7 Tips to Help You Prepare for the Recovery Marathon

Short term thinking is going to  damage more business than coronavirus! Of course you’re trying to scrape together sales today and  recoup the money you lost during lockdown. But more importantly, you need to be looking at the next 18 months and ways to rebuild and reinvent your business for a new (and exciting) reality!

Here are a few tips to get you started in your long term thinking strategy.

1.       Preserve capital
Slash expenses wherever you can and hold on to your cash with a tight fist. We don’t know how rough the recession is going to be or what changes you’ll need to make to your future business that will require money.

2.       Be ready to answer this question
“What do you sell and to whom? “  That answer shouldn’t be the same as it was pre-COVD.

3.       Seek clarity in small bites
None of us seems to have a working crystal ball right now and therefore, none of us knows what the future is going to look like. (Anyone who tells you they have the answers is lying!) So each time you see a clear path, even it’s only to the next step, take pride in that milestone

4.       Understand that recovery is not linear
Just because we may hit bottom, doesn’t mean it’s a straight shot back up. There may be plateaus. There may be changes in course.  Instead of being surprised, be prepared.

5.       Get real data on the situation

Take your personal life, business and perspective out of the equation and research how COVID has affected your category of business and your community. Is unemployment higher because a large company had massive layoffs? Were cases relatively mild? Try to drill down to understand how quickly your community will recover and get a better understanding of how to best serve them.

6.       Rehire carefully and with intention

Rebuilding your team is a fantastic opportunity to create a new culture that will successfully suit your future business.

7.       Cultivate your own war room advisors

This is absolutely no time to go it alone! Gather together business neighbors, friends, even customers to discuss the future from various points of view. You’re almost guaranteed to find new ideas and inspiration by doing this.

It’s time to let go of the business you used to have and embrace the new opportunities that lie ahead.

Until next time remember,
You can do this!
Angel

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3 Most Common Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make With Their Video Marketing

For those of you exploring video marketing, Nina Froriep
Visual Storyteller at Clock Wise Productions talks about the 3 tops mistakes to avoid.

One of the most powerful and effective management tools is the debrief. It is an important way to end a particular program or sales cycle by analyzing performance and brainstorming opportunities to improve.

As you end the Christmas sales season, this is the perfect time to debrief about while it’s still fresh in your mind. In the future, you may want to schedule debrief sessions monthly or as often as once a week, depending on the type of business you run.

Gather your staff together for an undisturbed hour or so and review the different aspects of your business over the holiday season, i.e. customer service, product mix, customer satisfaction, sales goals, marketing effectiveness, etc.

Ask the basic questions about each area:

What did we do right?
What could we have done better?

In the debrief process, there is no “wrong.” The key is for everyone feel safe enough to be honest about their perspectives and learn from the experience.

Here are some of the questions for discussion:

Did we meet our goal If so, what elements of our plan helped us get there? If not, what prevented us from hitting those numbers?

Was our marketing effective? Did we see an increase in customers, sales, foot traffic, average sale?

Did we properly track and monitor these efforts? Which programs worked best?  Whichever programs we decide to keep, how will we modify and or improve them next year? Are there any new programs we to add to the mix next year?

Did we have the right product? The right price? Did customers seem put off by any particular items or category of items? Suggestions for purchasing next year? What do we need more of? Less?

Did everyone meet their sales goals? For those who did, what do you think were the reasons behind that achievement? For those who didn’t, what obstacles prevented you from reaching the goal? What can we do to better train or help the staff to meet and exceed goals in 2020?

The purpose of the debrief is not punitive. It is to get honest input, to gather information from everyone’s perspective to help you make better/improved decisions next year.

The key to a successful debrief is for everyone to get as specific as possible with their feedback. They can’t just say “We didn’t reach our goal because there wasn’t enough traffic.” If they think there wasn’t enough traffic, encourage everyone to dig deeper. For example, did our marketing efforts drive traffic? If not, what could we do better? Was our conversion rate up?  If average sale was down, is that an opportunity to adjust your pricing strategy.

Be sure to write everything down in detail so you can revisit the suggestions as you plan for 2020.

Commit to the debrief process to gain feedback that will improve performance not just next holiday season but year round.

Until next time remember,
You can do this!

Angel

10 last minute ideas to drive holiday sales!

Need some easy ideas to bring more traffic and sales to your store? Here you go!

1.  Prime your Facebook page
If you're going to start posting offers or flash sales, get page engagement up first so your future posts will get better traction. You can:
Post simple questions
Are you in the holiday spirit? Comment below

Or offer a giveaway
Comment below for a 10% off coupon

Once engagement is up, start your flash sales or other important postings.

2.  Get attention with a flash sale
Now that you’ve primed your Facebook page, hold a flash sale with offers available only to your social media followers and email subscribers.

A couple of tips:
The items you sell should be limited in quantity and available only for a limited time. This creates a sense of urgency.

You can have a flash sale for one day, or one day a week, or 7 days in row -- whatever you choose.

Promote the sale heavily ahead of time with multiple posts and emails. Remember, people are busy this time of year.

When an item is sold out, promote that as well. It reinforces the fact that quantities are limited!

You don't have to have e-commerce capabilities to have a flash sale. People can call in to reserve their purchase with a credit card and pick up in store.

Make sure the deals you offer are attention getting!

3.  Prep for weather-related issues
There's a good chance there will be some sort of weather-related problem between now and Christmas. Rain, snow and sleet can negatively impact your revenues.

Take a few minutes now to plan out a weather contingency promotion to create sales even when the weather doesn't cooperate. Here are a few ideas:

Prepare a Snow Day social media flash sale
Create the ads and emails with the deals ahead of time. Direct customers to a landing page to purchase or have them simply message you complete the purchase. Emphasize these are limited time offers customers can take advantage of while staying cozy and warm at home.

Offer video shopping
If you can make it into your store, send an email blast and post on social media that you are available to video shop and will have all purchases ready and wrapped when the weather improves.

Restaurants - promote delivery
Text, email and post to remind customers about delivery opportunities.

Don't just sit back and let the weather play havoc with your sales goals!

4. Grab and Go
With each day that passes, customers get more stressed and pressured to finish their holiday shopping.

Be sure to create a "grab and go" display of popular gifts, ready and wrapped. Offer gift baskets that are fun and unique! Add toy options that relate back to your business (i.e. toy tool kits at hardware stores). Restaurants can offer a "to go" dessert with each entree purchased.

Grab and go's are appropriate for every type of business and provide a solution for which customers will be grateful and can add substantially to revenue.

5. Sell gift cards. Every. Single. Minute.
Nearly 50 percent of gift card holders spend more than the value of the card and 75 percent of those spend 60 percent more than the value of the card! Cards don't just increase holiday sales, they bring customers back after the holiday!

Create a bonus offer on gift card sales. For example, buy $100 and get a $20 bonus card.

Offer a bonus gift card with purchase.

Train your employees to ask every single person if they’d like to purchase a gift card.

Find a way to cleverly wrap your cards so customers feel good about the purchase.

Promote, promote, promote, promote!

6. Email your VIP customers
Segment the top 20 percent of your customers and start emailing them unique messages.It doesn't necessarily need to be about discounts. Try promoting a special service or opportunity just for VIP's, perhaps a private shopping event, personal shopping or simply, "We're here to make your shopping easier!"

Let your best customers know you care about them and are there to help.

7. Hide a toy
Parents are always looking for special experiences for their kids over the holidays! You can make that happen simply by hiding small toys or gifts throughout the store. Small promotions like this insure guests will spend more time in your store and perhaps find their own treasure to purchase. Enhance the promotion by offering to donate a toy to charity for every toy found in the store. It's a simple and inexpensive way to drive traffic, create goodwill and put a smile on customers' faces!

8. There's nothing that makes people want something more than knowing others want it too!
Keep your followers updated on what's hot at your store or restaurant. Whether it's the most popular flavor of ice cream, a sweater that's flying off the shelves or a gift item that customers are raving about -- post about it.

9. Last minute employee bonus
Get your employees motivated with last minute bonus opportunities. Whether it’s $25 for exceeding gift card sales or a more substantial percentage of over-budget sales during the last week of the season, give them a little push to keep momentum up during the last days of the holiday selling season.

10. Be responsive
With more traffic in store, you’re probably focused on on-site customers and attending to their needs. But you also need to be prepared for an onslaught of inquiries from multiple platforms. Whether it be by email, Facebook messenger, Instagram DM's or through your website, customers will start contacting you 24 hours a day with questions ranging from your hours to product availability.And here's the thing -- when these digital questions are asked, customers expect an immediate (or reasonable) response time or they'll just move on.

Be sure to assign staff members to monitor these platforms continuously and offer timely - and engaging responses. For example, if you received an inquiry as to whether or not a product is in stock, don't just reply, "Yes." Ask the customer what time they'd like to pick it up! Online channels are a gold mine of potential business not to be ignored!

Wishing you a great holiday season!

Until next time remember,
You can do this!
Angel

Take a hot minute to figure out why you don't have enough time!

Warning! This blog contains tough love.

When you tell me “I don’t have time,” I get a little nuts.

  I don’t have time to implement new ideas.

I don’t have time to study my POS reports.

I don’t have time to map out a social media strategy.  

I don’t have time to run my business correctly!

WTH?

I’m not completely insensitive. I get that you’re busy. And overwhelmed. And perhaps confused about which step to take first.  So here are my best pieces of advice to help you dig out of the time spiral.  

1.  Put on your CEO hat.

Remember, you are the only one with the power – and the responsibility – to turn your business into everything you want it to be.

If you’re inundated with details and non-revenue producing tasks, it’s time to recalibrate.  Your job is to steer the high level thinking that produce maximum sales results. This is a non-negotiable.

2.  Stop.

Now, take a hot minute and figure out how you are spending your time. Keep a running daily calendar of tasks for about a week.  How much time are you on the sales floor? Doing administrative work? Ordering? Paying bills? Scheduling? Training? What is eating up your time? (BTW, serving your customers shouldn’t be considered a time suck. That’s kind of why you’re in business, isn’t it?)

3.  Figure out what you like doing.

What made you want to get into business in the first place?  You are, after all the CEO of your company and running it shouldn’t be torture. You should be able to do the things you like and enjoy — and are good at!

4.  Get creative about finding help.

How can you offload operational tasks and the duties you hate or aren’t great at when you can’t afford extra help?

Utilize current employees.
Most stores and restaurants have slow times and you can schedule certain tasks during those hours. Get your employees on board with a list of operational duties. Just 30 minutes per employee can make a huge difference! They can do everything from prepare weekly schedules to taking photos for social media posts to merchandising and reviewing POS reports for trends and opportunities.

If you need more help and can’t afford it, start small.
For example, maybe you can’t afford a social media consultant or visual designer, but you can afford to give one of your employees an extra two hours on the schedule each week to free up your time to do this. Use the time to attend a networking breakfast plan your marketing for the next quarter or create your social media posts. That’s certain worth an extra $20 or $30!

Hire a virtual assistant
For about $25 and hour, you can have a remote assistant a couple of hours per week to handle routine and recurring tasks. 

Even if money is tight, don’t let a $50 or $100 investment get in the way of y moving your business forward. You have to shake the tree a bit to create change.

Small expenditures can have a domino effect – to help increase sales and then, in turn, afford additional help.

5.  Calendar essential tasks

Now that you’re paying for some help, take full advantage of that extra time.  Paying an employee an extra two hours? Be sure to calendar those hours for yourself. Use them to work on the CEO tasks you’ve identified. Make that commitment so you don’t get sucked into the menial again, defeating the purpose.

6. Commit to making the short term sacrifices.

If your business is failing or flailing, you have to work right now, this minute, to improve it. There is no time to waste or complain about not having time! Doing the same thing over and over again isn’t going to affect change!

Make that full court press to improve business…and make it quickly. It may take a few sleepless nights or some really busy weeks but the results will be worth it.  Not prepared to make the sacrifice? Well, then you should probably reevaluate being a business owner because there will always be cycles of ups and downs that will make extraordinary demands on you.  It’s the nature of the beast.

7.  Ask yourself every day, “ What did I do today to move my business forward?”

When you look at your daily ”to do” list, start with the items that have the potential to improve your business. It’s that simple. At the end of the day, as long as you’ve done something that builds on your business potential, you’re good!

Owning a business is hard work.  So now you have two choices. The first is to make the time to dig in and get it done. The second choice is far less appealing.  

Until next time, remember…
You can do this!
Angel