Preparing for a Trade Show in Style on EMomNowTV Live

Instead of your usual old tip, I thought sharing this with you would be fun!  Last Tuesday, I spend an hour with the ladies of Entrepreneur Mom Now sharing and discussing how to prepare for a craft or trade show in style!

Here's the video:

Major takeaways?

• Have a goal in mind and share it with your team
• Four keys to trade show success:
• Draw attention
• Brand!
• Collect Information
• Act! (Follow up)
• The majority of people look 45 degrees to the right when entering, this is a good spot for a booth.
• The butt brush effect - keep aisles and space open, allowing people to move freely
• Invite people in and avoid blocking off your booth
• Create a clean and inviting booth, consider using props, and be sure it reflects you and your brand!

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Tip of the Week and Another Bonus

It’s so important to have an exit strategy for your business so that when you retire or want to do other things, you have a plan.  Don’t just close it down or hire a manager, consider selling or adding a partner.

So many retailers open a business because they love what they do or sell, or love helping customers, but what do we do when it comes time to move on?

When beginning your business, it’s a good idea to put an exit strategy in place.  What would you like to do?  How would you like to go about it?  Many people sell off their merchandise and close their doors or hire a manager to run the business for them.  Both of plans have definite drawbacks, so why not consider alternatives?

You could sell your entire business to someone else or you could sell off a portion of your business to someone who is willing to be a partner and share in the duties and responsibilities.

Consider hiring a business broker to help you through the process.  While using a realtor or going through a private sale can be tempting, a business broker can help take you through every step of the process with experience and expertise. 

Not sure how to choose the right broker?  Ask for referrals and references from people you trust.  If you’re in the Edmonton area and looking for someone, ask me for a recommendation.

Happy selling!

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Another bonus tip:  Sadly (for us Canadians, at least) the crisp, cool air of fall is approaching.  Be sure to make payments on orders and try to get fall stock to start rolling in for mid to late August.  People start getting excited for new product, so get it front and center in the store!  If you have leftover product from last year, you can get it out now.

Tip of the Week and another Bonus!

Calculate your average dollars per transaction by dividing sales by the number of transactions.  This gives you an idea of how much each customer is buying and creates easy to understand goals.

For example: If your sales are $1000 (for simplicity's sake) and you had 20 customers that day, you would divide $1000 by 20. That means that the value of your average transaction was $50.00.

You can calculate your average transaction on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annual basis! Its entirely up to you.

Want to know what to do with the information?

There are tons of things you can do! You can monitor your average transaction for things that seem to affect it or use it as a motivational selling tool! 

Having easily measurable targets to reach makes it easy to celebrate reaching your goals and breaking down those goals into small, manageable chunks makes for more celebration and more fun!

Happy selling!

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Bonus Tip:

Whether in a display or in a store, customers need a focal point to look at first.

Tip of the Week + Bonus!

Track your sales by category and use the information to help you when merchandising and buying.  It’s very valuable information.

© Anatoliy Babiychuk | Dreamstime Stock Photos | Image Link

When re-merchandising your store or purchasing new stock, it's so important to make educated decisions rather than taking shots in the dark, making guesses, or buying based simply on things you like.  Being informed will help you make better business decisions and help to prevent the need to clear out aged or stagnant inventory.

Track your sales by category, either using your POS system or keeping written records (contact your POS service provider or technical support to find out how).  You could do this weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually.  

When it comes to visual merchandising, you can use your category sales in interesting ways, too.  It can help you to allocate the proper space and placement to best sellers and help you to beef up displays and promote weak sellers.  Also, if you know there's an item or category that people are shopping for in particular or coming in for, you can place it in a key area towards the back of the store to get them walking through.  Hopefully they'll see a great item they wouldn't have otherwise thought of on their way there!

Bonus tip to make up for the technical problems we had last week...

Emergency preparedness is key.  It's important to have a plan for every type of emergency that could come your way.

Check out this Red Cross page for some great info.

Happy selling!

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Tip of the Week

Plan your store window changes out on a calendar according to season, holidays, key marketing and promotions, and new shipments.  Be sure to include a change every four to six weeks.

Image: Free People Blog: Summer Store Displays!

Pre-planning all of your window changes allows you to keep an eye out for interesting prop ideas, fixtures, etc.  It gives you time to plan out exciting window displays that entice customers and ensures that you're not changing windows on the fly or in a panic.  That's no fun for anyone!

Have you got questions for Melissa? Check us out on facebook, twitter, Pinterest, the flourish website, or send Melissa an email.

Happy Selling!

5 Inspiring Songs for Entrepreneurs

Last night, while watching the Grammys, I was thinking about how music inspires us, lifts us up while we're down, and comforts us in times of need.  That's when I realized I should do this blog post that I've been considering for a long time!

This is just part one, I'm sure I will think of many more as time goes on.  In the meantime, here are 5 songs I consider to be very inspiring to us business starters!  Plus, one bonus!  Be sure to scroll all the way to the end, I've saved the best for last.

5. Journey - Don't Stop Believing
     This one's a classic!  Sorry, no official video to be found.

 

4. Bon Jovi - It's My Life
    Okay, I realize I look like a total geek right now, but this one really gets ya pumped up!

 

3. Alicia Keys - Girl on Fire
    This one's for all the great, strong women entrepreneurs out there. 

2. Marty Casey & the Lovehammers - Casualty
    This is a great pick-me-up song.  I love it.  Sorry, couldn't find an official video.

Last, but not least...
1. Incubus - Drive
    This is one of my all-time favourites.  This song always keeps me going and picks me up when I need it!  Enjoy!

 

 

Now, here's a bonus one!  It gets a little personal, so it didn't quite make my business cut, but it's definitely a good one and Fun. was recognized quite a bit at the Grammys last night.

 

Fun. - Carry On

 



I hope you enjoy and I'd love to see some of your favourites in the comments section!