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What Your Employees Really Want

Don’t you love it when the keynote speaker tells you to do three things and you’re already doing them?

I had that experience last Wednesday at the ASTRA Marketplace & Academy.

Our closing speaker was Barbara Glanz.  You might remember her from the YouTube inspirational customer service video Johnny the Bagger.  Barbara talked about a number of topics, mostly on the culture you create in your workplace.  I had three basic takeaways from her presentation…

Create a Positive Culture
Barbara recommended that you start every employee meeting with what went right rather than what went wrong.  Share the positives first because it puts the staff into a good, high-energy mood.

Yeah, we’re doing that.

Recognize Your Employees Have a Life
One of the number one things employees want from their bosses is to be recognized as being human beings and having a life outside of work.  How often do we neglect that, worrying only about what they can do for us instead of what we can do for them?

Because my staff work retail, they aren’t exactly giving the 1% a run for their money.  I’d like to pay them more, but with the limited resources there is only so much I can do.  To give back, I focus on two things.

First, much of our staff trainings are on life skills more than Toy House-specific skills.  I want them to walk away with more than they brought to the job.

Second, at the beginning of the year I offered each member of my staff some money towards a goal they have set for themselves.  It could be used for dance lessons, for computer training, for a gym membership, or some other personal goal.

Make Their Jobs Interesting
People want to work where jobs are fun, where work is interesting, where they get challenged to achieve, where they know they are making a difference.  I think this is an area where all indie retailers can improve.

  • We definitely have jobs that are fun.  
  • Most of our customer base comes to our store by choice, not necessity, which makes for a much more pleasant time.  
  • We sell fun and unique products not found in every discount warehouse.  
  • We have the ability responsibility to have meaningful interactions with customers.

Sometimes, however, we neglect to show our staff how we do all this and why it is important.  Two things you can do to remedy this…

  1. Share all your customer reviews with your staff.  Let them know when they make a difference.
  2. Give your staff important tasks and let them run with those tasks.  They’ll take ownership, be more invested in the outcome, and see firsthand what a difference they make.

Three for three.  Heck, even I’m impressed.  Thanks, Barbara!

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS  Need help making the job more fun?  You can start by making your staff meetings more fun.  Culture takes time to build.  Make small changes and you will eventually see bigger results.

Working ON or Working IN?

The big dilemma for most independent store owners is…

How much time should I spend working ON my business versus working IN my business?

I am going to be moderating a panel discussion at the American Specialty Toy Retailing Association Academy & Marketplace this coming Sunday on that topic.  I have asked my panelists to answer three basic questions…

  1. How do you divide the work between yourself, your managers, and your staff?
  2. What are your guiding principles for your management/leadership style?
  3. How do you learn to “let go”?

I’m curious.  How would you answer those questions?

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS  I’ll give you my answers next week after the panel.  Don’t want to give away the presentation quite yet.  (And yes, look for an eBook on the topic later this summer.  Maybe your answers will be part of it.)

Financials You Can Understand

I told you about the book I wrote for the American Specialty Toy Retailing Association called Financials You Can Understand: Building Blocks for Successful Toy Stores.

The book is finished, published and available for purchase.

Here is what the editors wrote about the book…

“After reading this book you will know and understand all of the numbers in your Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss Statement – from where they came, what they mean and how you can make them stronger. You will know what other numbers you should be tracking and how they compare to other specialty toy stores. If you understand the basics, look for special boxes with advanced, in-depth knowledge on more detailed ways to track your numbers. Most importantly, you will know how to make your business better.”

Who should buy this book?

Anyone who owns a retail store and (or) feels clueless when the accountant starts talking about your financial statements will find this book amazingly helpful.

Although much of the discussion is designed around the toy industry, the information, insights, and analysis will translate well to any type of retailer.  If you struggle to understand your accountant when he talks to you, or struggle to wrap your head around all the numbers on your financial statements, this book will be like taking the coolest, easiest, most practical accounting class ever that makes it all something you can understand.

You can buy the book here.


-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS  You can still download my Financials eBook for free.  It does not have the detail or analysis that this new book does.  But it does cover some basic stuff.

PPS  Yes, the book might seem expensive at first glance, until you see the value in it.  Even a small retailer will gain enough knowledge to recoup that investment in short order.

PPPS  Full disclosure.  I do not gain financially from the sale of this book.  I have received my compensation for writing it.  But like with everything I do, there is no satisfaction for me until you benefit from my efforts. Please buy a copy for yourself or as a gift to a fellow retailer who could benefit.

Planning an Event

Saturday is National Train Day.

We sell trains… Electric, wooden, and everything in between.  We are celebrating in style.

Activities for participants? Check.  Along with our usual train displays (and a couple new ones we are bringing out) we are doing face painting, coloring contests, having kids sign our almost life-size train poster, train photo ops, train history, a steam engine experiment, and more.

Incentives to attend? Check.  We have free train whistles to give away (thanks to one of our favorite vendors), prizes for two different prize drawings, prizes for the coloring contest and a whole bunch of delicious train-shaped cookies (I know, I tried a sample today.)

Marketing the event? Check.  We have made multiple Facebook announcements, sent out emails, put up signs all around the store, sent out press releases to all the media outlets, talked about it live on TV and radio, made posters to advertise it at two other events going on in town before our event, and created fliers to hand out when out and about in public.

Motivating the staff? Check.  The staff was involved in the planning process from day one.  It wasn’t mandated by me, it was conceived and planned by them, so there is 100% buy-in from the staff.  They are fired up and ready to rock.

Anyone see a checklist forming here?  Failure to plan is planning to fail, or as my grandfather always says, “Plan for Success”.

Events are a great way to draw traffic and delight customers.  But events require planning.  Make yourself a checklist and get planning some fun events for your store.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS  Events also cost money.  We have committed about $800 to this event above and beyond our usual expenses (for product giveaways, cookies, fliers, posters, etc).  I consider that money to be marketing and advertising money.  I am not concerned whether I make that money back on Saturday because my goal for this event – the first thing I put at the top of my checklist – is to draw a crowd and make a lot of people happy.  If I do that, the money was well spent.  Always write down your goal, then plan your activities around that goal.  

PPS  The event has been a huge success!

What Do You Sell?

I don’t think I know any toy store owners who didn’t like the movie Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium starring Dustin Hoffman and Natalie Portman.  It immediately made my top 5 list of all-time favorite movies.

For me, the beauty was in the name of his store which described what he sold with ultimate clarity.  Mr. Magorium did not sell toys.  He sold Wonder.  Pure and simple, unadultered Wonder.

I’m pretty sure that after a couple hundred years in business, Mr. Magorium knew a thing or two about branding, too.

I am not in the business of selling toys.  I sell Nostalgia, Education, Assistance and Smiles.
I am not in the business of selling baby products.  I sell Nostalgia, Education, Assistance and Smiles.

And when I recognize that, it makes it easier for me to choose what products to fill the store.  Does the product fulfill my goal of selling Nostalgia, Education, Assistance and Smiles?  If so, on the shelf it will go.

The easiest way to keep from being boxed into a corner is to change your thinking from what products you sell to what ideals you sell.  Products are fickle and have limited shelf life.  But ideals and values are lasting and unchanging.  More importantly, ideals and values attract customers who share those ideals and values, customers who will become loyal followers and evangelists for your business because you speak to their heart.

That is the true essence of branding and the true brilliance behind Mr. Magorium’s WONDER Emporium.

He sells Wonder.  What do you sell?

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS  For more about branding and core values, download my FREE eBook Understanding Your Brand and the accompanying Worksheets.  It may be the most worthwhile exercise you do for your business.

Growing in a Shrinking Market

Our market is shrinking.

The 2010 census showed that we have 3200 fewer children in the county than we did in 2000. For four straight years the number of births in the county has dropped from the previous year. Plus, people are spending less on toys than ever before thanks to the economy and the electronics market.

The toy-selling pie has shrunk considerably. (In fact, it is more of a tart than a pie right now.)

Yet, I still have all the same competition. More, if you include the explosion of ecommerce websites. My expenses like utilities, health care, and property taxes continue to go up. And my access to profitable lines of products gets smaller each year as vendors use discounting sites to move their products or choose to sell direct online.

Sounds like a recipe for disaster.

There are three ways to combat this disaster and stay profitable as a company.

Right Size Your Business

Rather than focus on growth, focus on being the right size for your market. Shrink your overhead by moving to a smaller location. Trim the fat out of your staff by letting the poorest performers go and training the remaining staff to do more. Bring some of the outside services like payroll and accounting back in house.

Rather than lament the losses, figure out exactly what the market will bear and what your take of that market should be. Then build your business around that size.

Grab Market Share

When the pie is shrinking, you need to get a bigger piece of it. You do that by hyper-focusing on your strengths. Carry exclusive brands that cannot be found everywhere. Ramp up your customer service beyond any level previously seen in your area. Make your marketing stand out so that it moves people to want to shop with you.

That last one is easier than you think. You can take greater risks with your marketing when your back is against the wall. Go ahead and be remarkable and memorable and moving. What have you got to lose?

Expand Into New Markets

You can do this two ways.

First, consider moving into a different geographical market. Go find a town that is growing or under-served in your category and move or expand your business there. Or add eCommerce to your website and see if you can grow sales all over.

Second, find new complimentary product markets into which you can expand. If you sell toys, can you sell books or hobbies or baby products? If you sell furniture can you sell decor, wallpaper, paints, appliances? If you sell jewelry can you sell scarves, hats, or purses?

Both expansions are tough and can be costly. You’ll have new competitors, new costs, new headaches. But when times are tough, you have to be tougher.

If your market is shrinking you can still grow. You just have to do it and measure it differently.

-Phil Wrzesinski

www.PhilsForum.com

PS For the last few years we have focused on grabbing a bigger piece of the pie through better customer service. Right now our market share is over 11% in both toys and baby products. This year we have been right-sizing, too. Next year? Expansion? Yeah, in some way, shape or form. Stay tuned…

Building Your Customer Email List – Stolen Idea Made Better

I stole this idea from George Whalin.

To build your customer email database, put a fishbowl on your counter with a sign-up for your email and offer a drawing for a $25 gift certificate each month for anyone who signs up that month.

Works like a charm.

I shared this idea with some of my toy store owner friends. Tracey Harding of Kidz Enterprise in Tyngsboro, MA took it one step smarter.

She posted that the winner would be announced in her monthly email.

Guess what her open rate is?

Yeah, a lot higher than yours and mine.

Thanks, Tracey!

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Follow this link for some words of wisdom I wrote on how to make an email newsletter campaign work for you. I wrote it in 2009 and the principles haven’t changed.

What Kind of Store are You?

Last summer LEGO made a decision to stop selling their architectural series of LEGO sets to toy stores. They believed that the product didn’t belong in toy stores like mine, that it was only appropriate for certain stores. Specifically in their words…

…appropriate distribution channels include the categories of gifts, souvenirs, museums, specialty bookstores, collectibles, art, architecture, tourist and visitor centers, hotel gift shops, transportation centers, college/university union centers, science centers, specialty gift and specialty department stores.

Knowing that I fit under a number of those channels, I sent the following to LEGO.

What Kind of Store Are You?
I am a Science Center – I sell science kits and teach science concepts all the time.

I am a Specialty Bookstore – I sell more children’s books than some bookstores in my area sell all their titles combined.

I am a Specialty Gift Store – Most every single sale in my store is a gift for someone

I am a Specialty Department Store – Furniture, baby products, clothing, crafts, science, sporting goods, construction, role play, education are just some of the departments in my store

I am a Tourist Center – Families who come to Jackson, Michigan typically make sure to visit two places – our store and the local ice cream parlor. Over half of our mailing list are people who reside outside of our metro area’s zip codes.

I am a Museum – The store has been around for 61 years. We carry many items considered to be “classics” or “historical”. Even our building and signs are considered “historical”.

I am a Collectibles Store – Hot Wheels, Barbies, Madame Alexander Dolls, Star Wars, GI Joe’s, Webkins, Beanie Babies – have there been any hotter collectibles in the past 3 decades?

I am a Transportation Center – I sell wagons, strollers, bikes, trikes, scooters, skateboards and other forms of transportation. I have a river, a railroad, a street, and a walkway adjacent to my property, and many people use my parking lot to access all four.

I am a Souvenir Store – Many of the items I sell are held onto purely for nostalgic reasons.

I am an Architecture Store – I sell many items including books and kits for learning about construction techniques and for building architectural structures from bridges to houses to castles to historical buildings.

I am an Art Store – I sell art supplies. I sell art and decorations.

I am an Education Center – I sell items to teachers and students alike to assist in education such as project kits for school projects (including the exact same items found in science centers), teaching aides, and modeling kits (including clay, wood, metal and plastic materials used for building whatever the teacher requests). I work with preschools, elementary schools, secondary schools and colleges.

I am a Hobby Store – I cater to hobbyists who build models of classic structures such as cars, planes, boats and even buildings.

I am a Toy Store – I sell toys that encourage creativity, toys that spur on the imagination, toys that teach, inspire and help people to grow – yes, people. My toys are for ages 1 to 101. I sell toys for tots, teenagers and twenty-somethings. I sell toys for infants, adolescents, and adults.

I am a LEGO Store – I sell virtually everything LEGO that I can get my hands on because my customers expect me to have those items. They expect me to be able to get them anything from LEGO they want. They expect me to have new and unique LEGO items. They expect me to have off-the-beaten-path LEGO items. They expect me to be current with everything LEGO. They don’t care about categories of distribution. They just want to find their LEGO at a store that is convenient, friendly and takes good care of them.

Redefining Your Greatness
Yeah, I probably could have added another dozen definitions – Smile Store, Psychology Center, Daycare, Meeting Center, Problem Solver… What about you? What kind of store are you? Might you be defining your business (your box) too small?

Do this exercise. Using criteria similar to what I did with LEGO, see how many ways you can define your store. You just might find a niche you haven’t been using to your advantage.

-Phil

PS Still waiting to hear their decision – hopefully at Toy Fair next week.

Preaching to the Choir

This morning I gave a presentation to my staff that was the same one I’ve given three times in the past week to customers. It was a 30-minute presentation on Smart Toy Shopping.

My staff already knows this information. Some would say I was merely preaching to the choir.

And they would be right!

Sometimes you have to preach to the choir to get them to sing. Sometimes you have to remind your staff about the stuff they already know. Two quick advantages to preaching to the choir.

  1. The choir gets to refocus and get their eyes back on the ball.
  2. The choir feels good about themselves for knowing the answers to the questions you’re about to ask.

Can we agree that both of those outcomes are worthwhile?

Don’t ever discount the notion that you’re only preaching to the choir. Sometimes the choir is the most important group of people who need to get your message. And in retail, they are the ones in direct contact with your congregation.

-Phil

PS If you have a group of toy shoppers in this area, the talk is free, the lessons timeless. (It’s the same presentation my grandfather was doing over 50 years ago.)

PPS If you are a toy store owner and want a copy of the PowerPoint – send me an email at phil@philsforum.com.

Why You Should Care

Saturday, November 13th is Neighborhood Toy Store Day – a day to celebrate the wonders and delight of your neighborhood independent toy stores.

The genesis for this day comes from the American Specialty Toy Retailing Association (ASTRA).

Yes, it is a contrived celebration, not unlike the Hallmark holidays like Bosses Day and Sweetest Day. Yes, it is a marketing ploy designed to get shoppers into these local toy stores ahead of the Black Friday fiascoes. And yes, it is a lot of work for these toy retailers to plan activities, run promotions, and market themselves.

There are pretty much three responses from toy store owners on events like this:

  1. Some are going to ignore it and decide it isn’t worth the effort. They figure it won’t move the needle much and won’t be around for long so they won’t get sucked into the hype.
  2. Some are going to go half-ass and do just enough to say, “Yeah, I did something, but it didn’t work out for me.”
  3. Some are going to embrace it fully, plan wonderful events, inspire their staff to get excited about it, inspire their customers with their own creativity, and make this one of the most special days of the year.

Which of the three do you think will reap the most benefits?

The big difference is PASSION. When you show passion in your business, those around you cannot help but be sucked in by it. Your staff will mirror it. Your customers will embrace it. And your sales will show it.

So embrace those moments where you can let your passion for business shine through. If your industry creates a special holiday, put some passion into celebrating it. Your customers will notice and react accordingly.

-Phil

PS We are celebrating in style on the 13th with one of the biggest Playmobil Play Days we’ve ever had! The staff is excited. The buzz is building. Yeah, it’s going to be an awesome day!