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Posted on Tue, 02/14/2012 - 07:30 PM by
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It’s hard enough to compete with big-box retailers without paying big-box prices for the things that make your brick-and-mortar run smoothly. But 14the great thing about being a small retail business is that you’re more nimble and able to experiment with more affordable products and services.
These tools will help you save money that you can put back into your business: 1. Cell Phone We’re past needing complicated PBX phone systems, especially for stores. If you’re the only employee, a cell phone with a large minute plan should be enough to handle business calls. If you have other staff, set up a free Google Voice number and route it to whoever’s working. Money-Saving Tip: Set up your Google Voice to direct calls to the appropriate person. For example, you can record store hours and address, then callers can push 1 to speak to a sales associate, 2 for accounting, etc. 2. Signage In this era of DIY, it’s become unnecessary to hire a designer and fancy printer for your signage needs. Use an online option like StoreSigns, which offers stock photos and signs you can customize for a fraction of the cost of more traditional options. Money-Saving Tip: Buy holiday-themed signs when they’re on sale and reuse each year. 3. Mobile Payments On a recent trip to San Francisco, I noticed many restaurants and shops accepting credit cards through an iPad and Square card reader. While mobile payment technology was born in the Bay area, it’s not exclusive to it. You can avoid costly merchant card processing service fees and equipment rental or purchase by paying a per-transaction fee and using a card reader. Money-Saving Tip: Investing in an iPad to process your credit card transactions may seem like a large expense, so make sure it serves multiple functions. After hours you can use an inventory app or update social media using the tablet. 4. Social Media Twitter. Facebook. G+. Foursquare. Daily Deals. We’ve got a deluge of social media marketing options, and they’re all free or inexpensive to use. As consumers become more accustomed to checking business Facebook Pages for promotions and specials, retailers are jumping at the chance to connect with customers more affordably. Money-Saving Tip: Daily deal sites are struggling to get new clientele. Negotiate the rate you’ll get paid on a deal with newer deal sites that don’t have the clout of Groupon, and help promote the deal to get foot traffic. 5. Online Sales When in-store sales are slow, it’s great to have the backup of selling online. But who wants to set up and manage an online store? Etsy, eBay and Amazon offer built-in ecommerce solutions; all you have to do is provide the product. They take a fee on every sale, of course, but working through channels that do their own marketing makes the cost of entry ridiculously low. Money-Saving Tip: This isn’t so much a money-saving tip as it is a money-making. If you’re an Amazon seller, using Amazon Fulfillment (they ship your products from their locations) can get you more business, because people can use their Free Prime Shipping service with your products. Mobile Payment Photo via Shutterstock MORE NEWS FROM SMALL BUSINESS TRENDSCreating Google Alerts Directly in Google AnalyticsA few weeks back I wrote about the powerful new metrics that small business owners can glean from the new Social reports within Google Analytics. And since that post, even more neat features have been released to help business owners learn more about not only what’s happening on their site, but what’s happening off of it, as well. Nominations Are Open for the Small Business Influencer Awards!Does a special person or company come to mind when you think of someone or something important in the world of small business? Perhaps you think of a client of yours. Or maybe a favorite vendor or supplier, or a software app that has transformed your small business or made it more profitable. Or perhaps you think of a favorite journalist who covers issues important to small businesses. G8 Leaders Call for Growth: Six Things You Can DoLeaders the world over including those at this week’s G8 Summit are calling for economic growth, not just budget tightening, in an effort to combat world market instability and speed recovery. But for all the talk in policy circles, this growth will ultimately come from the private sector and especially here in the U.S., from small to medium sized businesses that create many of the jobs and employ many of the workers already in our economy. Here’s a look at the economic growth G8 leaders are calling for and six things you can do to promote growth in your business today. Can a Gas Tax Fuel Clean Energy Innovation?With gas prices already reaching nearing $4 per gallon in many places, most business owners don’t relish the idea of them rising even further. Yet, some people are still calling for the government to deliberately increase them – by raising the gas tax. What Job Are You Helping Your Customers Do?Marketing is often described in terms of a product life cycle. The development, the launch, continued support, and finally, discontinuation all have specific marketing efforts associated with them. From social contests to reduced prices and giveaways, the emphasis is nearly always on the product or service provided. However, this does not take into account the way that customers actually search for and find products. RELATED SMALL BUSINESS NEWSWhy There's Not Much Sizzle In Two Burger Chains' IPO PlansCan two also-ran burger chains that struggled through the recession win over Wall Street investors? We'll soon find out, as fast-food franchisor CKE Restaurants -- corporate parent of both Carl's Jr. and Hardee's -- recently filed to go public, seeking roughly $100 million and applying for the stock... No room for weeniesNo use complaining Keep up won’t you? There’s no room for weenies in the global micro enterprise community. My hapless and hopeless UK agent, Tony Robinson OBE, sent me a press clipping of what Serena Williams said after winning the Madrid Open last week. He’s obsessed by how Ser... Day 2: National Small Business Week - Corinne’s Catfish Tells Us Why They Love ItFor today’s post, we spoke with Orin Moore, owner and founder of Corinne’s Catfish in Lewisville, Texas. The On Deck Team found this story particularly inspiring – and we hope our readers to do. How Ads on Your Site Can Affect SEO (Video)Your search rankings could be suffering if there are a number of advertisements above the content on your website. ... SBA Seeks to Boost Small-Dollar Loans With New Push (Video)The SBA is looking to increase the number of smaller loans in underserved communities with a new push. ... |
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