a good thing....

i think a good thing for us is that we dont depend on one fad or age range to keep us going....if shabby fades we have french and country going.....if crows fade we have sentimental plates...... i never want to put all my eggs in one basket!!!!
same with age ranges, i have things for grandmas and for new mothers..... like in our foo foo room...the grandmas can afford a whole set of placemats and everything they like for their table etc at 100$ a visit and the new girls can get one nice love sign for the babies room for under 10$....and look at some small furniture too...
niches are great ....but to hinge the whole business on too narrow of a niche would take a heck of a location..
..here at greenoak we have chosen to be fairly wide and general within our target market.....in new york or on the Internet i could maybe deal with just my true loves...

AROUND THE STORE....

these photos are from a cyber friend!!! she picked them off the blogs........i am so grateful for my cyber buddies..... and always love the diferent views, skill levels and wild ideas out there....thanks michelle!!!

destination strategies

we are out in the boondocks so we have to be a destination store....we have to be a store people make an effort to come to...., make a trip to.......we dont have drive by or other retail around us.....

i wish there were more books on destination stores....john shallert has a great program for one...but it takes a week and is far away ....i saw him once and he talked about it.... one of his questions was ...how far does your store draw from?

.HERE ARE SOME OF OUR WAYS TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN.....some destination strategies we use and have seen others use....these ideas are how we try to get them to want to return....

***** OFFER REAL VALUE...... get what they really like at a price they appreciate.... a price they think is really worth it....

***** THE BIG AND/or THE WEIRD..and dramatic displays.....as a start when they get in our parkinglot they see our 14 ft tinman....he stands by our entrance.....inside, things in the big and/or weird category would come and go...but weve had 9 ft cabinets.....trellises inside.... huge paintings...dr.tools....cow skulls, horrid 1950s lamps..fabulous victorian mirrors...like right now we have a 7 ft tall...4 ft wide white one with columns and carving.... or a 6 ft sign saying be nice or leave...

one great retailer i know had a truck brought into her store for her openhouse.....a neat old junky one.....and used it for a display.... another year she added a room and suprised her customers at the openhouse...every year she tried to out do herself for her openhouse.....
*****LOTS OF FUN CHEAP STUFF....

these things really bring us a lot of people...tons under 10$...windows, parts, the 1$ jewelry...the half price room.... for this you really need room...i stick ours in out of the way places.....i love shopping in anyones junk room....

****SOME BIG WONDERFUL EXPENSIVE STUFF

this kind of reminds them they arent in a totally low class junk store!!!

i buy the best in a line sometimes just for the excitement of having it...like the fabulous 4 ft square clock from peacock park design, see above........the price is over 300 but its job is to set the atmosphere too....it gets a little awe....or the big 80$ tin fish ...i got 3 in february and all have sold..i have dozens of birdhouses under 20$ and i would love to have one big fabulous 100$ one to sit in with them.....what i really dont want is average stuff overpriced..if i was a fabric store i would probably have a bit of the best and highest price in the line.....

****BEING GREEN AND REHABBED AND REPURPOSED.....

this makes us a big draw....the recycled and used furniture hits the right price points for young families and they like the eclecticness and uniqueness of our creations...or the benches made out of beds, and all our rehabbing ...or using our black buffets for tv tables..... and they definitely like our prices , so much lower than ethan allen...etc....
or coming to us for cool old parts for for their projects.....this one really works for us....

*****GREAT EVENTS******we have 4 events...and work hard to make them work and bring in the people...in other words be good enough to bring them back the next time...i chat online with other stores and have learned of some wild events..... where people line up to come....i know its possible.....

i have one buddy who takes a group of her customers to paris to shop!!!

and another who opens up her farm to other vendors and has a big fall market

...and another who has an easter egg hunt and puts up with women fighting over the prizes....

a customer clued me in on events a long time ago.... she has a smaller store than ours and buys from us, and has a smaller inventory......she mentioned her christmas openhouse brought in 30,000!!!!! that got my attention!!!...after that i tried to do just what she said.......basically she dolled the store all up...to the hilt....served food and sent out postcards..... she had a great mailing list...which we did too...but we only had one event, the yardsale, back then.but she got me thinking about a christmas event and boy am i thankful to her......now we have 4 events....feb sale...garden party....yardsale!!! and the christmas openhouse.....

if i could get into the archives from the old country business forum i would love to relate some of the wonderful events we heard about from the members....... but i dont think they saved the archives....

*****THE UNEXPECTED.and change . maybe this is easier with antiques....a great example was when we bought 4000 old coke crates....or when i got a pile of 7 victorian caskets..or one of our cupboards in hot pink.....anyone who remembers seeing that , probably wants to come back and see whats happening ...i love buying interesting stuff....just for the fun of it sometimes ...

something i hear customers say is that we always have something different, that the store is never the same.,....we work hard on that GOOD BUZZ....and our store really does change , and fast... when big furniture sells..that happens a lot and keeps the store stirred up....or when a big truckload comes in......

in the more static parts like where the smalls sell its harder to keep it exciting.........we do try to drastically rearrange sometimes....i try for once a year at least...

******SOME HANDMADE.....i know chinese is cheaper....but i love big handmade things....like our 6 ft long signs made out of old fence and old tin....and fun signs made here in carribean colors....plus our own big neat architectural cabinets from old parts...having lots of stuff that is truly one of a kind is what i really like....

A NICHE......i think this is crucial....what ever you are good at or want to be known for....just go over the top for it...

have the biggest selection, or the best selection,or the cheapest prices,or the most beautiful , any of those could help build a niche for a store....a niche seems to be the secret of a lot of going stores...

here are some stores i know and their plot to become a destination in their field.......

..a gift store + vera bradley

a gift store+full fabric service

a gift store+making lake flags...

a girly gift store....with fabulous display and gift bags that look as good as the gift...plus shes a great marketer who gets the ceos and dr.s and other bosses to buy her gorgeous gift baskets for their office workers..........

a gift store.... with antiques and gold pandora beads....she mentioned a case of beads with 60,000$ in inventory...

a gift store +a great gourmet section

a gift store + a gift basket business

a gift store+ a big pampered pet business....

a gift store + supplies and lessons....

im not sure i know very many who just make it on gifts alone...

if anyone knows a book on destination businesses i would love to read it........

we are a destination store to a nice degree..it could be to a lot NICER degree!!! ..but i know first you have to get the customers in ....

some ways to GeT THE customers IN , in THE FIRST PLACE..

.HOW WE DID IT....

• word of mouth, satisfied or even happy excited customers....our referral system...this is the best....
• our bill boards
• repeating ads in newspapers.......weve had tons of 6 week runs of small display ads..... over and over.locally and in nearby newspapers.......
• big ad campaignes for our events...using our mailinglist right from the start.....
• the greenoak website http://www.greenoakantiques.com/ which is mainly a billboard for the store.... not a selling site..barely even organized....but it does show what the store is like.....it could be even simpler like our daughters http://www.bellachicinteriors.com/ both are mainly eyecandy...+ the basic info...
• .flyers, which we try to put out lots of places...
• networking , wherever we go...

then they get here....and its all about if they liked it enough to come back....thats where destination strategies come in...

A NEW STORE TALK SITE;;;;;;

http://strictlybusiness.ipbfree.com/index.php?act=idx

where you can talk to other stores.....

word on the street.... vera report....... carol who works here at the store went to the big vera bradley outlet sale yesterday.....she said the crowd was way down....and that the stock didnt look like returns because she saw big unopened boxes under tables....also said there werent as many people buying huge piles like last year..... also she said the hottest items were;;;;glasses cases,umberellas, dog collars and curling iron covers......

then when she got home they had sent an email aout that they were taking further markdowns......bags she got for 18 on the sale day were 10.....

we dont sell vera but i have friends who do....and this info is mainly for them...

more bad advice...marketing....

i visit a couple of cyber pLaces which are all about marketing.. one is a big pink girly foo foo site............and another, a good teck site full of internet marketers....and there are other places too where they encourage marketing-- first and foremost... ....from selling you a site, to selling you a webinar, to sending you to a marketing retreat...its endless.......,.... and often very authoritative as they push marketing as the most important part of a business... advice like ... live your pink dream...market right and it will happen.... keep on trying..buy this webinar....get your google up etc etc... market market market...

now for my DEBUNKING..
.take me...i was hurt in first grade by my music teacher.she kind of called me a liar.....i was so bad at singing she thought i was faking it, she didnt believe i couldnt sing the nbc notes.....then there is this BOYLE woman....ok, lets say we both have a dream of being famous singers....and we both try to get national attention....we both have the same idea, we both have the same marketing plan...it works.......we both get to the big tryout..... our marketing was equal...
but i fall flat , they heckle me, ..
and then she comes on to show her thing...and this happens.... [click below]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxPZh4AnWyk
to me this shows your actual product , what you are presenting is the CRUCIAL THING...no matter what the experts say...if its crapola, like my singing voice, its not going to happen.the market is cruel......no matter how good the marketing...

so imho... DONT TAKE MARKETING ADVICE FROM MARKETERS.... until after you have the good enough product... do your job first.... get critical , is your thing really a good fit for the market.... dont ask the marketers ...duh... ....... its your job to know your product and your field and your target customers..the marketing guys probably dont really know your field.....and its their job to help you market to your field...... ..
.
green oak markets all the time....we do a huge lot of marketing....im not against marketing ...but i keep my main focus on my store and how its really working.. .. so i have something to market....

WORD ON THE STREET

WE SELL TO A GUY WHO DOES SHOWS ALL around THE COUNTRY AND I LOVE GETTING HIS REPORTS.....HE JUST GOT BACK FROM THE BIG FLEA IN TEXAS , MARBURGER MAYBE?, AND THE BIG ONE IN ATLANTA..LAKELAND I THINK...

the pic isnt him ...but you get the idea..... he has a box truck...

his report this time was...[ the dealer buzz...]

***its all about white....duh ... tone on tone...not pure ...like the peacock park booth probably...

***grey is over, ha!!! i just painted a beautiful vanity french grey...

****never utter the word shabby....we all still carry the look but shes in bankruptsy and even worse its in target...and to my buddy and i , we know we carried it, along with lots of the antique world, way before she got into the picture.... and think the look is still really strong...im going to have a lot of it as long as it keeps selling thats for sure....white has been around for hundreds of years....i love english country and if thats not shabby i dont know what is!!..love it...

****the texas show was a big dissappointment....not as much buying as usual ...lots of his usual big wholesale buyers just werent there....dropped off the face of the earth as he says...

but he did get to party with the big shots in a tent with booze.... which he loves....even tho his opinion of the famose who arent really in the actual business of selling and are the medias new experts on the antique and decorating business isnt too high....TO PUT IT MILDLY..

..he knew a guy who sold a light fixture for 32,000$$$ and we groaned at that...i forgot to ask him if he sold his deer head painted like a holstein...white with spots... maybe you saw him...anyway its always so nice to hear his take on the world.....

****the big chicago show he does got cancelled...the botanical garden show..where bunny williams husband had a booth.!!!...i got to see that show 2 yrs ago!!!omg.... garden stuff from the castles of europe..bunny williams had a metal full size dog for 6500$ there..... and our stuff too in franks booth...he buys most of our neatest decorator stuff and also much of our industrial stuff....

*****the atlanta show....... not too good either.......

***he thinks antiques has hit the wall...and hes retiring in a year or 2...i will miss him so much...i learn the trends from him....hes been into industrial for several years, white for ages too, and knows a lot of big time decorators.. and hes a long time customer and friend...

****2 people have been telling me about pink and orange and amy butler.... the new colors for the 30 and unders.....im not sure how to incorporate this info...but i have to respect it, knowing my sources...and my local support is definitely young mothers.....im a lot more at home with frank and the steampunkers ....dang...

*** im hearing some good.....but not enough...

if feels like about a C- kind of start for the year....

i have some buddies who are doing great...and boy is it good to hear from them.... i know its not all bad.....2 old friends on the new strictly business forum are actually up ...i really listen to them.....

something to join

http://the350project.net/home.html
this sounds like a good promotion for us with stores...

AND HERE IS A NEW RETAIL BLOG...SHE HAS 2 STORES... and a fun view of the world... http://busybeingfriv.blogspot.com/

raise your prices

well, im hearing this in advice to stores to help them survive.... and i just dont buy it.... heres one example im seeing against this idea .......we wholesale and very few are buying..... the main ones left are the cheapest guys...the ones who sell in the mid to low range.....they are the cheapest buyers and dont mark up much....one bought all my flow blue and another bought all my crocks...... so, by cheap i dont mean they dont carry the good high class stuff....they do....and have the money to buy it....but they buy it right and sell it right...
thats a good survival plot in antiques...anyway..... and its always been a good plot for our store....
....YOU CAN COME HERE ,,,, http://strictlybusiness.ipbfree.com/index.php?act=idx for lots of store talk....its just starting and needs more talkers.....!! give it a try....

hard time plans......

its pretty bad here in the hoosier state...and we are feeling the crunch ....im hoping the weather has a lot to do with it....but for now we are hanging in there and doing some things differently.....things that i hope help us in these hard times.....our state is truly hurting....and waiting for worse ahead becasue of the auto industry situation....
but here are some things
THAT SHOULD HELP
***FLUFFING UP all the merchandise as much as possible....rehabbing, repainting,bringing out of the deep corners, refluffing.... like making new wreaths out of the parts and pieces we have...
*****CLEANING , oiling up and small repairs....this kindof thing can make a big difference with our inventory
**REPRICE...this im doing to things that have been here too long....im pricing way lower to just get rid of them..... i like this better than putting so much on sale...
****digging into spare vintage stuff at home to put back on the selling floor...... this has really added up....like a barbie pile i paid 400$$ for and several big oil paintings i never found out about, and some cars we paid a few hundred for....plus lots of little stuff
****MALLS... i dont care for malls , they are so much work for the money... we sell more in a weekend than i will probably get in a month out of the booths.......but in this economy im going into 2 again.....and hoping for 1000 a month, that would be good!!!....from each....we have our garden iron in them....im not trying antiques....the idea of someone else selling our stuff is pretty nice....and im really in a good location in one...countryside on us 30...east of pierceton..... its a really nice mall...
****ETSY... we are trying this...with my dil...and with stuff thats little and just laying around..
***CUTTING BACK ON SPENDING.....I HATE THIS PART...NEEDLESS TO SAY.....im really cutting back on several companies...and watching my ordering ...
****PRICING A BIT LOWER.... especially on average things......
*****and the biggie ONLINE SELLING... with my dil in charge and doing all the work...... who knows...i have resisted this for a long time....but she is proposing a new way to do it, that cuts down the stores cost ...

****CUTTING EXPENSES ..... we dont want to lay off and we cant change our biggest expenses...health insurance, house payments, payroll, etc etc , so we are trying to watch the little things .
im not into panic mode at all.......our retail only down around 4 %.....im a little stressed....but hey im type A so its no biggie to me..im always stressed and worrying and pushing.....i figure WE can just make it work...lol... im more likely to do another swot test than mope around or feel hopeless........i really think we can figure out something that fits our situation.......like we always have.... we have had to change before and we have wonderful customers... the really serious thing for us is the loss of much of our wholesale....the stores and show dealers we used to sell to have just slowed way down or closed....thats hard to change....or fix....i love wholesale the most....but im going for better and better retail.... and i think we have the staff to do that...

the good thing.. is this should build some better habits.... im very good at spending..THATS MY STRONG SUIT .maybe this will teach me to be a little more selective....

so im into HANG IN THERE and hard work and persistence.....

word on the street...

im hearing some good reports from show people.... it tells me folks are still shopping.... especially the adventurous shoppers we know....the ones looking for something really interesting and different...
and even tho our wholesale is down terribly...our retail is still good.... and it has a lot to do with our young homeowners.... discussed here by my buddy feathers ;
http://strictlybusiness.ipbfree.com/index.php?act=idx she talks about attracting the 20 to 30 somethings... and why they are still buying...
i cant post it exactly but i think its under.. hows it going...
we are getting lots of young marrieds....probably mostly from our old customers families and word of mouth.
that strictly business forum is only days old...and room for lots more members!!!! PLEASE CHECK IT OUT....


im trying to figure out some plots about the indie shoppers..... they love it if they get to our store....but not sure how to advertize to get them initially......

and heres a good discussion of the great outside the box kind of shopping....AT THE FLEA MARKET.... read all about it here from a fellow junker.. http://vintageindie.typepad.com/vintage_indie/page/2/ its on march 27....

. and heres her blog http://www.rhubarb-reign.blogspot.com/

outside the box.....DO YOUR OWN THING

one of my favorite ads is this girl and the words ;

you can DO YOUR OWN THING at greenoak...

its kind of perfect for our adventurous customers....

to me this is a great time to be outside the box..... the old retail is kind of boring and over in a lot of ways....

we cant be like the department stores....because they have half off sales all the time...

we cant be like tjmaxx and hobby lobby...because they are way cheaper and full of our old companies merchandise...and its totally on sale or will be...

we sure dont want to look like hallmark....because its so everywhere and boring.......

we cant depend on our old favorite companies, they are gone or now selling to the big boxes or online..

and .

people are so ready for not made in china.....

SO, the best thing might just be to be more you...

MY PLANS ARE TO GO WITH THE THINGS THAT MAKE US DIFFERENT....

that would be...

..antiques at the new lower prices

wierd cheap stuff

fun barn relics, for porch and patio

new and old together, show the antique furniture in modern ways

fabulous new companies....if i can find them

and rehabbed and recycled things....this is big and growing for us...

and the biggest neatest instore displays i can manage...

and reasonable prices....not the right time for gallery pricing for me...

.

a retailer forum!!!!!

YAY....A NEW RETAILER FORUM IS STARTING... http://strictlybusiness.ipbfree.com/index.php?act=idx

started up by ..susan at the http://www.thedutchrose.blogspot.com/ ....shes great and hoping to make a good place to talk about our business issues....im really looking forward to it...and hope lots of store owners and other kinds of retailers will find it..
hope to see you over there.... and here.... of course..

the shabby castle section...

im not sure what to call our white section...its shabby, french , european rustic, country cottage.... but its filling up...this month we got the frnch dancing girls....they are big mats....

and lotsof gold crowns,and statuary and another huge white mirror,.,,this one is 5 ft wide.....

also painted a chunky fancy vanity in my version of french grey... kind of grey and tan and white...........................

..

we watch so many english and french movies this style is looking better and better...

also i sell to an antique show dealer who sells to the big decorators who come to his shows, like lakewood in atlanta and one in texas.. and he looks for antiques in this style and industrial also ....so i hear about it a lot....

plus, online, im seeing wonderful stores and tours of all this style.... like here http://euroantiquemarket.blogspot.com/ thanks linda..

plus i have a wild wonderful customer and antique buddy who makes and sells the dancing french girl bamboo mats above....she loves french antiques and sometimes my big fantasy pieces and takes her customers to paris!!!! http://www.peacockparkdesign.blogspot.com/

of course im here in corn country....but at least it will be eye candy for my customers...until the right person comes along...

THE TROUBLE WITH MARCH... march is always hard for us...in january we go to chicago and buy for the season.. ...and it is coming in and has come in....also we have bought our huge supply of garden iron...which is always a great seller for us.....the trouble is that none of this sells much until april and may.........so we are caught with big bills and slow sales...a normal situation for march..... its kind of a snafu kind of deal....

..im not whining, .. but this year we also have the us economy and the weather, we had many very impossible weather days last winter, a sub zero stretch in january , and the economy has touched about everyone i know ...

then there is the whole bank crisis, which seems to be changing our credit cards and the interest rates we are being offered..some have gone up unexpectedly ..at first w e just dropped them but now dh is looking at it differently...

,.....he says that dropping them might be bad because your credit rating is affected by what percent of your available credit you are using....so if you drop a crappy card [one who raised the rate a bunch] that can hurt your credit score...since you would be depleting your pool of available credit.....so now we are keeping cards we dont really want..

we do need credit in march..i hate to use it.....but thats a normal part of our year......

.

im ready for some sun ..

THE DAILY GRUMP....im a virgo and picky so griping comes easy to me..i try not to be like alice roosevelt...who said if you have something bad to say , come sit by me...

...heres todays gripe ...i carry about 3 patterns of placemats ,runners, napkins, with a company....and just ordered about 300$ in the 3 patterns...they are pretty springy colors, mostly pink for my foo foo room...well my big spring order came today and no placemats for one of the patterns and no runners for another..and no aprons either......so i have 24 napkins and no placemats, etc......my customers sure cant buy a big set of any of the patterns.....and who knows when i will get the rest... its so frustrating.... i dont need this in the fall.... i need it now...it happened last year too.... the initials are g.f. ...i like their style quality and price...

my strawman for today

today i want to knock down some advice i heard online.. ...since he isnt here to defend himself he can be my strawman..

its from an accountant...

heres the advice to a store ....RAISE YOUR PRICES A LOT AND SUCK UP TO THE RICH PEOPLE.....he suggested a 3 to 4x markup over wholesale...

.PRICES....first of all if a store isnt making enough money it could be for many reasons...like, under capitalization, the wrong product or not enough customers or bad recipe in general......if your customers arent buying the thing you picked out why would they buy it if it were higher? you might really need better suppliers and more customers, or a better idea in general....

there are 3 ways i see to make more money...one is to raise prices, one is to buy cheaper, one is to turn your inventory over more times.....a large jump in prices would be my last choice ...

i would love to double my current mark up.. now that would be great but where am i going to get that product? or that customer? remember it has to sell...customers arent stupid, the good ones shop everywhere and all over the map....

much better would be to do the math and figure out how much more you would make if you increased your turnover..then have that be your goal.....lots better path than recklessly raising prices....imho... or look harder for that product you really can raise the markup on....but not across the board...and best of all would be to bring in more buyers....

..

one more thought ...what if your landlord or your suppliers get the advice to double their prices and do it......would you notice, would you care..? does your answer mean that you are poor or cant afford the raise? would they get your business?

PEOPLE...his advice to join where the rich people hang out... and generally suck up to them is pretty wierd....they arent stupid...they might not let you into the country club, lol..it might cost thousands to get in... ...you dont need a makeover.....your effort might seem totally phony and forced and they could see right thru it....

...we sell to lots of rich people and dont do any of that...we are in a lake district...with some million $$ homes....i think they come here because they like our store and our stuff....they really dont want to golf with me or go on a cruise with me.....its all about them all the time...they can shop anywhere and are bored easily.... the nice thing is if they want what you are offering they will have the money to buy it... .i try hard to get wonderful things for them....

they are pretty used to being buttered up but why? and isnt that a really hard road to go down? maybe they would like things on approval, limitless credit, revamping their purchases, special hours, wide open return privledges........ etc etc...im not going there..

im not sure the accountant has known many viable retail stores....our store makes us a good income, , and his advice seems foolhardy..is there really a connection with overpricing items and success? i know several viable retail stores and they dont run that way.......especially this year...

..i think this advice is kind of narrow and rash and probably comes from the accountants view of numbers and him seeing lots and lots of stores go belly up....and him thinking if they made more on each sale they would have survived....thats very true but....but it leaves out a whole lot of retail reality.....starting with you have to make a whole lot of sales ...

another thought on socializing with the customers...or trying to...i have to watch my employees about that....to me the customers are in here to talk about themselves not us....and i have had a few employees who act like it is a social situation and would gladly talk for a long time about all their ideas and experiences....to me thats all off topic, the topic being the customer...and the main topic being what are they considering buying....and presenting our things as well as possible...

KIND OF LIKE CHEERS

we are kind of like cheers, WE REALLY KNOW OUR CUSTOMERS , lots of them anyway....with lots of them there is an on going conversation ..we seem to pick up the conversation where we left off the last time they were here........i know whos building, whos remodelling, whos getting new diggs,...maybe i dont know their name but i probably know what so many of them like..what colors, what style...all kinds of stuff........just think if you went into a store and they remembered the colors or what was bugging you in your sunroom.......luckily it seems to come natural here......

. today 2 told me about their operations ,one i waited on because she couldnt walk very well yet,.... another mentioned the 45 great eastlake chairs he bought from us 4 yrs ago, another came out looking for the perfect thing for her husbands ashes....that happened last week too....another old guy gave me a bunch of watch parts, for free a few weeks ago....and wanted to see what people do with them...so i showed him some punky/funky robots with watch parts for heads on the computer....and a couple of regulars came thru and griped because i didnt have anything new for them..another said i was kind of gimpy...hurt my foot, one was amazed we hadnt gotten the stuff that was stolen back from the cops, and another said i looked tired...also there was the flow of bad husband and golf jokes , mostly started by dh......most of the buying was done by couples...but we had lots of 3 generations in too...lots of babies today... a 15 yr, at least, customer called from arkansas to buy something he missed last week, hes on his way to the big texas show......its pretty neat...

.we probably had 100 thru today...and probably half of them have been coming for over 5 yrs and several for over 10....almost everyone bought something....

my point is that our stores can be a lot different than the totally regimented hallmarks, tjmaxxes, hobby lobbys out there....we can be special, suprising, inspiring and a comfortable place for our customers..

and i think we make our stores better by being out there.....they say the gardner walking thru the garden is the best manure.....and i think its that way for store owners too....if we are out there on the front line, we see so much, catch problems early, see what needs to be done......

....i cant imagine getting the info i need to make all the decisions we have to make without the constant flow of info and feedback from the buyers..PLUS YOUR STORES FUTURE DEPENDS ON THOSE PEOPLE.....i love being on the floor....and i really love when the customers like my workers too....

i care a lot for our customers, but i tell them no all the time...im not a pushover at all....i gladly give them coffee and cookies and a free bathroom ...thats no biggie here..lots of them stay way over an hour... but we have our policies and are pretty strict about them.....

its not perfect of course....but i easily ignore the grumpy ones and stay away from the loud babies...

wanna see my swot test....

you might want to try this...it kind of clarifies a lot....its kind of ikky to do..

heres a better description of it...http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_05.htm..

mainly i just make the lists and think about it...heres my

SWOT TEST

STRENGTHS...

family goals,

customers, especially the long term ones.

huge inventory.

reputation as a fun place to go,

reputation for reasonable prices..

our workers....

our suppliers....

wierd inventory..optimism, our events

, the billboards,

the store divisions[foofoo, country, key west, rough room,,etc] good summer plot as in our garden iron.

WEAKNESSES..

.no budget,

fair to poor management skills,

location...

OPPORTUNITIES

.A mall booth im real excited about , etsy..publishing abilities...networking...10,000 sq ft to play around with...a good project with a new nice person..4000 on the mailing list

THREATS

age ,

unknowns,

the highway might close off our road,

the economy...indianas economy

big companies selling to big box stores...suppliers higher than traffic will bear...

well one could go on and on....but it puts your mind on lots of ideas in a slightly organized way....

relationships....

we have 3 or 4 relationships that bring us thousands of $$$$$....

they are long term....they are mutually beneficial....

***one revolves around one man, hes about 70...he has recruited a family member and his lodge ...he is a mini factory for us and produced way over $100,000 in sales for us last year...we have a totally common goal...to make money ...the good thing here is the man had a few years of retail selling at shows and doesnt like it...he realizes the difference between retail and wholesale...its mutually good.......i want to be totally reliable to him... i dont want him looking for another customer...this is about a 10 yr relationship......hes built this business with us, hes no handwringer, he gets things done and sticks to our deal.....all the executive talk is between him and me....the communication lines stay pretty good for the most part...

***another is our amish connection ...this is jons project ...they dont even have a phone or a car...... jon sees him every week and they build for us....it gives their family work,,,and they treat us fairly in all ways...... it gives us a fabulous product and thousands of $$$ every year.... ... .... we are reliable to each other...this is about a 5 yr relationship

the other i can think of is also jons, our chicago connection....this guy brings us things regularly..if money is tight we try and always have some for him....and we try to be as good a customer as we can...he brings us lotsof big things not available around here... this is about a 3 yr relationship...

i really like to think long term and deal with as few guys as possible.... it has to be a good deal for both sides...and it has to be for something we really want and at a price we can get......

these 3 things have enriched our store a whole lot....and made us different and more flexible..

i think all three of these people were out there for anyone to find, and we were just open enough to realize they were worth a try, and on both sides we were willing to go thru the hard part of figuring out what would work, and if we could work together, and then developing ideas and slogging thru the experimenting process to get to the good stuff we have now ...lots of problems before getting into a good stable situation.......

...... we are always out there networking and have our ear to the ground as much as possible...

others we have tried have failed..

and a few we have committed to when we shouldnt have...when the profit margin just wasnt there...

we are always out there networking and roaming around in our field....who knows what great connection we might make next time or be too dumb to see!!! it keeps it interesting...

ADVICE LEACH....

im a sponge for business advice....i want to hear it all.....

heres THE BEST ADVICE I
HEARD LAST YEAR....

now this is kind of duh! but it made some things so clear to me...and helped me move on....into a little better path......the good idea was to put your money and time and inventory into whats on the customers mind at the time...so
thats why ...



***right now my money is pouring into spring and summer stuff....my customers are getting outside and fluffing up their porches, gardens and patios.... they own homes , thats what kind of thing they are interested in right now...
***thats why i wouldnt waste time on a christmas in july project ,why would i advertize christmas stuff in july when i have summer stuff to advertize and sell...it would be like advertizing sweaters instead of halter tops if i were doing clothes.......


**and this was a biggie for me....thats why im not advertizing so much in the slow months and quite a bit more in the good months or at the start of the good months...in the past i would use too much ad money in jan and feb.... this idea made me see that it will be much better to buy ads now, at the start of my big warm weather season....or at the start of my big fall season.
**2 of our annual events hit this idea perfectly...our garden party and our christmas open house...these bring in hundreds of customers.....


sorry to say, i dont remember who threw that little ditty out but i thnk its made me lots of sales..so thank you whoever you are...
basically of course i would like to get rid of some more of my winter merchandise but i better be focussing on my summer stuff and do a good job at that....

high end buyers

i have been suprised at the high end places that have slowed down now...like neiman marcus even.....last week i talked to a mother whos dh had a real good probably safe job....BUT they have lost over half of the college money they have saved for their kids over the last 15 yrs.... in the stock market...
so thats where shes coming from when she decides what to spend on...

what good did college do?

i went to stephens college in missouri...all girls!!.... and got an aa....then to manchester college in indiana and didnt graduate..got jon.....ive never had a job that required anything....actually never had a job since the 70s...thankfully...........but what it did was like a good education should...it showed me i dont know everything and not to be too sure of things and to look at the other sides of things.......it pushed my desire to explore, to learn etc etc.... and slightly opened the doors and slightly showed the paths out there....i will always remember a humanities class at stephens...the prof said look out the window ...at the building across the way...and he said after this section on architecture, that building will look so much different..... he was so right...anyway this is my plug for learning...and i think i got into the right business for a curious mind..the antique world..

.. my favorite role models at 20 were ayn rand and martin luther king and at 12 sheena queen of the jungle and nancy drew....

my education was in secondary ed...i did my student teaching and i could see right away i wouldnt want to be in any tight organization...like a school system... .. i did like the kids a lot....also i had no domestic skills....so my challenge was to do my own thing, somehow....

scary

our numbers are only down 5%....but it just doesnt feel very good out there.... the traffic thru the week is pretty bad....im reserving judgement/panic until the weather breaks...its really been a hard winter...

.. i think they are still going to be buying for their houses....and we have some great things right now...

my plot has been to keep the prices low as possible...and the mark up up.....also to cut out some marginal things....and a real good thng has been to just get over some things and put them into the half price room.... if its over a year whats the point of keeping something?...that room is a draw....but i sure wouldnt want it to be the main thing......our half price room looks like crap....but it doesnt seem to bother anyone....i cant be paying someone to fluff up that part of the store , when we are behind in other parts...

we've worked thru the winter with no layoffs........

.. which im glad about..and boy are they being nice to me... ..the plot has been to

fluff up the inventory...weve made fun key west signs, window art, big metal signs, big metal flowers, archetectural coatracks, dabbled into vinyl words on windows,and reworkked lotsof stuff from the rough room.... and started a big etsy project..using totally low level misc that we have already.... all this has increased our inventory in nice ways...and made all the work hours productive even tho we werent full of customers...thats the hope anyway....also ive branched out on the internet....a ning and a couple of new forums..

...

im going with .

.. keep calm and carry on...

its so clear that people are worried about their money.... around here everybody knows folks who have lost their job or waiting for that to happen....im really trying to be carefull...........

heres a great post by a woman in business....retail resolutions..... http://boutiqueindustry.blogspot.com/

whats going on in your neck of the woods?

advice for women ..+ venting

i think we need a forum for stores..... if anyone has heard of one i would love to hear about it...

all i can find are girly forums , forums for newbies, forums for work at home moms.... forums for startups..online forums...thats all fine but not me, im established...committed.and have a big store on my hands that needs to keep on going....i need my bliss to keep on working....i want to hear about things that are working in good functioning stores.... a forum for independant businesses ,with stores who are making it, or invested in making it, and facing all the issues our store is facing......i want a place where you can get real feedback from others in the same boat.... ....positive or be careful....about all the new ideas we are trying...

ive read so many business and marketing books...and generic expert advice is fine..but im not needing more expert advice....,im hoping to find a place with on the ground practical advice from people who go to the same shows i do, know my customers, know my field etc etc...,,, a forum with other businesses .....

can you tell ive had it with the **girly*** live your dream**go girl** advice?

i do believe all that about living your dream....but it doesnt work by itself....the market is a cruel place and will leave you in the dust......if you pick the wrong thing it wont sell, if you dont have enough inventory you will never make minimum wage, if it all falls the bills still need to be paid...your customers will let you know if your theories are working.....

.i just left a forum,run by a queen bee, supposedly about supporting women in business , where any actual business talk was looked at as negative /bad......and looked at as doom and gloom...only positive girly nice thoughts allowed .....anything else gets deleted......and they have kicked off several members who i thought were very popular and fun to read, ....they shocked me there,... it was so mild... nothing like the great discussions we used to have on country business.... ......they dont want any talk from someone like me...a critical , wonky, type a ,worrying virgo.... who barely baby talked to her own babies...

.then i tried another forum ,mainly for startups, run by experts....important info but boring..ive read all that ....

and if you look at the shelter magazines and try getting advice from their experts and stars.....beware......take a look at how long they have been in business...do they really have a financially viable thing going? ..i want to hear from someone who has at least 5 yrs under their belt, not one or 2...someone taking a paycheck home...

basically i think most of the business advice aimed at women out there is very shallow......and a huge disservice to a lot the great women out there who are ready to jump into business....and maybe use up lots of family money..we wholesale , and i know a lot of women in that boat...they /we need a lot more realistic advice... i wonder where this rosy idea of business a dvice comes from ? good copy? to sell their own services? who knows...

i used to be on country business forum...it was so good...lots of good store talk...you could see the posts, the moderator was great and stayed out of the way, , the tekk part worked well, it was a bunch of stores with lots in common, where over a few years most issues were discussed ..its all changed now.... ....

s

im on a great tekk forum....but they are all guys and not about my junky, shabby. romantic house stuff world....

so im kind of homeless in the forum department right now....

and i really miss not having one....

how about giftbeat? anything going on good there?

oh well...off to work!!! im going out to stirr up up my bliss....we got our huge garden iron delivery yesterday....

....

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....