Why Show Up?

Today at the store, we had not one, not two, but three repeat customers come through our doors. They were greeted like family.

Just like they should be.

And the sales we’re good.

It didn’t happen by magic or some kinda voodoo.

It happened by showing up… Every single day.

You must focus on what is absolutely critical to your business. If you a blogger spending that 30 minutes a day to flush out a blog post is key to your success. A realtor paycheck is directly related to how many lead gen activities you do. In retail keeping the door open is vital.

Am I saying it has to be you ringing the register. No.

What I’m saying is to step back sometimes and see if what you’re working on is really moving your business forward.

In Mastering the Rockefeller Habits (A fantastic book by the way) the author talks about how just doing 1 thing that keeps your business moving forward has a dramatic impact by the end of the year. Think about it. 365 things that are absolutely nagging you about your business will be fixed one year from now if you implement this.

But, you must show up to do them.

In the store next to me, it has closed 4 and opened 5 times since we started our business.

The people who ran those businesses didn’t show up. They are no longer there.

That is the consequence of not showing up in the retail business.

Another, more positive example is a wholesale supplier that updates their website everyday with at least 2 dozen new products. Clearly that doesn’t work in every industry. Imagine if you were Net Jets, introducing a new program everyday would be really strange if not corporate suicide. But, you get my point. You have to do the most important thing in your business everyday.

Today, was a good day for the business. Tomorrow? Who knows.

But, at least I’ll be there to find out.

– Mark

Beginning With The End In Mind

At a recent surf and fashion show...

I was at an industry surf and fashion show this past weekend and got some decent ideas for some new niches, but more importantly got to see the latest color trends, and what happening in the marketplace.

In case you were wondering vintage colors is big this year. Golds, browns, oranges, and greens. You know, like the 70s. Also, pinks and ocean blues are hot too.

But that’s not what I want to talk to you about in this post.

Its about beginning every project your working on with the end customer in mind.

Sooooo many wholesalers got this wrong over the weekend. They only thought of me the buyer.

But, they forgot they are in. The middle position.

I have to buy off them and then retail to the end consumer. So, really the end customer is not me it’s the customer I’m selling to. They priced like the end consumer is me.

There was one person selling a watch for $8.50, with retail of $20. Advertised their own URL on the product itself. By the way, they sell retail on that site as well. Didn’t know any demographics sales data, or anything that would help me make an informed decision. Rigid ordering like $500 minimums. And further more, they were rude about it. Oh, and no protection.

Needless to say we said NEXT!

What was really horrendous is that this was not an anomaly. A lot of folks were doing this. It must be some weird epidemic or something, because what would posses a company to give the royal shaft to their retailers like this?

What can you learn from this?

There is hope.

There was still buying going on (me included). As long as there is commerce going on you can make a few bucks out there. Also, with all these bad wholesalers (and retailers) you can get in a position to set your self away from the pack by actually thinking about what the end is.

Ask yourself what position am I in? Answer in earnest and adjust your strategy accordingly. A great example of this that was not just based on price (which i hate competing on) is great displays for the product that was geared toward consumers. The display was so clever that it eliminated many of the objections that I had about the product, because it took up less sq ft, and was very inviting for customer to shop from.

Buy the items for a reasonable price, that looks great, and I can get it again and again. Sounds like a winner in my books. This is an example of a company that actually thought about it.

Another was less sophisticated but was very friendly and professional service, great pricing which left a good profit margin for me, and a very competitive price for the customers, offered protection, and the product is hot. Another great deal for me and my customers.

Starting to see a trend here?

What can you do to give value? Beginning with the end in mind you can always see some way to add value to your customer.

Until next time, hopefully you got something out of this post (rant). Leave your comments below!

– Mark