A Friday note from someone who’s been where you are. Every Friday morning since August 2021 — a story from the shop floor, and a point you can actually use.
“The best competition I have is against myself to become better.” — John Wooden “Mom, it’s ok – I am finished with 75 Hard…” Heard of 75 Hard, a wellness challenge? Choose a healthy diet, exercise twice a day (once outside), read 10 pages of a non-fiction self-help book, drink only non-alcholic beverages – including…
“You’ll be more different if you learn from peopleother than those near you.” — AmyFay Had some drama this week. Debated whether I should share – but I think we have all been there. So I am. Have you ever had another store located near you come look at everything you carry and then try…
Tsundoku: the act of acquiring books and letting them pile up without reading them I bought another book this week. Big Ideas Little Pictures by Jono Hey, Creator of Sketchplanations. If I were practicing Tsundoku, I would not know what that meant. LOL.It was one of the big ideas that hit me as I thoroughly…
“The smallest viable audience isn’t a compromise. It’s the point.” — Seth Godin Every week I write to you. At first everything was hard – the content, style, format – all of it. It’s still a challenge, but I have learned to only think about you – local retailers in TN and KY. You are…
“If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.” — Tony Robbins When I was a retailer I would describe my buying style as intuitive with eye-balling. I was good. I loved it. I sold a ton for the space my business occupied. But if I knew then what I know…
“The terms ‘in the black’ and ‘in the red’ are commonly used in accounting to indicate a company’s financial status.‘In the black’ signifies profitability, as profits were traditionally recorded in black ink, while ‘in the red’ denotes losses, recorded in red ink.” — ChatGPT Friday after Thanksgiving Black Friday got its name decades ago as…
“Lifetime Value is the total value of a customer’s business over the lifetime of their relationship with your company.” — Josh Kaufman When our 3 sons were still at home, our grocery bill was a lot more than it is today. I shopped at the grocery closest to our home that had the best specials…
“People are actually craving those in-person interactions.” — Neil Patel, marketing expert As I chatted with one of you this week who is moving to a larger space, she mentioned she was trying to get her business online, too. After my sympathetic overwhelmed moment passed, I thought, I need to remind her about her unique…
“Strategy is a better plan.It’s the hard work of choosing what to do today to make tomorrow better.” — Seth Godin, This is Strategy Back in my retailer days I thought Christmas meant I needed to carry a bunch of Christmas stuff – ornaments, frames, towels – all the things. I would start getting freaked…
“…the generous act of helping someone solve a problem.” — Seth Godin’s definition of marketing Two kinds of marketing -by Seth Godin from his published calendar Friday, March 22, 2024 “There’s the kind that no one can possibly like. The pop-ups, pop-unders, high-pressure, track-your-private-data, scammy, interruptive, overpriced, overhyped, under-designed, selfish nonsense that some people engage…