December 2008 – Page 3

Dollar Store Strategies

In the Rich 100 issue
of Canadian Business,
Dollarama Founder Larry Rossy talks strategy.

“One of Rossy’s secrets is his penchant
for reverse engineering:
he will comb the malls,
looking for $10 items
he believes he can knock off
and source from Asia
to sell for $1.
He then gets his in-house design team
to develop sharp, customized packaging
to put around the products.
Dollarama has 70 house brands,
still a novel concept
in the dollar-store world.”

From $10 to $1,
if you plan to compete on price,
that is a ratio to keep in mind.

The Small Business Mailing List

I have an email list of 1,500 readers
for my romance novels.
I contact them monthly.

1,300 of these readers
get a fairly standard form letter.
It is chatty and friendly
but still standard.
200 receive a personalized email.
I add one or two personal tweaks
to the form letter
(information tracked on their profiles
like Bella loves redheaded heroines or
Sue is a Margaret Moore fan)
so they know I’m writing directly to them.
The 200 recipients change every month.

What does this accomplish?

It makes the one on one contact
so necessary for small businesses
manageable.

The Down Times Test

Many people claimed to be
‘Buy and hold’ investors’
but when the markets took a dive,
the truth came out.
They didn’t hold,
they sold.

Faith is not faith unless it has been tested.
An entrepreneur is not truly an entrepreneur
unless she has gone completely broke
at least once.
A survivor is not a survivor
if she’s only survived happy times.

I could go on
but you get the picture.
If you’re going through tough times right now,
as many of us are,
the upside is
that you’re about to find out
what you REALLY stand for
and who you REALLY are.

Embrace this.
It may be a short term struggle
but, if you learn from it,
it will bring long term happiness.

Improving Your Direct Mail Response

I had a book signing on Saturday
and I achieved better than
the industry standard 2%
on my direct mail drop.

How?

It was a local mailing so…
I made a local flyer.
I told recipients
we’d probably already met
while shopping at the local grocery store
(which I named)
or waiting for the local bus
(again named).
I hand wrote a cheery hi! on the fold
(in orange pen).

If you’re going to be a local business,
BE a local business.
Use this advantage.

BTW…
the money management firm
where I held the signing
was envious of my folksy flyer.
They may claim to be a local business
but their franchisor
prohibits adding any local flavor
to their standard marketing.

To Post Or Not To Post

If you’re wondering
whether or not to post that personal rant
on your blog…

Don’t.

It IS as simple as that.
Your gut is usually pretty darn good
at telling you
you’re about to do something stupid.

It is also,
however,
pretty darn good
at telling you
you’re about to do something scary
(like start your own business).

Those are two different feelings
and it’ll benefit you
to know the difference.

The Stay-At-Home Demographic

I walked around the neighborhood
this past week
at 10am on a Monday
and was surprised
at how many stay-at-home people
there were.

I shouldn’t have been.

In October 2008, there were
75 million people
not in the workforce
and not looking for work.
This could be for a number of reasons,
education, retirement, raising a family,
writing a novel.

That’s 25% of the population.
HUGE opportunities.

This demographic provides
unique marketing, sales and product design
possibilities.
Keep them in mind.

Doomsayers Losing The War On Negativity

Remember the gloom and doom
about Black Friday
for retailers?
Didn’t happen.
Sales were up 7.2%

But, but, but
the NRF protests,
don’t expect it to last.
The sales increase for 2008
is expected to be
only 2.2%.
Only.

Since when is an INCREASE
in sales
a sky is falling scenario?

If your own sales aren’t where they should be,
don’t blame the consumer.
Look internally.

Should You Give A Christmas Bonus?

I once worked in a company
where they gave out frozen turkeys
as a Christmas bonus.
Delivery was a nightmare,
getting it home still frozen was a challenge,
and for single people,
a 15 lb turkey was a waste.

Other companies are more practical
and give out cash.

So as an entrepreneur,
should you give out a Christmas bonus?

If the bonus is not tied to company performance…

No.

Yes, you might be able to afford it this year
but what about next year
or twenty years from now?
A consistent Christmas bonus is like pay.
Employees take it for granted
unless it is taken away
and then morale nose dives.

That means the bonus should be small enough
to be sustainable
which usually means it is too small
to make an impact.
It also does nothing to motivate employees.

If you’re going to make it
inconsistent,
then you might as well link it
to company performance.

What Percent Of Employees Should Meet Incentive?

A great way to motivate salespeople
is with incentives or contests.

Many companies offer a single ‘Grand Prize’
and wonder why the incentive
doesn’t work.

Why doesn’t it work?

Because the top salesperson
has enough motivation
maintaining his number one ranking.
The number two
is already gunning for number one.
And the rest feel
they’ll never win
so they don’t bother trying.

In
Selling Is Everyone’s Business
written by
Steve Johnson and Adam Shaivitz,
Mark Benjamin at ADP advises
“the benchmark is set right
for a contest or incentive trip
if about 30 to 50 percent make it.
The top 3 to 5 percent will be there anyway.
These rewards are in place
to get the next larger group
to the next level.
You can still do something nice
for the top 5 percent,
like a special cocktail hour with the CEO
or upgraded hotel rooms,
and that does what you need
in giving them
the extra bit of recognition.”

Do You REALLY Need An MBA?

I believe in education,
I have a bachelors degree and
an accounting designation,
so my blanket answer to
‘Should I get my MBA?’
is usually yes.

Usually.
Not always.

A friend of a friend approached me.
She is one of those rare creatures,
a female engineer
working in a large consulting company.
She wants to get her MBA
so she can make the switch
from design to marketing.
This is not an executive MBA
(done after hours).
This is not being paid for by her company.

My advice?
There are easier ways to accomplish
her goal.

Like simply applying for the position.
Being a female engineer differentiates her enough
to land an interview.
It would be up to her selling skills to do the rest.

Seth Godin is offering another option.