!!!

no one owes us money, no one is avoiding us out of embarrassment, we arent storing unpaid for merchandise... we arent sending out dreary notices of failure to pay....we arent turning down a sale because someone put 5$ down on something.... these policies have saved us all kinds of troubles...

just a simple delivery can take hours..been there with jon and the innocent little old ladies!!! ..

you get a nice young guy big and strong, in a house with a little old lady with no family and he can end up moving huge stuff for her....could you just take this upstairs for me...etc etc.......its hard to refuse....... the one im thinking of actually called jon a few weeks later because there was an opposum hiding in her basement...he went..... she gave him cookies...

all our inventory is either sold and paid for or for sale.
and the customers accept it easily.....even if its a little unusual...
we get tricked into teeny lay aways once in a while...like if they call at night and say they want something and will we hold a day or 2...we do that...but even those can go wrong....

im on country business retailer forum....and whenever the lay away subject comes up there are horror stories ....

cold here

its a beautiful snowy day here....

these are our winter girls...an old photo i got for dh....we use them for a fun handout , or to announce something....its a nice instore ad....like announcing our openhouse...or just happy holidays...they are probably from the 1920s
.the old guys like it...and we hear a lot of which one is you ..etc etc....

lots of smiles...

working on a niche

heres my summer plot..
we have a pretty good niche going.... porches, patios and gardens....
this year im hoping to expand it quite a bit.....so far i have got fountains, gazing balls, outdoor clocks, added......its a good niche for us and we have the customers already for all things garden and outside......... you just never know when you order what walmart or lowes will have in the same line, for a different price...
but hey, we are a lot more fun than walmart.... i just dont want 38$ gazing balls if the same quality is all over the place for 20$...

in this economy going for a stronger niche seems better than spreading out into new territory.. my customers love garden and outside things....just wish i could get a plant person in...who would do all the work!!!
we had plants for 2 weeks last year at our garden party, they are waaaay too much work....
in my head , im hearing a fountain inside...i think that would be a great display...

good info

some good info on here . http://www.startupnation.com/index.asp ....lots of good insight on growing your business.... its mostly for start ups...but some good for established stores too...


i found this place thru a post on the country business retailer forum... http://www.sampler.com/ME2/Apps/DiscussionBoard/default.asp
you have to register to get on the retailer part...you cant see the good parts unless you register..

showcases cottage style

these showcases
we made
from old
windows
and
other old parts
....
prices run
$170 to$250 .
.each one
is different.
they have a door
on the back...
they could be lit...
glass shelves
on some...

chicago gift show.....

as you can see we need nice dark country and nice pale foo foo for our store

......

so we love going to
the chicago gift show at the merchandise mart in january.... where we bought a big part of our spring merchandise.......we stayed 2 days......and still didnt see the whole show... ....i know lots prefer atlanta...but its too far for us ...and we found plenty at chicago...

the website for the show lets you really explore it before going....and belonging to someplace like the country sampler retailer forum gives you a lot of background on a lot of different companies which helps you sift thru everything at the show........
i like the show a lot...

. reps cause a lot of problems....for me , if they come to me they will go into town and try to sell there too , and then the chances of a certain other shop and me having the same thing is increased...i like the other shop a lot....but we dont really want to have the same things...and we dont check in with each other on every order... ....waaaay too much trouble.
..i have a couple of reps that i depend on a lot and who are great to work with....but overall i prefer the shows... and catalogs...

if you have a girly modern shop.....chicago had a whole floor of urban, jewelry , and foo foo stuff for you to pick from...im glad i didnt have to choose jewelry or bags...there was so much....

i needed lots of garden and didnt find enough......we stayed at the holiday inn , hooked onto the mart and that was nice and easy..... we stayed 2 days...
the next show is in the summer.....
my orders will start coming in any day now...

what are they thinking?

heres a story from one of my wholesale customers.... that has her very irritated...
.she rents about 4 booths in a big mall....they have upped the rates this year, even tho sales are slow..... the work crew isnt friendly at all and mostly huddles at the counter....her theft last year was about 3000$...she sells some cloth tablecloths and quilts....which the customers mess up.... the mall never helps out there...but they have a wattage allowance and go in and turn off her bulbs.....she was told that she was the highest seller in the mall....thus a good draw for the mall i would think..shes dropping booths and maybe even leaving.....
..so in these tough times the mall raised the rates...and tons of their renters are leaving....


im thinking the opposite...its tough times and i better keep my prices as reasonable as possible....

our website.....

we have a brick and mortar store and really dont have the time or interest in selling on the web...... but the website still helps us a lot.. http://www.greenoakantiques.com/ .its mainly just a big picture display.... my dh and daughter in law, terri, did it....my part was standing over their shoulder till it looked ok....
. just having all the pictures on it gives a person contemplating a trip to see us a good idea of what we have......
also it makes us seem more in the modern world...

i like the pictures most of all....and also the idea of content....we have our paint recipe on the site and i get thanked for it all the time.... im always looking for more good content ideas....like maybe the patent numbers and what date they mean..
.im looking for more ideas along this line...just useful things that would make the site a good place to go....
another part i think gets a lot of attention is the now in page...we try to update it about every month...... and also we put our calendar on the site...so they know when the events are...

it is easy for our site to get big and messy and kindof out of control...kind of like the rough room and the back porch right now ....

for you web workers...

i found this somewhere..the small business forum i think......and thought it had really good ideas for anyone working on marketing their website.......


I have a website http://helpwithyouressay.com/ ; well actually my two partners and I have a website. We have been working on this for about four months. It’s a free information educational website. We finally launched it a few weeks ago.In my real job I work in the afternoon, so this gives me time in the morning to work on my own site. After I take the kid to his little nursery, I come home, make coffee and sit in front of the computer till its time to pick him up.Oh boy it can be frustrating! I want massive traffic to my site but dear lord HOW? Every day I find another article that will tell me “how to…” Everyday I will discover a new website…. then I find myself just sitting in from of the computer flipping through sites, watching some videos on You Tube , checking my email, checking the news…..Until I decided enough is enough! It hit me…I want to share with you the knowledge I have gathered about marketing from this stuff. Not that I’m a pro, but I have some experience you might learn from.I found that a web marketer should focus on creating two kinds of traffic: short term and long term.Short Term TrafficWhat is short term traffic? This is building up visitors, sending someone and email, posting on a yahoo group, craigslist – I do this to continue the steady flow of traffic to my site. When I send someone an email [from my own personal email contacts – over 300 people] they will usually click on the link, visit the site a page or two and then move one. In some cases they will bookmark the site if they like it. However, usually the email gets lost in their account. Same thing with posting on a related yahoo group – it gets lost after a few days with all the messages being posted on that group. The pluses, though, of short term traffic are that the site gets exposed to lots of people, some of whom might become regular visitors. And all visitors might click on an ad.Long Term TrafficWhat is long term traffic? This is building up an audience around your website. This means that you need to invest a little more time in some areas – and yes its hard but its worth it in the long run. Get involved in a social network like myspace or facebook. It means making friends on the web via internet forums and when I talk about internet forums I am saying is that you shouldn’t just post things like “I have a new site! Visit my site today! here is the link!” - You know what that is? That’s called being an internet jerk. The whole idea of a forum is where people can share information with one another , information that is helpful. Get involved in some forums and share your knowledge with the world. Most forums allow you to put your URL as your signature. If you share your valuable information – people will trust you, they will become your followers. I have some “gurus” on the internet. I have never met them. They share such wonderful information that I almost every time visit their websites [and click on one of their google ads!] and maybe even buy something. Why? Because I trust them, I admire them. Remember this rule: People like nice, honest people.Something else I learned that I’d like to share is about work ethic. I decided that I need to create an action plan for myself or I would never get things done!Here’s the schedule I created for myself. I’ve been getting stuff done…Sunday morning [my wife is watching the baby] I usually do a round of yahoo group postings. Before launching our site, I joined a bunch of yahoo groups that are related to my website. Since then, I’ve been writing something up every week about my website and just copying and pasting it on every group that I am member of. Some yahoo groups won’t allow you to just promote your site – so I get involved in the discussion and I add my link at the end.By doing this I am working on the short term traffic.Then I will go to facebook. I have created a profile and a group for my website on facebook. I make friends over facebook and invite them to join my website group. I am very careful not to spam other people. So what I do is I search for people I know and then I approach their networks by offering to them “hey I am a friend of Joe, I am looking to build my network …” So they know right away that I am not some random unknown guy who is trying to spam them. In 99% of the cases people have agreed since they know Joe and trust him. On my facebook group I try to make it interesting. I post music videos, updates about my site, interesting articles…. This is building my long term traffic. I am building a community of people around my site. I try to focus on one social network at a time. If you try more than that – you can go crazy! Focus your energy on one spot and own it!Comes Monday I focus on Forums. I try to write up an interesting article and then I post it in different forums, I try to create something that has valuable information and that it could start a discussion. Then I will go back and get involved in some discussion groups. Remember: The link to my site is my forum signature. So this really takes up Monday morning.Tuesday! Social book marketing day! This day always brings us good traffic. We get involved in our social book marketing sites – Stumbleupon.com, Digg.com, Del,icio.usWe stumble, make friends and get involved. This is great for short and long term traffic.Wednesday is Link exchange day. I have decided that link exchanging really needs a separate day. This is can really drive in long term traffic. When your link is sitting on another popular website – this can really drive in traffic. The beauty of this is – you don’t have to do anything! I also try to post comments on blogs related to my site.Thursday is the day where I let myself to go wild! No, not partying, but crazy posting! Anywhere and everywhere I can. Its kind of like having a brick and mortar store in the center of the city- I have fliers and I am going to hang them up on every bulletin board I find in the city. Again you have to be careful about spamming. Sometimes I will send emails to my friends asking them to forward the site to others, right now! Every other Thursday I do article marketing and submit them to relevant sites like squidoo.com, or ezinearticles.com or even forums [great place for articles!].Friday is when my partners and I review the week – what marketing methods worked; we discuss the content of the site and what needs to be added. We discuss ideas for the coming week and ideas for the future, we discuss the Google ads, and affiliate marketing programs… we try to cover everything. Remember: if you want to make money then you have to treat it like a business!Saturday….. I rest!In the evening after the baby goes to sleep – I spend time reading articles, exploring new websites – I try to understand in depth the websites that I am already using and how I can make them “work for me” – I basically spend this time for my own education and to catch up with what’s new in the internet world.Is it hard? Yes it’s hard, but one thing that I do know and that is:“A Quitter Never Wins And a Winner Never Quits!”Be a winner. Don’t quit your effort. It just might pay off bigtime.
__________________http://helpwithyouressay.com/

ordered spring

we just ordered our spring garden iron....the way i figure out how much to order is to look at last years sales and aim for that much.....this year im going into more glass...glass gazing balls, glass stakes, etc..... we have a good garden niche going....i cant get it cheap enough to wholesale as low as i would like....but my store customers who come here do save all the shipping.....its a lot of real big pieces.... arbors, gazebos, trellises, big urns..planters, fence.bird trees..dress forms..etc etc

we have sold a lot of the bird trees , the dress forms and the arbors for use in store display... there is something so neat about walking under an arbor....

a good resource

my best business resource is this site http://www.sampler.com/ME2/Apps/DiscussionBoard/default.asp


its an active forum with mostly brick and mortar stores... you have to have a store or legitimate resale thing and register to get on, you cant blatently advertize, its active everyday ...and very user friendly......
there are all kinds of stores on there, prim, country, yes but also some other types too...some fancy, some tourist, some farmers market, some high end giftshops, just a nice cross section of independant stores on there sharing all kinds of good info.....what i like about it is the feedback you can get...just throw a question out and get advice and feedback from many view points.......nice long talks sometimes...

.. deep discussions on china, how to survive, ,events, big box inventory, show info, display discussions, dud discussions, field trip reports.... i have gotten so much out of it...and im on there a lot...

its nice but not like a tea party...
it has helped me build a country section in my store, helped me improve my displays , and ive used lots of ideas from there about christmas events etc...also i have gotten great product advice and welcome warnings about companies to stay away from....

the best part is getting to know the women on there...and a couple of men.....
you do have to register but i would sure recommend it for any store...
there is a public side and a side for retailers....
its connected to american sampler....and they also publish country business magazine....for stores....

what we make

we wholesale to other stores and businesses...here are some of the things we make...in general we usually have about 50 of our cabinets and shelves on hand, and about 6 counters, and dozens of other big pieces....a quick phone call to me can tell you whats on hand right this minute.....ann 574 223 5702....i do answer at night too...and dont have an answering machine....

counters run 250 to 400

big cupboards 4 ft wide and 7 ft t all run just over 200, more for porch post

waist high buffet cabinets, with doors of tin, glass or beadboard run 170 to 240....

we use good wood, not pine...

you can see lots more on our website http://http://www.greenoakantiques.com/

basically we are cash and carry, no orders, no shipping....

most buyers call then come here in a truck or trailer....

we are closed thursdays... open 6 days 10 to 5

naughty magnets

we sell a lot of magnets..
..i dont get the really naughty ones or the really hilarious political ones....i am in the corn belt... .

..some i just ordered;
im between a spring chicken and older than dirt
tgif..thank god im fabulous
have i told you lately that you bug me
i took the road less traveled by and now where in the#$%%$* am i
lots of hot flash ones
lots of snarky men ones...they are such an easy target
of course i love you get me a beer

always looking for fun stuff at the counter....

etc etc 6:36 AM