This Old Business...

Written by Michael S. Winicki


Not long ago I was asked to come out and take a look at a business that had been around for about 10 years... butrepparttar owner was frustrated withrepparttar 104467 amount of money he was making. Here isrepparttar 104468 story of a natural food retail store located in New York State. The business itself is located in western New York State, within a small village. It sits upon one ofrepparttar 104469 “main drags” going throughrepparttar 104470 village and probably sees as much car & foot traffic as any other business inrepparttar 104471 limited “downtown” area. I’m going to approach this as an “outside-inside” project. In other words, I’m going to look atrepparttar 104472 outside ofrepparttar 104473 business first… and see how we can improve/market that better and then we’ll go inside for a review of that part ofrepparttar 104474 business. Outside: Quite franklyrepparttar 104475 village this business is located in is in tough shape. It consists of quite a few buildings that need some exterior help such as painting and what not. The facade for this business is forrepparttar 104476 most part is good, except for a couple areas that I’ll touch upon shortly. The big problem I have withrepparttar 104477 front ofrepparttar 104478 building isrepparttar 104479 color white. Whilerepparttar 104480 color white is good for a great many applications, I think for a retail storefront that is trying to attract attention it’s just plain boring. And since many ofrepparttar 104481 buildings inrepparttar 104482 village are also white this causesrepparttar 104483 business to lose some of its identity. What would I do? Probably paint it a variety of bright colors… yellows, reds, oranges. Colors that are bright and livid, colors that stand out. Colors that makerepparttar 104484 building jump to attention and make it noticeable to anyone traveling downrepparttar 104485 street. The building needs to be bold andrepparttar 104486 color white doesn’t cut it. Right now it looks just like any tired, boring storefront in “any village” USA. The whole building does not have to be repainted, justrepparttar 104487 front portion that is going to catchrepparttar 104488 eye. This will save on costs. Secondlyrepparttar 104489 concrete steps need to be patched up. This isn’t an expensive or time consuming project either but it can improverepparttar 104490 appearance AND PERCEPTION ofrepparttar 104491 business 100%. And remember perception is everything. The front sign could be done in brighter colors also but I’m more concerned withrepparttar 104492 facade and concrete work at this point. The last thing that needs be done from an “outside-in” perspective is to change, redo or eliminate allrepparttar 104493 signage hanging or taped onrepparttar 104494 front doors and windows. Many ofrepparttar 104495 present signs are “dog-eared”, “yellowed” or “sun-bleached”. These signs don’t present a good image asrepparttar 104496 customer entersrepparttar 104497 building. Paper signs need to be replaced on a regular basis in order to keeprepparttar 104498 entryway from looking anything other than “clean”, “organized” and while I haterepparttar 104499 word, it fits in this circumstance “professional”. Let me put this important point across to you right now. The profits generated byrepparttar 104500 business are tied torepparttar 104501 prices you charge. Duh--right! But you see in order to charge higher prices a business has to have a certain look or meet certain expectations inrepparttar 104502 customer’s mind. Remember a business that is well maintained, well run and well organized can still discount products and have sales. But a business that is not well maintained, well run and well organized can not ever hope to get higher pricesyou seerepparttar 104503 perception ofrepparttar 104504 business just doesn’t allow it to charge more.

Inside: The thing I noticed after I first stepped intorepparttar 104505 building wasrepparttar 104506 “inconsistency”. What I mean by this is that we have old building with old style walls with a drop ceiling and a tile floor. While I’m not recommending major construction I think there are a couple things that can be done to makerepparttar 104507 business look more “uniform” and “consistent”. Let’s talk aboutrepparttar 104508 walls first. Since we’re not in a position to redorepparttar 104509 floor and removerepparttar 104510 drop ceiling let’s cover uprepparttar 104511 walls. With what you may ask? What about putting up pictures of East Otto andrepparttar 104512 surrounding areas? Put up photos of old buildings and of people that have lived inrepparttar 104513 area. This will help giverepparttar 104514 business a “theme”, which it really doesn’t have at this point and it’s a theme that ties itself torepparttar 104515 community. Nowrepparttar 104516 ceiling,repparttar 104517 ceiling tiles need to be desperately replaced and/or painted. These tiles aren’t expensive and sections ofrepparttar 104518 ceiling could be replaced over time. The floor… whatrepparttar 104519 floor needs is to be stripped and waxed. And it should be waxed on a regular basis. I know of no other thing that can improverepparttar 104520 overall look of a business more so than keepingrepparttar 104521 floor looking great. This isn’t expensive to dorepparttar 104522 results would be incredible. Like I said previously ifrepparttar 104523 overall perception ofrepparttar 104524 store is one of being well maintained, well organized and well run thenrepparttar 104525 store will not only see more business but profits will increase because it (the store) can charge more to fit it’s new image. Inventory needs to be increased… not by thousands of dollars but in a couple important areas. Firstrepparttar 104526 whole “low-carb” thing that is sweepingrepparttar 104527 nation is a golden nugget of profit that “Naturally Your” is virtually ignoring. I would invest a few hundred dollars into this category as soon as possible. And then I would advertiserepparttar 104528 stink out of it.

Multiple Channels, Multiple Times

Written by Robert F. Abbott


I've just been reading aboutrepparttar frustrations of a Human Resources manager. He's tired of having to answerrepparttar 104466 same questions about benefits over and over again.

I understand that, having been on both sides ofrepparttar 104467 issue, both as a consumer of benefits and in communicating about them on behalf of corporate clients. Benefits can berepparttar 104468 slippery eels of internal communication.

But, to putrepparttar 104469 issue into context, this is another case of complex communication. In this case, a large volume of information that's not easy to understand.

Descriptions of benefits typically involve a high level of density: in other words, they contain a lot of information in a small amount of 'space'. Many of them resemble insurance policies -- long on legal language and short on examples and anecdotes. As a result,repparttar 104470 information is accessible to only a small proportion ofrepparttar 104471 whole group.

How do you deal with this kind of communication challenge? Multiple channels, multiple times. That means repeatingrepparttar 104472 message many times, and sending it through as many different channels as possible.

For example, when one of my clients changed its benefits package to offer more choices, it used this strategy. Collectively,repparttar 104473 overall value ofrepparttar 104474 benefits would work outrepparttar 104475 same forrepparttar 104476 company. But, individual employees would have to make choices, and in many casesrepparttar 104477 value ofrepparttar 104478 individual benefits they received would depend on how wisely they made their decisions. In turn, that could lead torepparttar 104479 equivalent of 'buyer's remorse' and complaints.

The company took a proactive approach torepparttar 104480 changeover. It began planning well in advance ofrepparttar 104481 switch, and its preparations includedrepparttar 104482 equivalent of focus groups to identify concerns, questions, and problems.

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