2/19/2015

$100 Challenge

I need to make some changes in my business.  Selling is too slow and I am too swayed by the clients to put on whatever the price they want instead of giving advice.  A pair of kids baseball cleats are not going to sell for $30.  Even in excellent condition.

I need to find more ways to advertise what I have.  I need to retake some of the pictures I have taken because I did them too fast and they do not show off the product well. Sloppy work costs you in the long run.

I need to make some hard decisions to lower the prices on items that have not sold yet and those that have been around for awhile.  I also need to make more room in my living room to organize and set up the items to look appealing.

Though I have sold some and it is all profit because I did not have any set up fees, it still is not very much.  The business is far more labor intensive than I thought it would be and it is hard to balance the business with full time school. Also, I assumed I would get more help from my husband then I have.  But I guess it shows that when it is your dream or vision and not theirs what do you expect.

So lots of new goals for the next few days.  I am going to make sure, when I repost items, they are done just before the weekend so they are at the top of the list.

One good thing, the selling is slow therefor my accounting is easy to keep track of.  :)

What I learned this week

Very enjoyable week.  Learned some really interesting stuff about customer service.  Had a discussion already with the entrepreneur I am going to interview and we talked about a particular business in town that is not doing well and why they are not doing well.  Then this lesson came in perfectly after that discussion.

So their problems.  They are spending way too much time and energy trying to gain new customers.  They spend $5000 a month on advertising for a carpet cleaning business.  If it is not working right then they need to rethink out what they are doing.

I think they would be better off to offer a plan for their 'already' customers. Some sort of an incentive to get their carpets cleaned on a regular business.  Something like - If you have us come in and clean them before the six months mark we give % off.

Also, hand the customer 6 cards with their names on it.  Tell them that for every card that comes back they get a certain % off of their next cleaning and if they refer 6 customers and all 6 clean their carpets then they get a free carpet cleaning.

The carpet cleaning is $130 for 3 rooms.  I think $130 is cheap advertising to get six new customers.  If they are spending $5000 a month and they kept their prices per customer at $130 then they would need 30 customers.  Wait I figured that wrong.  $130 is for 6 customers. That is $21 for each new customer.  $21 into $5000 would mean more like 238 customers.  I don't think they are getting 238 new customers a month. They need to take this class.

The biggest thing I have learned this week is it is cheaper to keep loyal customers loyal then to gain new customers.

So if I want a company to have good success I need to

hire right  - right attitude then more trainable
train properly
give support
allow latitude
Reward for results
get to know the customer
deliver value
be trustworthy

My favorite video - Jet Blue --- I don't fly, too pansy.  But I have 2 brothers and a sister who are career flight attendants.  We call them fancy waitresses.  WEll, I agree with jet blue, get rid of the food.  Give all the snacks you want.  I much prefer cheese and crackers and juice then the nasty airline food.  (did fly to Germany and back, took two blessing to get me on the plane and never got on one again).  So my family would probably disagree with me - but I totally agree.  Put your money into those little TV's.  That way I can watch what I want.  And I am short, put my bags up for me.  oh yea.  And the day I see him cleaning the plane is the day I will fly.  hmmmmmm  maybe the first year he was getting it off of the ground but not now.