Shownotes
The Home & Company Story
How the first store was formed. [4:55] The initial concept of Home & Company [6:19] The opening of Tip Toes [8:01] A creative lease agreement [10:10]Business Building Insights
Top 3 things to consider for a brick & mortar store [8:27] Your product mix must align with customers’ desires [12:15] #1 business attribute a business owner needs [14:41] Add-on selling the right way [25:24] Customer experience is the differentiator in retail [26:50] The value of connecting with others who do what you do [27:39] Details of one successful promotion [28:35] Email content strategy [33:08] Purchasing the right inventory [34:31] Merchandising/Displays [35:42] Working with your spouse. How to make it work. [39:01] Live Facebook Fashion Show Jean Maries [48:12]People Power
Revamping employee focus and skills [15:34] Selling is a skill that needs to be practiced [16:45] Matt’s daily staff assignments [20:01] Role playing [21:02] Adapting to sales employee’s strengths [24:30]Recommended Reading and Listening
Podcasts
Contact Links
Website Facebook InstagramIf you found value in this podcast, make sure to subscribe and leave a review in Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts. That helps us spread the word to more makers just like you. Thanks! Sue
Transcripts
Hi there.
Speaker:You're listening to gift biz on rapt episode 123.
Speaker:If we weren't willing to change and adapt to what our
Speaker:customers wanted,
Speaker:that we probably,
Speaker:we wouldn't be in business.
Speaker:Hi, this is John Lee,
Speaker:Dumas of entrepreneur on fire,
Speaker:and you're listening to gifted biz unwrapped,
Speaker:and now it's time to light it up.
Speaker:Welcome to gift bears on wrapped your source for industry specific
Speaker:insights and advice to develop and grow your business.
Speaker:And now here's your host,
Speaker:Sue Mona height.
Speaker:Before we get into the show,
Speaker:I have a question for you.
Speaker:Do you know that you should be out networking,
Speaker:but you just can't get yourself to do it because it's
Speaker:scary. Are you afraid that you might walk into the room
Speaker:and not know anybody or that you're going to freeze?
Speaker:When you get up to do that infamous elevator speech,
Speaker:where you talk about yourself and your business?
Speaker:Well, I'm here to tell you that it doesn't need to
Speaker:be scary.
Speaker:If you know what to do to help you with this,
Speaker:I would like to offer you a coffee chat for the
Speaker:price of buying me a cup of coffee.
Speaker:We can sit down through an online video and I'll tell
Speaker:you everything that I know about networking and how I have
Speaker:personally built two multi-six figure businesses,
Speaker:primarily through networking.
Speaker:You'll walk away with a solid understanding about how networking can
Speaker:truly grow your business.
Speaker:And you're going to have new found confidence because I'm going
Speaker:to give you 10 fill in the blank template that you
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Speaker:opportunity. Just go over to Bitly forward slash network Ninja.
Speaker:That's B I T dot L Y forward slash network Ninja.
Speaker:And now let's move on to the show.
Speaker:Hi, there it's Sue and welcome to the gift biz unwrapped
Speaker:podcast, whether you own a brick and mortar shop sell online
Speaker:or are just getting started,
Speaker:you'll discover a new insight to gain traction and to grow
Speaker:your business.
Speaker:And today I have the pleasure of introducing you to Matt
Speaker:Holmes, Matt and his wife,
Speaker:Jennifer started their retail journey about 12 years ago in downtown
Speaker:Holland, Michigan with a gift and decor store called home and
Speaker:company. It took a couple of years to get to that
Speaker:aha moment.
Speaker:When they realized they were focused on all of the wrong
Speaker:things. Matt and Jennifer had just opened a second concept store
Speaker:called tiptoes.
Speaker:When the recession hit,
Speaker:they knew they needed to do something to adapt.
Speaker:Thankfully they put in place some common sense practices recognizing the
Speaker:importance of their people and trusting their customers.
Speaker:They not only survive the recession,
Speaker:but are thriving today.
Speaker:And I am so excited for myself to hear this whole
Speaker:story and give biz listeners for you to hear the whole
Speaker:story too.
Speaker:Matt, thank you so much for coming on the show.
Speaker:It's my pleasure,
Speaker:Sue. Thank you for inviting me to be a guest.
Speaker:I am happy to be here and excited to share a
Speaker:bit about our story.
Speaker:Well, I've got lots of questions for you.
Speaker:So I like to start off in a little bit of
Speaker:a different way,
Speaker:and that is by having you describe yourself through a motivational
Speaker:candle, we're all creatives here and it just gives us another
Speaker:look at what you're all about.
Speaker:So if you were to describe your ideal motivational candle,
Speaker:what color would it be and what would be the quote
Speaker:on your candle?
Speaker:Oh, interesting.
Speaker:Okay. So,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:the color I'd probably choose is yellow.
Speaker:And I say that because yellow to me is kind of
Speaker:one of those bright warm and like cheerful colors.
Speaker:And it's also a bit of an attention getter.
Speaker:So I guess for me wearing my marketing hat and kind
Speaker:of my human resources hat,
Speaker:I see that as a yellow candle.
Speaker:And in terms of like an inspirational quote,
Speaker:mine would be specific to what I do in terms of
Speaker:the retail business.
Speaker:And, you know,
Speaker:forgive me the originator of this quote.
Speaker:I cannot remember or recall who said this,
Speaker:but there's a quote that stuck with me over the years
Speaker:of our retail journey.
Speaker:And that is that the customer's perception is your reality.
Speaker:And I think that would be the inspiration that I would
Speaker:put on that candle.
Speaker:And so many of the things that I think I'll share
Speaker:with you about was kind of how that realization that,
Speaker:how the customer perceived things was actually our reality.
Speaker:That was part of that aha moment that you alluded to.
Speaker:Oh, interesting.
Speaker:Yeah, because we all know our businesses and know our intent
Speaker:and know what we're trying to project,
Speaker:but really that means nothing.
Speaker:If we're not relaying it that way,
Speaker:it's based on what the customer sees of us.
Speaker:Absolutely. Really important to remember.
Speaker:Great quote for us to start off with let's begin at
Speaker:the beginning.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So let's take it back 12 years ago.
Speaker:What prompted you to start thinking about opening a shop in
Speaker:the first place and I'm making the assumption that it was
Speaker:always retail?
Speaker:Yes, correct.
Speaker:That's a great question.
Speaker:And it's funny actually,
Speaker:because it was about 12 years ago to the day I
Speaker:was recently away at market and my wife was home and
Speaker:I sent her a text and I said,
Speaker:happy anniversary,
Speaker:sweetheart. And it wasn't in reference to our wedding anniversary,
Speaker:which was before the start of our business journey together.
Speaker:But it was in reference to our beginning in business.
Speaker:And I said,
Speaker:it was 12 years ago tonight that we argued about how
Speaker:to count the cash drawer,
Speaker:shared a laugh about that.
Speaker:And of course there's been many things that have come up
Speaker:since then that we've had to figure out how to maneuver
Speaker:it together.
Speaker:But yeah,
Speaker:going back 12 years,
Speaker:we were in a position where I was in real estate
Speaker:and beer was about 2004,
Speaker:2005 when we were making this decision to get in and
Speaker:the real estate market had started to slow.
Speaker:And it was a difficult thing for me to be involved
Speaker:in, in my wife was actually working as an independent merchandiser,
Speaker:doing visual displays for some stores in our town and had
Speaker:experience of growing up in a retail store herself.
Speaker:She has one sibling,
Speaker:she has a twin brother,
Speaker:Jeff, and the two of them growing,
Speaker:working in their parents' retail store always swore to one another
Speaker:and their parents that by no means would they ever get
Speaker:back or be involved in retail.
Speaker:And of course that's not true for us and nor is
Speaker:it for her brother.
Speaker:Who's a retailer up in Trevor city now.
Speaker:Oh, no kidding.
Speaker:That's funny.
Speaker:So anyway,
Speaker:we had this idea that we wanted to create a store
Speaker:that was focused on really decorative items for the home.
Speaker:And we also laugh many times now about how,
Speaker:if the store looked the way that we wanted it to
Speaker:look, and if we weren't willing to change and adapt to
Speaker:what our customers wanted,
Speaker:that we'd probably we wouldn't be in business.
Speaker:So anyway,
Speaker:we started with home and company primarily focused on decor,
Speaker:decorative accessories and a little bit of gifts.
Speaker:And in 2005,
Speaker:we opened to knowing that we wanted to treat people well.
Speaker:And that was about it.
Speaker:To be honest with you,
Speaker:What were you looking for in the first retail location when
Speaker:you were out scoping out locations,
Speaker:what was important to you at that point?
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:it's interesting for us location was important and it's a lesson
Speaker:having opened a couple of different retail locations that certainly when
Speaker:you live through you see and realize,
Speaker:but it's something you can hear over and over.
Speaker:But location was certainly something that was important to us.
Speaker:We chose a spot where we started in downtown Holland,
Speaker:Michigan, which if you're not familiar with our wonderful community,
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:I know you have listeners from all over the place.
Speaker:We have a great town in a tremendous festival and snow
Speaker:melt sidewalks.
Speaker:So in the winter when it snows,
Speaker:the snow magically disappears.
Speaker:So there were a lot of things that led us to
Speaker:say, wow,
Speaker:this is a great location and a place we want to
Speaker:be. But of course there was the trade-off of the higher
Speaker:rent costs and kind of that bigger risk to take on.
Speaker:But the location was probably the number one factor as I
Speaker:think back Is your location still there today?
Speaker:Yes, we are still in the same location that we opened
Speaker:Homeland company in today.
Speaker:In that time we did open up that second business tiptoes,
Speaker:the children's business in 2008.
Speaker:And we opened that on what I would say was like
Speaker:a B location.
Speaker:And we did relocate that to bring it into the main
Speaker:street and downtown a couple of years after opening it.
Speaker:Interesting. Okay.
Speaker:So you had one success in one where you wanted to
Speaker:make a little adjustment.
Speaker:So if you were to give our listeners who might be
Speaker:thinking about a brick and mortar,
Speaker:the three biggest things they should be considering,
Speaker:if they're looking at going that route,
Speaker:what would you say?
Speaker:It's a great question.
Speaker:So, you know,
Speaker:the one I just touched on location is important and we've
Speaker:also in addition to being in a downtown location,
Speaker:we've sent open a location that isn't in a downtown,
Speaker:but it's on a busy interchange if you will,
Speaker:where there's heavy traffic.
Speaker:And so there's kind of those two thoughts.
Speaker:Are you in a center like a mall,
Speaker:a strip center,
Speaker:a downtown environment where there's traffic built in?
Speaker:Although I say those first two,
Speaker:the mall on the strip center with a little bit of
Speaker:caution, because there's certainly a lot of questionable press and things
Speaker:happening with some of the anchor tenants on those on the
Speaker:large mall locations.
Speaker:But anyway,
Speaker:location is an important consideration.
Speaker:And then looking at the lease structure and thinking about what
Speaker:type of commitment you're willing to get into,
Speaker:because there's obviously trade offs on both sides,
Speaker:the longer commitment you sign up front,
Speaker:the more liable you are for something,
Speaker:if your business model does not work out in that location.
Speaker:But of course,
Speaker:if it turns out to be a good location that can
Speaker:also set you up to be in a good position.
Speaker:So location lease and gas or third thing,
Speaker:I guess,
Speaker:would just be how willing the landlord,
Speaker:if you're not in a position to purchase the property,
Speaker:how willing the landlord is to work with you and to
Speaker:help you out.
Speaker:And so I think those three things are pretty critical to
Speaker:navigate and think through as you're considering a brick and mortar
Speaker:location. Okay.
Speaker:When you say work with you do mean like if you
Speaker:needed to separate yourself from a lease or build out situation.
Speaker:Yeah. Both being really critical because just like in anything there's
Speaker:different ownership groups and different opportunities to lease from a variety
Speaker:of people.
Speaker:And I think you can get a sense when you're working
Speaker:with someone,
Speaker:but it's always good to have things in writing too.
Speaker:So if there's some clauses that you can put,
Speaker:in fact,
Speaker:one of the initial leases that we did for a business
Speaker:we opened was that we made it contingent on sales.
Speaker:So the landlord wanted to fill the space and they were
Speaker:willing to work with us and in doing so we put
Speaker:together a lease agreement,
Speaker:which paid them on a percentage of sales.
Speaker:And so in theory,
Speaker:when we had a good month,
Speaker:their rent was higher.
Speaker:And when we had a poor month of sales,
Speaker:we paid less than rent.
Speaker:And so that was a piece of mind for us,
Speaker:kind of a nice security to know that if we struggled,
Speaker:then we were going to pay less.
Speaker:However, over time I went back and renegotiated that lease.
Speaker:Once we had figured out that the concept we had was
Speaker:working, because then it started to favor the landlord and I
Speaker:wanted to of course,
Speaker:renegotiate, Right.
Speaker:And it's in the property.
Speaker:Owner's best interest also to do something creative like this,
Speaker:because once you get a tenant in,
Speaker:you want to keep them for as long as you can,
Speaker:if you're looking from the property owners.
Speaker:Oh, without a doubt.
Speaker:Yeah. They want the same thing,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:both parties,
Speaker:if they truly want the same thing,
Speaker:you can put together a good agreement because yeah.
Speaker:It's absolutely way more costly for the owner to go out
Speaker:and find a new tenant or to do another build out
Speaker:for someone or market the property.
Speaker:So yes,
Speaker:absolutely. So the three things to look at,
Speaker:or the first three things,
Speaker:I guess we should say,
Speaker:Matt's talking about location,
Speaker:your lease structure,
Speaker:what you are committing to also,
Speaker:what's part of that lease in terms of the services that
Speaker:they include versus what you might have to do such as
Speaker:snow removal,
Speaker:electricity, wifi,
Speaker:all of that type of thing.
Speaker:And then how willing they are to work with you,
Speaker:which you have one way to get under that too,
Speaker:I think is to talk to other people who are leasing
Speaker:space from that same person.
Speaker:Yeah. Great point.
Speaker:Yeah. All right.
Speaker:So you got into your first shopping,
Speaker:you were talking already a little bit about how you wanted
Speaker:to set it up one way and you saw your customers
Speaker:needed it set up a different way.
Speaker:Can you give us a little more information on that?
Speaker:Yeah, Well really what it came down to was kind of
Speaker:like the policies and the way we conducted ourselves in the
Speaker:way that we thought about our business.
Speaker:I think in terms of what your product mix is,
Speaker:whatever category you're in,
Speaker:whether it's retail or a home-based business or anything,
Speaker:you always need to be open to adapt.
Speaker:And so like our product mix,
Speaker:we could follow kind of the customer's progression.
Speaker:And part of that was just analyzing what's selling and what's
Speaker:not. But when we really,
Speaker:I think kind of had that aha moment was at about
Speaker:the same time that we opened our second concept store tiptoes,
Speaker:which is a children's store in Holland,
Speaker:Michigan. And if I had had a magic crystal ball or
Speaker:it could see into the future,
Speaker:I don't know that that business would exist today because we
Speaker:actually signed,
Speaker:speaking of lease agreement,
Speaker:signed the lease for that location in December of 2007.
Speaker:So we were coming off what felt like a pretty good
Speaker:holiday season for us at home and company a couple of
Speaker:years into the business.
Speaker:And we thought we were ready to expand and try another
Speaker:concept. And so we signed that lease agreement in December of
Speaker:2007 and opened in April of 2008.
Speaker:And as you know about that time,
Speaker:I'm sure many of the listeners can understand as well that
Speaker:had a dramatic impact.
Speaker:The 2008 economic downturn did not just our home and company
Speaker:business, which was two years old,
Speaker:but also on this new business that we opened.
Speaker:And so frankly,
Speaker:we went into 2009 finishing the 2008 holiday season,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:really up to our eyes and debt and owing vendors,
Speaker:lots of money,
Speaker:having less than anticipated sales and really not having any plans
Speaker:in place for how to deal with those types of things.
Speaker:So it was a very challenging time for us.
Speaker:And the beginning of that,
Speaker:that we're describing and realizing that what we were doing was
Speaker:broken. And if we wanted to stay in business,
Speaker:that we needed to make some serious adjustments.
Speaker:And that was kind of the beginning of many things to
Speaker:come. I think that was really a smart thought process for
Speaker:you guys,
Speaker:because what you could have said is,
Speaker:Oh, it's the economy.
Speaker:This is just what's happening.
Speaker:Oh, poor us.
Speaker:Right. But you didn't,
Speaker:you took control of it and said,
Speaker:all right,
Speaker:yes, this is happening.
Speaker:But this is just one challenge among lots of them that
Speaker:we'll have as business owners.
Speaker:And you looked inside of what could you do?
Speaker:What could you,
Speaker:as the business be responsible for fixing so that,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:you weren't going to shut her,
Speaker:That couldn't be more accurate.
Speaker:And I think that that's one of the most important things.
Speaker:I spoke with a group of some retail peers recently,
Speaker:and we were talking about this.
Speaker:And I think that probably the number one attribute,
Speaker:at least from my perspective,
Speaker:the number one thing that a successful entrepreneur business has to
Speaker:have is that ability to first look in the mirror and
Speaker:to accept responsibility for everything else that's happening in their business
Speaker:and around them.
Speaker:And when we're willing to first address our own faults,
Speaker:rather than like you said,
Speaker:point blame at different things that happen.
Speaker:That's the first step in seeing yourself through any challenge,
Speaker:in my opinion.
Speaker:So what did you do you talk about the fact that
Speaker:you common sense practices is what you're talking about,
Speaker:but then really turning your eye to your people,
Speaker:which I think you're talking about is your employees and then
Speaker:also the customers.
Speaker:So give us a little more detail of what you were
Speaker:able to do to survive during that time.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:I think probably the biggest part of that aha moment was
Speaker:realizing that we had an impact on the customer's experience in
Speaker:our store.
Speaker:And I think up until that point,
Speaker:we knew that we wanted to treat people well,
Speaker:that we wanted to be nice to our customers.
Speaker:And we didn't really expand on that with our staff.
Speaker:We didn't really talk about what that meant.
Speaker:We didn't really put it into terms they could understand,
Speaker:and I don't think we had an unpleasant environment,
Speaker:but we didn't have a sales focused customer service focused environment.
Speaker:And so the first thing that we did is we kind
Speaker:of made a drastic shift and in this,
Speaker:it was a disruption in our norm.
Speaker:And so we did through the process,
Speaker:lose a couple of people and we didn't position it in
Speaker:a way that it was anything reflective on them.
Speaker:It was just that we were going to be making some
Speaker:changes in our business,
Speaker:and if it didn't fit with who they were,
Speaker:then they were okay to go.
Speaker:And I think some of that can be healthy because anytime
Speaker:you need to make a change,
Speaker:some people are able to take change and embrace it.
Speaker:Other people it's just really against their nature and are adverse
Speaker:to change and struggle with it.
Speaker:So the biggest thing that we did was we basically looked
Speaker:at selling as a skill and realized that if we're going
Speaker:to improve our skills,
Speaker:we need to practice our skills.
Speaker:And that was the number one thing that we began to
Speaker:actually train coach and focus time and energy and effort and
Speaker:dollars into develop our service staff.
Speaker:And that was the biggest step forward in the right direction
Speaker:for us.
Speaker:I think that's an interesting mentality to have in terms of,
Speaker:you're just not hiring people to put in hours,
Speaker:work the floor,
Speaker:straightened stock,
Speaker:check customers out,
Speaker:making an investment in your staff.
Speaker:Number one makes them feel more valued and is also obviously
Speaker:doing good things for your business in terms of customer interaction,
Speaker:all of that.
Speaker:Plus it's really nice because it's given those associates added skills
Speaker:that they're going to either use while they're with you or
Speaker:as they move forward.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:We know for some of our people,
Speaker:we're a landing point that some people will come to us
Speaker:and we've been super blessed and fortunate to have people that
Speaker:have been our employee for eight or 10 or 11 years
Speaker:out of the 12 that we've been around.
Speaker:But we also have a variety of young people and people
Speaker:that are kind of using this as a stepping point to
Speaker:the next spot in their career,
Speaker:as much as I would like to think that every person
Speaker:I interview's dream job is to come and work for us.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:I know that people have aspirations that probably go beyond retail
Speaker:a lot of times.
Speaker:And so,
Speaker:yeah, that's exactly right.
Speaker:We love to be able to develop those skills and say
Speaker:to that person in the interview process and through their training,
Speaker:that if you invest yourself into what we're trying to do
Speaker:with you and help you,
Speaker:you're going to take these skills and be able to apply
Speaker:them in all sorts of ways in your life ahead.
Speaker:If we learn how to sell and interact with people and
Speaker:ask good questions and be attentive in that process,
Speaker:those are skills that you can use in job interviews and
Speaker:team meetings with your family and your kids and all throughout
Speaker:life. Absolutely.
Speaker:And you've just defined then what the training looked like in
Speaker:terms of communication and interacting and all of that.
Speaker:And Matt,
Speaker:you and I have chatted a little bit when you were
Speaker:in your summit about how,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:brick and mortar is different than it was even 12 years
Speaker:ago, really,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:as the internet and online and everything has just exploded certainly
Speaker:way different than 20 years ago,
Speaker:having brick and mortar,
Speaker:one of the biggest things that stand out versus people going
Speaker:and buying any type of product online is the experience that
Speaker:you get in the store.
Speaker:Oh yeah,
Speaker:absolutely. So when you talk about the skills that that training
Speaker:did in terms of the communicating,
Speaker:listening to a customer,
Speaker:how did that relate?
Speaker:Like how did the associates change their behaviors when they're talking
Speaker:to a Great question?
Speaker:So I think it's one thing to say,
Speaker:okay, we're going to do this training and we can get
Speaker:a variety of people into a room and you can go
Speaker:through an hour training and everybody can get incredibly excited,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:about it.
Speaker:And you can have these short little interactions,
Speaker:but without the follow-through,
Speaker:and without the accountability piece,
Speaker:things go from real order or a really good to slipping.
Speaker:And so over time,
Speaker:we know that if we don't focus on those things,
Speaker:and it's not part of our regular dialogue,
Speaker:and we're not doing anything to keep people accountable,
Speaker:that those things will slip back.
Speaker:And so for us every day,
Speaker:each person on our staff is required to basically complete a
Speaker:short assignment.
Speaker:So to give you an example of what it looks like
Speaker:in our store,
Speaker:we have rotating daily focuses.
Speaker:We call them and a daily focus might remain the same
Speaker:for about a week or a shorter period of time,
Speaker:but for a couple of days,
Speaker:because not every person works every day,
Speaker:it's okay to be focused on the same thing for a
Speaker:couple of days in a row,
Speaker:I believe two.
Speaker:And so the daily focus might be that after you've helped
Speaker:a customer find something that they're on their way up to
Speaker:the counter at some point in the process that you recommend
Speaker:show or tell the customer about some other product in the
Speaker:store. And so that would be an example of how we're
Speaker:trying to add on.
Speaker:And we look for value added,
Speaker:add on so that a per se,
Speaker:the customer is a gift that we are sure to tell
Speaker:them that we have gift cards and that we have something
Speaker:else that may compliment it.
Speaker:And that would be an example of one daily focus.
Speaker:And so our staff person,
Speaker:when they start their shift is required to do a role
Speaker:play. That's the first part of it.
Speaker:And the role play is a two or three minute piece
Speaker:where they get together with another manager or another peer,
Speaker:and they go through a scenario and it can be the
Speaker:daily focus,
Speaker:or it might be a new product that came in,
Speaker:or it could be anything.
Speaker:Ideally we want them to focus on the things that they
Speaker:believe they need practice it.
Speaker:And so this would be kind of like the practice part.
Speaker:And when I'm talking to staff and we're setting this up
Speaker:and we're reinforcing it,
Speaker:I'm always trying to relate it back to something that makes
Speaker:sense to the staff person I'm talking to.
Speaker:So if I know the person is a musician,
Speaker:for example,
Speaker:and that they play an instrument like the clarinet,
Speaker:I might say to that person,
Speaker:when you're preparing for an event or an orchestra performance,
Speaker:what do you do?
Speaker:How much time do you spend practicing your instrument?
Speaker:How often do you do it?
Speaker:Why do you do that?
Speaker:And what I'm trying to do is build the bridge and
Speaker:help them connect the fact that when they practice their instrument,
Speaker:they became more confident in their performance,
Speaker:enhance their skills.
Speaker:And we're hopefully at the pinnacle of their playing time.
Speaker:It's also more natural if they've tried it a couple of
Speaker:times, it's more likely that they're going to be more natural
Speaker:in front of a customer.
Speaker:Oh, absolutely.
Speaker:And we're very Frank about that too.
Speaker:It's like,
Speaker:look, and when we hire new people,
Speaker:I tell them,
Speaker:it's like,
Speaker:this might be unnatural or feel kind of uncomfortable for you,
Speaker:but I'd much rather have you go through those steps with
Speaker:one of us then with the customer.
Speaker:And so you're a hundred percent right on there.
Speaker:And so anyway,
Speaker:they do the role-play,
Speaker:they fill out just a quick bit of information about the
Speaker:role play.
Speaker:And then throughout the course of the day,
Speaker:they're accountable for writing three instances in which they did the
Speaker:daily focus.
Speaker:And then what the customer's reaction was Interesting.
Speaker:Then what do you do with that?
Speaker:So then when they're done with their daily focus slip,
Speaker:we have a spot where those go and myself or our
Speaker:sales trainer will pull the slips out and we'll read through
Speaker:them and we'll just jot back a short note or two
Speaker:to the staff person.
Speaker:And so basically what we want to do is show the
Speaker:person on the,
Speaker:we're asking to complete this daily focus sheet that we're looking
Speaker:at it and to give them the feedback or encouragement based
Speaker:off of what they've read.
Speaker:This is such a unique approach.
Speaker:I've never heard of this before,
Speaker:nor Matt have I heard of a retail shop having a
Speaker:sales trainer?
Speaker:Hey, well,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:it's interesting,
Speaker:it's certainly an investment to get to that point to make
Speaker:that leap.
Speaker:But the payback is huge,
Speaker:not just in customer retention and increase sales,
Speaker:but what you alluded to earlier too,
Speaker:is what we have found is when the staff feels competent
Speaker:and feels equipped and feels successful,
Speaker:that they frankly enjoy what they're doing more.
Speaker:And it helps us retain our customer service people as well.
Speaker:Totally Agree.
Speaker:That is,
Speaker:so one question comes to mind,
Speaker:I'm wondering how you handle this.
Speaker:Everyone's a little bit different.
Speaker:Some people will feel very comfortable approaching and doing the ad-on
Speaker:type thing,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:identifying another product,
Speaker:just like you were saying,
Speaker:in your example,
Speaker:some people are less comfortable with that.
Speaker:Some people have other types of skills.
Speaker:Do you try to mold things to each employee or do
Speaker:you want them to work the system based on whatever that
Speaker:task the action is for the day,
Speaker:the daily focus?
Speaker:Yeah. Great question.
Speaker:I think I'll kind of answer that in two ways.
Speaker:So we're always aware,
Speaker:or we're always attempting to be aware and to communicate with
Speaker:our staff about where in the store they feel most comfortable
Speaker:in what product they feel most comfortable selling so that we
Speaker:have a realization of that.
Speaker:And when it's busy,
Speaker:we try to station or position those people into the spots
Speaker:that make the most sense for them based on that.
Speaker:But in terms of like the daily focus,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:and the attempts to add on,
Speaker:we would rather try to do then give the person a
Speaker:pass on that is reemphasize,
Speaker:why it's important.
Speaker:And it was actually someone else in the retail world,
Speaker:a fellow by the name of Bob Nagan with the whizzbang
Speaker:training. And I sat in a conference and you just take
Speaker:little snippets from different people that you hear.
Speaker:And he had shared this story and it always stuck with
Speaker:me going back probably like 10 years ago now about a
Speaker:visit to his eyeglass doctor and the poor experience he ended
Speaker:up having,
Speaker:because the eyeglass doctor didn't tell him about all the things
Speaker:that he might potentially need for his bifocals.
Speaker:And it ended up resulting in more trips.
Speaker:And so what we try to help that salesperson understand is
Speaker:that attempting to add on,
Speaker:if we look at it in terms of just attempting to
Speaker:sell the customer something,
Speaker:because we want to add on to our sales,
Speaker:that's not the goal.
Speaker:What we're trying to do is sell the customer something that
Speaker:they may not otherwise have seen or may not have otherwise
Speaker:realized, could enhance their purchase.
Speaker:And so we'll try to work through some kind of real-world
Speaker:in store examples of what that can look like to help
Speaker:that person,
Speaker:rather than just give them a pass on it altogether.
Speaker:I really appreciate that explanation because I've been in situations where
Speaker:I'll walk into a store and I'll have something.
Speaker:And, you know,
Speaker:I was fully intending on whatever I've found now I'm going
Speaker:to purchase and someone will come up to me and show
Speaker:me something.
Speaker:And clearly they've had some add on training or,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:they've been told to bump their sales or something,
Speaker:and they are showing me something that we never talked about.
Speaker:Doesn't relate to the product that I have.
Speaker:Like it's a total disconnect.
Speaker:And it's clear that it's for the stores financial gain,
Speaker:not by gain as a customer Distinction between the two absolutely
Speaker:Completely. So we've talked about the fact that the experience is
Speaker:everything and that totally,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:in terms of interacting with your employees and then also with
Speaker:the customer in mind,
Speaker:which goes back to your candle quote,
Speaker:all of that in-store experience is so,
Speaker:so, so important to brick and mortar right now.
Speaker:What else are you seeing is helping bring people in the
Speaker:door? You know,
Speaker:I really think that we've got to do as brick and
Speaker:mortar retail.
Speaker:We have to differentiate ourselves from not just the big box
Speaker:stores, but the other experiences that customers are choosing between when
Speaker:they choose to come to us.
Speaker:And so,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:obviously having a dynamic product mix and having product that the
Speaker:customer wants is important,
Speaker:product price,
Speaker:all those different things.
Speaker:So having product.
Speaker:And then I think doing things that while the customer,
Speaker:and one of my big focuses in terms of marketing and
Speaker:keeping our business in the top of customers' minds has been
Speaker:this philosophy of the givers get.
Speaker:And so doing promotions and things that stand out from what
Speaker:everybody else is doing and being willing to kind of take
Speaker:some risks and think outside of the box.
Speaker:Can you give us an example?
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:I work with a group of retailers that we have stores
Speaker:spread all over the country.
Speaker:We're a part of this independent buying group called the Southwest
Speaker:buying group.
Speaker:And among member stores,
Speaker:there's gosh,
Speaker:maybe like 500 rooftop location.
Speaker:So it's quite a large network of people sharing and such.
Speaker:And again,
Speaker:kind of as a side note,
Speaker:if you're listening out there and you're not connected with other
Speaker:people that are doing similar things to what you're trying to
Speaker:do in your industry,
Speaker:whatever you are,
Speaker:a craft or a retail store owner Baker,
Speaker:or whatever,
Speaker:do what you can to reach out and make some connections
Speaker:with other people that are in your profession and outside of
Speaker:your trade area.
Speaker:So as a side note,
Speaker:sorry to jump away from the question too,
Speaker:but that just kind of popped into my mind.
Speaker:That's been one of the,
Speaker:probably most dynamic things that's impacted our business.
Speaker:So reach out and connect,
Speaker:but where I'm going with this is to a promotion that
Speaker:we did successfully now for a couple of years running,
Speaker:one of the,
Speaker:like kind of the staple items in our area where it
Speaker:gets cool in the winter.
Speaker:Well, frankly,
Speaker:cold in the winter and is the fleece line leggings.
Speaker:And so,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:the leggings are very popular now it's kind of the base
Speaker:to many different tops that ladies are using to wear.
Speaker:And at our store home and company,
Speaker:we have a small fashion area.
Speaker:And so we have been able to negotiate some great pricing
Speaker:the last few years on these fleece lined leggings and everybody
Speaker:else bar none in our entire group is going out at
Speaker:a price.
Speaker:I believe of like nine 99 on these leggings or seven
Speaker:99. Perhaps we run specials in the holiday season with these
Speaker:leggings, not much above our cost at three 99.
Speaker:And the quality of the legging is phenomenal.
Speaker:People literally can't believe it when they try it on in
Speaker:many, many times throughout the season,
Speaker:we have people that aren't even customers coming into our store
Speaker:because so-and-so told them about this unbelievable knock your socks off
Speaker:offer. And everybody in the group thought I was a little
Speaker:bit crazy for this,
Speaker:but we still,
Speaker:I don't know,
Speaker:eight or nine pair of fleece lined leggings and created an
Speaker:incredible buzz,
Speaker:which brought all of these people in multiple times in the
Speaker:last six weeks leading up to Christmas when Gus what they
Speaker:had to buy Christmas gifts.
Speaker:And so that was one example of how we were willing
Speaker:to like step away and outside of the box,
Speaker:because what we weren't so caught up on was protecting the
Speaker:margin in the leggings.
Speaker:But we were using that instead as a tool to drive
Speaker:more visits to our store.
Speaker:Got it.
Speaker:You weren't losing money on the deal,
Speaker:correct? Yeah.
Speaker:But you had it super low priced and only available in
Speaker:the store,
Speaker:not online Matt,
Speaker:Correct? Yes,
Speaker:absolutely. And sometimes,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:we may even have an incredible stack Sioux,
Speaker:but I may put a sign limit X number per customer
Speaker:to encourage again,
Speaker:repeat visits and also create kind of that sense of urgency.
Speaker:You little sneak there's this book I read that said,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:all marketers are liars and then it had it crossed out
Speaker:and said storytellers.
Speaker:And I said,
Speaker:okay, I'll go,
Speaker:I'll go with that.
Speaker:I think That would be Seth Goden.
Speaker:Is that right?
Speaker:That sounds right.
Speaker:Yeah. I love that.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So that is an excellent,
Speaker:excellent idea for lots of us super because you get them
Speaker:in the store and maybe they've known of the business before
Speaker:they've driven by,
Speaker:cause you already are in good locations,
Speaker:but nothing has really gotten people to enter through that front
Speaker:door before.
Speaker:Absolutely. Another part of that,
Speaker:that's pretty critical Sue that I believe is that once the
Speaker:customer is in the store and they make that decision that
Speaker:they're going to purchase,
Speaker:so that customers come in,
Speaker:maybe it was the fleece sign leggings that got them in,
Speaker:or maybe it's some loud deal on something else or whatever
Speaker:it is when the customer makes that decision,
Speaker:they're going to purchase,
Speaker:they're going to take out their wallet or their purse.
Speaker:And they're going to move to the counter.
Speaker:I believe that the customers at that point much more susceptible
Speaker:that finding other things to fall in love with,
Speaker:in our stores as well.
Speaker:I would agree they're already going to be opening their wallet.
Speaker:So what else is there that they need?
Speaker:You got it.
Speaker:So we're good.
Speaker:I'm in that thought process.
Speaker:And then,
Speaker:Hey, then we'll take over and do our job to show
Speaker:them a bunch of fun stuff and make it happen.
Speaker:Couple of questions for you.
Speaker:Are you able to retain some type of connection with that
Speaker:customer once they've purchased for the first time email or somehow
Speaker:be able to communicate with them later?
Speaker:Yeah. Great point.
Speaker:So we have a few standards in our business that no
Speaker:matter what everybody must do.
Speaker:And you know,
Speaker:you asked earlier about kind of like the training and how
Speaker:we train.
Speaker:We don't want people to speak in a robotic way to
Speaker:repeat a script like the ten-year-old that's trying to sell me
Speaker:cookies and it's was just reading off their paper.
Speaker:We want emotion to come through in the person.
Speaker:But one of our non-negotiable things that every person must do
Speaker:is at the point of checkout,
Speaker:we ask every customer whether or not they're part of our
Speaker:preferred customer club.
Speaker:And so yes,
Speaker:we do make an attempt and we don't take the first
Speaker:objection. We train how to overcome objections and what some of
Speaker:those common objections are.
Speaker:And so I'm proud to say that that was one of
Speaker:the things also that we implemented in early 2008 and at
Speaker:home and company today,
Speaker:we have over 20,000
Speaker:preferred customer club members.
Speaker:Wow. Yeah.
Speaker:And have some 4,000
Speaker:email opens on each email blasts that we do so very,
Speaker:very valuable part of our business.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:Yes. So successful with that,
Speaker:for sure.
Speaker:Especially the opens that tells me that you're putting some good
Speaker:information in those emails.
Speaker:Yeah. Trying to,
Speaker:what do they look like?
Speaker:Well, you know,
Speaker:pretty consistent.
Speaker:And so one of the things that we want to try
Speaker:and do is keep them pretty short.
Speaker:And typically we want to tell something that's happening in our
Speaker:community. And so we never want to be solely focused on
Speaker:just promotion.
Speaker:So we want to have a little bit of a voice.
Speaker:So we'll share like a calendar of events and call attention
Speaker:to something that's going on.
Speaker:Whether it's a free concert series or a festival of some
Speaker:sort or whatever.
Speaker:And then we'll highlight something.
Speaker:That's not a sale item,
Speaker:but it's typically a new product or great for the season.
Speaker:And then we'll also highlight some type of offer,
Speaker:call to action.
Speaker:Everyone knows that when an email comes from you,
Speaker:it's not going to be so salesy.
Speaker:They're going to see some opportunity there,
Speaker:but they'll also be some good information for leisure time or
Speaker:well, you know,
Speaker:whatever it might be.
Speaker:Yeah. Quick question.
Speaker:Before we kind of close this part up,
Speaker:we've talked a lot about product mix because when someone comes
Speaker:in, you want to make sure that they're seeing something that
Speaker:they want to purchase in the beginning.
Speaker:Of course,
Speaker:you're just guessing,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:you're going to buy whatever you think your customer's gonna want.
Speaker:Clearly you can track what's working through sales.
Speaker:Is there any other way that you're gauging what types of
Speaker:products when you go to market and are starting to replenish
Speaker:inventory and spice things up and get new things?
Speaker:How do you know what to narrow in on?
Speaker:Yeah. If I only had a great answer for that question,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:that's part of the challenge and part of what we enjoy.
Speaker:And of course what you said,
Speaker:watching your sales and your analytics is an important part to
Speaker:that. We read different trade magazines.
Speaker:And of course our,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:always have an eye on social media and different things because
Speaker:oftentimes things can pop up out of there,
Speaker:but I really go back probably to that networking piece.
Speaker:So when I go to market,
Speaker:I spend about as much time networking with other retailers as
Speaker:I do working the sales floor or working on the show
Speaker:floor, I should say.
Speaker:And so just as I'll share information with them,
Speaker:they will with me.
Speaker:And I've always felt like if I know that something is
Speaker:working in a couple of different areas,
Speaker:or I hear it from a few different retailers I'll approach
Speaker:that line or that concept with a little more confidence than
Speaker:I would just discovering it on my own.
Speaker:Very interesting.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:The final question here,
Speaker:I think it's so funny that your wife and her twin
Speaker:brother said they would never go into retail and here they
Speaker:are, Your in-laws Can probably do some of those.
Speaker:I told you so,
Speaker:but she is doing merchandising,
Speaker:right? Yes.
Speaker:So any tips for our listeners on displays?
Speaker:Yeah. So in addition to her doing merchandising,
Speaker:we actually employed two people that do merchandising for us at
Speaker:our various stores and that's their only job.
Speaker:So they come in and they're dedicated solely to that.
Speaker:And I think if you have a brick and mortar store,
Speaker:you've probably experienced this before,
Speaker:when you get in something and you're super excited about it
Speaker:and you get it out on the floor and for whatever
Speaker:reason sales,
Speaker:aren't what you anticipated.
Speaker:Sometimes it simply takes a move or a fresh look to
Speaker:bring that into the customer's view better or to give it
Speaker:a better shot.
Speaker:And so we believe that with merchandising that the most important
Speaker:part of that is keeping the store looking and feeling fresh.
Speaker:And so again,
Speaker:it's one of those things that we want to do to
Speaker:encourage the customer to come back as often as possible.
Speaker:And so if someone was in our store four weeks ago
Speaker:and they came back in today,
Speaker:the store would have not a completely different look and feel
Speaker:because our staple products are going to maintain their space,
Speaker:but to be neat and orderly in their presentation.
Speaker:But our impact displays our front displays.
Speaker:The first things the customer sees that are more seasonal or
Speaker:geared towards what's going on,
Speaker:there's where we want to see the change in the movement.
Speaker:And the same is true for our windows.
Speaker:And I think that when you make that investment,
Speaker:it tells the customer something maybe subconsciously or subtly that there's
Speaker:things happening at this business.
Speaker:This is an interesting place to be and kind of creates
Speaker:that sense of discovery if you will.
Speaker:So how Often do you change them?
Speaker:Windows? The windows Are changed.
Speaker:Probably. It depends again on the focus.
Speaker:So they were changed for father's day and now they're 4th
Speaker:of July themed.
Speaker:And so after the 4th of July,
Speaker:we'll transition into general summer.
Speaker:So weeks they'll transition into fall.
Speaker:And so they'll probably have to change outs in the fall
Speaker:and then transition into Christmas.
Speaker:So every three to four or so weeks,
Speaker:but we don't like it to get much longer than four
Speaker:weeks. That's for sure.
Speaker:That's perfect information and so important because you're right.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:it freshening it up does say,
Speaker:just like you're talking about that,
Speaker:there's something going on that you're really attentive to the business.
Speaker:Have you ever gone by shops and you're seeing the same
Speaker:thing in the windows that was there even three months ago
Speaker:or heaven forbid you see some tinsel from Christmas now,
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:there's this store downtown that they've been in business for like
Speaker:115 years now,
Speaker:I won't say the name,
Speaker:but they have in their windows celebrating 100 years and it's
Speaker:like through 2004 and it's like,
Speaker:the same sticker has been there now for 13 years,
Speaker:it's like update your sticker.
Speaker:Well, you know,
Speaker:it's those subtle things that you may be as a customer,
Speaker:you don't even really recognize it,
Speaker:but there's something about the store that just isn't as exciting.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:you can't even necessarily put your finger on it,
Speaker:but it's those little subtle things for sure.
Speaker:All right,
Speaker:man, let's switch this up a little bit and talk about
Speaker:you and Jennifer in terms of how you've been able to
Speaker:carry on and be successful,
Speaker:brick and mortars.
Speaker:We have seen,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:best intentions for all the things you've talked about.
Speaker:Have kept you going,
Speaker:but what is it about you to maybe yourself or maybe
Speaker:Jennifer or trait that has helped you guys either stay in
Speaker:business or be able to stay in business together?
Speaker:Because that's also a challenge.
Speaker:Yeah, definitely.
Speaker:We laugh about that a lot.
Speaker:And of course in business you have different opinions and then
Speaker:being a husband and wife and navigating those opinions and being
Speaker:respectful to one another.
Speaker:So anyway,
Speaker:we've certainly navigated through a lot of things to put a
Speaker:word with it or an attribute.
Speaker:I think that just maintaining the focus on continuous improvement and
Speaker:having that determination that never really satisfied.
Speaker:And so I think that it's maybe a blessing and a
Speaker:curse to say,
Speaker:I've never feel satisfied.
Speaker:That's not necessarily true either because I'm very satisfied in what
Speaker:we do.
Speaker:I love the work that we do.
Speaker:I love going to work every day,
Speaker:but in terms of being satisfied with the sales or with
Speaker:where we're at in our business,
Speaker:I think that just in kind of going back to what
Speaker:I said with the candle thing,
Speaker:when we want to complain about something being accepting and open
Speaker:to looking at how you're impacting that result.
Speaker:So if I'm upset about the way someone treated,
Speaker:someone that I saw at the counter to not be upset
Speaker:first with that person,
Speaker:the sales person,
Speaker:but to first look and say,
Speaker:when is the last time I've had a touch point or
Speaker:a on the floor coaching interaction with that sales person,
Speaker:and maybe it's been three or four weeks,
Speaker:or maybe it's been longer,
Speaker:or maybe it was just the other day.
Speaker:I don't know what the answer is.
Speaker:It depends on the situation.
Speaker:But first looking,
Speaker:I guess,
Speaker:at oneself and realizing there are things that I can do
Speaker:and that I'm responsible for,
Speaker:and I'm not going to settle or point blame.
Speaker:I probably gave way more than one attribute or something.
Speaker:But anyway,
Speaker:I hope that makes sense to you.
Speaker:No, I think it's a really,
Speaker:really important statement because as a business owner,
Speaker:you could blame as much as you want or to your
Speaker:point, you know,
Speaker:well, what is it that I could be doing better to
Speaker:affect the situation?
Speaker:So it doesn't happen again,
Speaker:is the way you're going to be able to lead to
Speaker:success. Because if you're always blaming,
Speaker:yeah, that's great.
Speaker:You may take the responsibility off of you,
Speaker:but sales,
Speaker:aren't going to go up employees.
Speaker:Aren't going to feel satisfied and what could potentially happen to
Speaker:the business.
Speaker:The other thing I like that you're talking about with continuous
Speaker:improvement is also,
Speaker:if you keep changing,
Speaker:you stay relevant.
Speaker:If you watch what's going on in the environment,
Speaker:you make adjustments so that you stay important to your customers
Speaker:bringing in the right product.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:it goes through every aspect of the company,
Speaker:right? So I think that continuous improvement is fabulous.
Speaker:I appreciate your talking about it in that manner.
Speaker:Is there any tool that you're using you have for sure.
Speaker:Two stores,
Speaker:did I kind of hear,
Speaker:there's a third story in there somewhere.
Speaker:Yeah. We have two ladies fashion boutiques,
Speaker:Jean Marie's as well Holding out on us.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:I don't want to get too complicated with the story.
Speaker:Those came along a little later,
Speaker:but yes we do.
Speaker:Okay. So now not only multiple locations,
Speaker:but multiple focuses and different brand names.
Speaker:So there's a lot for you to manage here.
Speaker:What type of tools or what do you use to kind
Speaker:of keep everything under control?
Speaker:Yeah. Great question.
Speaker:Honestly, it's maybe not so much a tool as it's just
Speaker:something you have to develop.
Speaker:I believe in yourself and it's trust.
Speaker:And to have people that you can trust to take over
Speaker:the things that you don't need to be directly in control
Speaker:of. And that was probably one of our biggest challenges in
Speaker:the first few years of growing our business.
Speaker:And to some degree,
Speaker:probably a good thing,
Speaker:because as you develop your business and you're developing what your
Speaker:brand is and who your identity is,
Speaker:there are certainly things that you want and need to control.
Speaker:But what I'm talking about are the day-to-day things that we
Speaker:sometimes feel like we need to do.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:and I mean,
Speaker:just the other day I'm sitting in my office is in
Speaker:the basement of one of our stores.
Speaker:And so on my long day,
Speaker:sometimes I don't get upstairs and see the sunlight for several
Speaker:hours. And the other day I'm sitting down there and I'm
Speaker:plugging away and I spent a couple of hours and what
Speaker:was I doing?
Speaker:I was making labels or I was doing some small tasks
Speaker:that I felt like at that moment needed to be done.
Speaker:And I needed to be the one in control of it.
Speaker:But I think that in order for us to grow,
Speaker:we need to realize that we have people who are talented
Speaker:around us.
Speaker:Their ideas may not always be the same as ours.
Speaker:And that's good too.
Speaker:We have a great manager for our Jean.
Speaker:Marie's our ladies clothing business.
Speaker:She's very young and she has a lot of great ideas.
Speaker:And she'll bring to me an idea about this thing.
Speaker:She wants to try for a marketing event or something,
Speaker:and she'll explain it to me.
Speaker:And she'll say,
Speaker:what do you think?
Speaker:And I'll say,
Speaker:what do you think?
Speaker:And she'll tell me why she thinks it's a good idea.
Speaker:And I'll say,
Speaker:that's wonderful.
Speaker:Marcy, give it a shot.
Speaker:If it doesn't work,
Speaker:let's not repeat it.
Speaker:If it does,
Speaker:let's tweak it and improve it and keep doing it.
Speaker:And I think giving your people some power and some authority
Speaker:to make decisions and to resolve some matters that don't tie
Speaker:you up and making those kinds of mundane decisions and bogging
Speaker:you down so that you have time to focus on the
Speaker:most important points to grow your business.
Speaker:Absolutely. I can hear just by that story,
Speaker:I understand why people stay with you as long as they
Speaker:do, because you give them ownership in the success of their
Speaker:locations too,
Speaker:and let them do their creative ideas in terms of business
Speaker:building, without having to make the financial investment of a business
Speaker:of their own.
Speaker:It's kind of like,
Speaker:they still do have the business of their own because it's
Speaker:their idea.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:So where else you're talking about how you're networking and you're
Speaker:part of the buying groups and all of that,
Speaker:where else,
Speaker:or what other things do you tap into so that you
Speaker:make sure you stay relevant in the business,
Speaker:whether it's,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:books or conferences or masterminds,
Speaker:whatever. Yeah.
Speaker:The mastermind thing is huge.
Speaker:We have a network of,
Speaker:out of that larger group of retailers where we share consistently
Speaker:we have a smaller group of about 14 or so of
Speaker:us that share on deeper levels and have intentionally scheduled phone
Speaker:conferences and callings with one another.
Speaker:So that's a huge part of it,
Speaker:but I also believe if anybody recommends a great book,
Speaker:I love picking it up.
Speaker:It's the one thing I wish I had more time to
Speaker:read, but in the last year,
Speaker:I've also really fallen in love with and discovered exactly what
Speaker:you're doing in terms of the podcast.
Speaker:And I think the podcast,
Speaker:the amount of information that you can get that's out there
Speaker:and just readily available to us and at our fingertips is
Speaker:tremendous. And so just trying to be a lifelong learner and
Speaker:soak up anything,
Speaker:taking every little bit I can.
Speaker:And that's one of the things that I think is awesome
Speaker:about being an entrepreneur and being in business is that it's
Speaker:kind of like this giant social experiment.
Speaker:And if we make enough little tweaks,
Speaker:the end result can be very beneficial.
Speaker:Totally agree with you and give biz listeners.
Speaker:I know you like audio since you're listening to the podcast.
Speaker:And as Matt is saying,
Speaker:same thing for him,
Speaker:he's gathering a lot of information and there's so much available
Speaker:for free.
Speaker:Also books are available on audio.
Speaker:I've teamed up with audible,
Speaker:which is one of the places where you can go and
Speaker:get audio books.
Speaker:And I would like to offer if you haven't done so
Speaker:already a free audible book on me.
Speaker:All you need to do is go to gift biz,
Speaker:book.com and make a selection there.
Speaker:That's gift is book.com.
Speaker:Okay, Matt,
Speaker:I would like you now to dare to dream,
Speaker:I'd like to present you with a virtual gift.
Speaker:It's a magical box containing unlimited possibilities for your future.
Speaker:So this is your dream or your goal of almost unreachable
Speaker:Heights that you would wish to obtain.
Speaker:Please accept this gift and open it in our presence.
Speaker:What is inside your box?
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Wow. That's kind of the,
Speaker:sky's the limit here?
Speaker:It's that law of attraction type thing.
Speaker:Yes, I guess for me,
Speaker:it's probably the most common term that I hear used in
Speaker:our industry.
Speaker:A lot is in it.
Speaker:What I would open in your presence would be this crystal
Speaker:ball and it would be a crystal ball that I could
Speaker:look into and ask questions about what's going to sell,
Speaker:what should I buy?
Speaker:Where should I be?
Speaker:What should we be doing?
Speaker:Because I think that most things in our store environment,
Speaker:of course we have control over.
Speaker:And the one thing that we don't necessarily always have control
Speaker:over is what new products coming in and where are we
Speaker:should be investing our dollars.
Speaker:And so I guess for me,
Speaker:it would just be that magic crystal ball and it would
Speaker:solve all my problems.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:Okay. Then if people want to see more of what home
Speaker:and company is all about,
Speaker:where would be a good single place for them to go?
Speaker:Yeah. You know,
Speaker:as good as a job as we do in the brick
Speaker:and mortar aspect of it,
Speaker:our online sales are very much lagging.
Speaker:So if you go and you search our direct sales websites,
Speaker:you'll probably be somewhat disappointed.
Speaker:But my outlook on that has been,
Speaker:I can either be a small fish in an extremely vast
Speaker:ocean, or I can be a big fish in a small
Speaker:pond and really focus on what we do well.
Speaker:So I think online,
Speaker:the more accurate representation of really who we are is probably
Speaker:in our social media,
Speaker:on our Facebook pages.
Speaker:And you can find us by searching facebook.com
Speaker:forward slash home and company or forward slash Jean Marie's store.
Speaker:And you could check out a little bit about what we
Speaker:do. One thing that your listeners,
Speaker:some of them might enjoy is in our Jean Marie's store
Speaker:on Facebook.
Speaker:We do a lot of live Facebook fashion shows.
Speaker:And so one of the ways that we reach our customers
Speaker:is through the live Facebook fashion show,
Speaker:which if you happen to take a look at it,
Speaker:you'll see what I mean.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:I know we'll have listeners going over to that for sure.
Speaker:I am.
Speaker:I know I am and give his listeners.
Speaker:You also know that there's a show notes page that will
Speaker:be connected with this episode.
Speaker:So I'll have all the links there of websites and the
Speaker:Facebook pages for sure.
Speaker:And I'll even put fashion show live or something there.
Speaker:So that you'll know exactly which one that is.
Speaker:So you'll have it all set for you.
Speaker:So, okay,
Speaker:Matt, thank you so much.
Speaker:I really appreciate all of the information that you've given while
Speaker:we were talking.
Speaker:I'm kind of thinking like,
Speaker:I might want to move there and work for you because
Speaker:I really like the passion that you have for the personal
Speaker:aspect of it.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:interaction with the employees,
Speaker:interaction with the customers,
Speaker:not placing the blame game,
Speaker:but turning the mirror on yourself,
Speaker:as you're saying.
Speaker:And I think all of those are such good skills.
Speaker:It's no surprise to me how successful you are.
Speaker:And may your candle always,
Speaker:always burned bright.
Speaker:Where are you in your business building journey,
Speaker:whether you're just starting out or already running a business,
Speaker:and you want to know your setup for success,
Speaker:find out why taking the gift biz quiz,
Speaker:access the quiz from your computer at Vic dot L Y
Speaker:slash gift biz quiz or from your phone by texting gift
Speaker:biz quiz to four four two,
Speaker:two, two.
Speaker:Thanks for listening and be sure to join us for the
Speaker:next episode.
Speaker:Today's show is sponsored by the ribbon print company,
Speaker:looking for a new income source for your gift business.
Speaker:Customization is more popular now than ever branded products.
Speaker:Have your logo or print a happy birthday,
Speaker:Jessica Rubin to a gift right at checkout,
Speaker:it's all done right in your shop or across studio in
Speaker:seconds. Check her for ribbon print company.com
Speaker:for more information after you listened to the show,
Speaker:if you like what you're hearing,
Speaker:make sure to jump over and subscribe to the show on
Speaker:iTunes. That way you'll automatically get the newest episode when they
Speaker:go live.
Speaker:And thank you to those who have already left a rating
Speaker:and review by subscribing rating and reviewing help to increase the
Speaker:visibility of gifts on ramp.
Speaker:It's a great way to pay it forward,
