Increase Your Profits with a Point of Sale (POS) System

Written by Brian Cook


Whether you operate a chain of restaurants, a mom-and-pop convenience store, or a medium- sized retail shop, you are in business to make money. And, one ofrepparttar most critical aspects to your profit and loss is your ability to track information… you need to know which products are making you money, what items need to be re-ordered, who your customers are, and so on. This is where today’s point of sale (POS) systems play such a valuable role.

Inrepparttar 150110 not too distant past, retailers used mechanical cash registers to record sales onto a paper tape which then had to be manually transcribed intorepparttar 150111 company’s accounting ledger. Later, electronic versions of cash registers were introduced which allowed business owners to track more ofrepparttar 150112 data pertaining to each transaction (for example, management was able to track all sales and refunds by each cashier). Today, cash registers have evolved into modern computer-based point of sale systems, which let you track more information than previously imaginable.

Some ofrepparttar 150113 ways that a point of sale system can help you increase your profits include analyzing your product margin, tracking sales, increasingrepparttar 150114 accuracy of your pricing, and maintaining customer contact.

As a business owner, you know how important it is to keep a close watch onrepparttar 150115 margin of each product since you want to focus on sellingrepparttar 150116 things that make yourepparttar 150117 greatest profit. A point of sale system can help you quickly identify your greatest money-makers and make decisions about how much of each item you want to stock. (If you have a limited storage area, it doesn’t make sense to fill it up with low-profit items).

A point of sale system also allows you to know, practically atrepparttar 150118 push of a button, how much cash you have inrepparttar 150119 till (and how much of it is profit!),repparttar 150120 type and amount of each product sold that day, and how many items are still onrepparttar 150121 shelf. You can even set it up to automatically notify you when reachingrepparttar 150122 re-order point on any item.

The Five Deadly Fears of E-Newsletter Publishing

Written by Michael Katz


1. Fear Of Having Nothing To Say

As a small business owner, you know a lot more than you may realize. And although running out of material isrepparttar number one reason cited by small business owners for not launching an E-Newsletter inrepparttar 150065 first place, I have never come across anyone who knew enough about a particular industry or topic to start a business in it, who didn't also have a nearly endless supply of content to choose from.

Remember, your clients and others who have an interest in your area of specialty, don't work in it every dayrepparttar 150066 way you do. The things that are second nature to you, whether it's how to purchase life insurance if you're a broker; how to write a press release if you're a marketing consultant; or how to troubleshoot a light switch if you're an electrician; are all news to those of us onrepparttar 150067 outside of your industry.

The people who are going to read your newsletter have questions. You onrepparttar 150068 other hand, have answers, opinions, experience, and perspective. When it comes to your industry, you understand what matters and what doesn't, and how allrepparttar 150069 pieces fit together. These brief, useful nuggets arerepparttar 150070 things you write about.

2. Fear Of Technology

An E-Newsletter has a lot of moving parts. There are mailing lists to manage; links to set up; images to lay out; responses to track; and dozens of other small pieces to coordinate and fine tune, all inrepparttar 150071 course of writing and publishing a newsletter month after month. Managing this process efficiently requires a fair amount of technology churning away inrepparttar 150072 background. That'srepparttar 150073 bad news.

The good news is that email marketing has finally evolved torepparttar 150074 point where there are dozens of vendors out there who, for a very small fee, will take care of most of this for you (go to Google and search on “email marketing vendors” for a look at what's out there). So while it's true that you will have to go down a learning curve before you can switch your newsletter publishing into autopilot, you no longer need technical skill to get there.

Managingrepparttar 150075 logistics of a monthly newsletter can be tedious at times, no question. But if you've ever successfully assembled a gas grill, you're more than technically qualified to publish an E-Newsletter.

3. Fear Of Publishing On A Regular Basis

Although you may be sold onrepparttar 150076 value of a regularly published E-Newsletter, you may still be worried that once let out of its cage, this beast won't ever leave you alone. The truth is, you're right to be concerned. If I had to point to one factor that playsrepparttar 150077 most significant role inrepparttar 150078 failure of company E-Newsletters, it's thatrepparttar 150079 people behind them stop publishing.

Like starting an exercise program, we all go great guns out ofrepparttar 150080 gate: telling everybody we know, celebrating every issue. But (also like exercise), by month four or fiverepparttar 150081 thrill is gone, and many people start to wonder how to quietly putrepparttar 150082 thing out of its misery.

I'm happy to say that I've discovered two solutions to this potential problem.

First, publish monthly. Although it may seem that dropping back to a less frequent schedule will reducerepparttar 150083 burden, in practicerepparttar 150084 opposite is true. The less often you publish,repparttar 150085 bigger a deal it is, andrepparttar 150086 more it seems to hang over your head. A monthly schedule however, means thatrepparttar 150087 next issue is never more than 30 days away, and you will find yourself less concerned with achieving perfection each time.

Second, create a publishing schedule and stick to it. First Tuesday ofrepparttar 150088 month, third Friday, whatever. The important thing is that you bake it into your monthly work schedule. An E-Newsletter will never be today's top priority, and unless you explicitly determine when it will come out, you're more likely than not to keep pushing it torepparttar 150089 back burner.

4. Fear Of Writing

I hear it every day fromrepparttar 150090 small business owners I work with: "I can't put out an E-Newsletter, I'm a lousy writer." Well, you'll be happy to learn that writing an E-Newsletter - like email in general - is a lot more like talking than writing.

Cont'd on page 2 ==>
 
ImproveHomeLife.com © 2005
Terms of Use