• Put in fresh product
• Maintain machine
• Tweak and upgrade as needed.
• Dump inventory in machine when gets stale.
• Price product in machine to pay for spoilage so you won't get hurt by throwing old and stale candy bars in the trash.
• Products from machine #1 should pay bills and help fund installing machine # 2.
• Once you get machine #2 install, go back to list and start over.

This is the mantra in most ALL other retail industries. Clothing, cars, furniture, shoes ALL do above, except they don't do much OTC (car dealers do-they buy low, sell higher and guess what? They don't keep OTC cars long at all. Can't make money on a car? Bad buy? They sell below their cost to unload.)


Should a jewelry store reduce inventory more?

>>> A Turn of 1 or better in a jewelry store goes to the check register. Turn is improved TWO WAYS. Both ways help a business. They ways to increase turn?

1. SELL MORE ITEMS. (selling reduces inventory-customer takes it off your hands.
2. DUMP IT IF IT DOESN'T SELL. Now this is EXACTLY the same thing as #1. Why? YOU SELL IT TO SOMEONE! It’s just the difference in the selling price. A sale is a sale is a sale.


Should we wait on capital improvements in business?

>>> Little by little. Do what OTHER jewelers aren't doing. I spoke to a jeweler this week who has TWO stores in new Jersey. 30% increase THIS YEAR. He's closing a store to move to a new location doubling his square footage. More in a moment, after a word from our sponsor. If nothing big, now's the time to renovate the showroom, make it look better. A coat of paint, new displays, change the stock around inside of the showcases.


Increase advertising?

>>> ABSOLUTELY! Almost every jeweler who told me they had more business increased advertising, even if they couldn't afford it and it worked. Even bad advertising is better than none. If you look at the banner ad, John Stafford has a website for selling his type of advertising: http://www.bestjewelryspots.com

It works for him and others. Its memorable. They days of a jeweler sitting in front of a camera saying "we're such a nice store-shop us" is over. Increase advertising. Make it memorable one.


Save money and just sit on cash?

>>> Only sit on cash on days of the week that start with the letters
1. S
2. M
3. T
4. W

How much? Maintain a checkbook balance of a minimum of four payroll periods. More if you can.


Trim payroll further before the next wave of recession hits?

>>> "David Geller told me to fire you!"

>>> Great excuse, someone else said to. Get rid of people who can't sell, who won't work, who whine, who rub you the wrong way. It hurts everyone. I have a friend who bought a Val Pak franchise here in Atlanta, took it from ground floor and had when he sold it 20 salesman out in Atlanta. Sold it for MILLIONS to the Atlanta newspaper. He told me he ALWAYS fired the bottom 10%, looking to bring everyone up a notch.

>>> Pay sinful wages. Sinful.


How does one plan for an upcoming recessionary cycle, without shooting themselves in the business foot?

>>> If you did above you could have always been planning and will be ready.


What to do, what to do?

>>> Ask your staff for suggestions. I was just sent an email from a friend about Sandy Koufax , a world great pitcher. In the 60's he had a slump so he asked his fellow ball players what to do. They gave him things he hadn't thought about. Here are a few paragraphs from the posting on Sandy Koufax:

"In that spring training he asked Norm Sherry for help. The Dodgers catcher urged Koufax, a lefty, to throw more curveballs and change-ups to keep hitters guessing.

Koufax had heard that before, but his pride had rejected the idea. This time, knowing his career was at a crossroads, he changed his attitude and embraced the suggestion.

KOUFAX's KEYS

Won one Most Valuable Player and three Cy Young awards.

"The trick is to let your emotional energy build up gradually so that it will be there to be tapped when you need it at the end."

Sherry also instructed Koufax to ease up on his release for a smoother delivery. Koufax would still have enough velocity on his pitches to overpower batters, Sherry said.

Koufax decided to stop focusing on being just a power pitcher. His game now was based on strategy.

Before, he'd pitch a few seconds after the catcher returned the ball. He now took time to use the rosin bag, made sure to breathe deeply and gave himself pep talks before releasing the ball. It gave him time to think about his next pitch."


>>> You'd be amazed what REGULAR STORE MEETINGS Do for morale, energy and direction. If you'll allow employees to speak their mind, WRITE THE IDEAS down and not say "Yes, but.." and just listen ideas will flow. And PAY for ideas.

>>> Regular once a month management meetings, even if there is only 3 of you, work wonders. Print the P&l the way I SET IT UP (accountants P&L is for the birds) and look at POS reports on fast sellers, GMROI and turn reports and aged inventory and have an action plan to do a LITTLE SOMETHING every month and it will work.

>>> Most doomsayers are DEAD WRONG!!!!! Most posts say the world is coming to an end. Economy as we know it will end, you will not have food to eat, taxes will eat you alive.

>>> But when that happens not EVERYONE WILL BE BROKE. Nope, many jewelers as well as other retailers will be RICH beyond their wildest dreams. Why? because they ALREADY do this. Its not rocket science. There will be plenty of people THRIVING in RETAIL. Would you rather be "right" or rich?

>>> Back to the guy with a 30% increase. Whenever I speak to a jeweler and they say "Business is up" or "Business is good" I ask an open ended question:

"Why do you think that is?"

Simple question.

I asked this jeweler who has a 30% increase this question. His answer:

1. Increased advertising heavily


2. Customer service (which means kissing the customers butt, the customer
   is always right, calling, sending thank you cards, gift wrapping, cleaning their jewelry, bottles of water, candy, games for the kiddee's.)


3. Getting NEW product, lowered price points, stylist, designer stuff others don't carry.


4. "Trying" to unload old Inventory. he's taking the opportunity to move his store to get rid of EVERYTHING old in BOTH STORES. EVERYTHING.


5. Renovate.


6. Train more. bring trainers into the store (I'll be going there in August)

>>> Most of you will read this, say "Right On David!" you'll put this in your "David Geller" folder, you'll print it and hand it out to the staff or just read it and nod. But 90% will do nothing different than you did yesterday. Destined to become a statistic. Yes, I know "But my business is different."

>>> Yea, right.


So a jeweler on polygon (name withheld-my choice)

"Your thoughts much appreciated. Just had a record couple of months, but all weird. My business is doing great, but not in any traditional way. Everything is outta the box these days. Strange times indeed."


>>> "so, why do you think that is?"

"David, thanks for the post. Rick, you too. This is the kind of insight I pay Poly for. In answer to Dave's question, I believe it was a combination of things that accounted for increased business. I took yours, Ricks, and Abes suggestion to heart a couple few years ago. It was exceedingly difficult, and I mean that.

I had been doing business the same way for 20 plus years, and the change was very hard to implement. Gotta tell ya, it only took about 6 months to realize that the hard part was the old way I had been doing for 20 years. In six months, I trashed, dumped, or sold anything old, and used that to capitalize my OTC. It just grew from there. Yeah, we had done a lot right in 20 years.

Customer service, word of mouth, in store services, the works. After adjusting repair prices and dumping old stock, we suddenly had $$ to work with. We advertised to the tune of many thousands of $$ p/mo for the first time in our history. I've been growing that fund regularly. Being established for 25 years has helped a lot, don't know if I'd even try to start up now in this industry. Flushing my ego helped.

The right folks coming in to sell to us, then the right folks coming in to buy from us. Coincidence? Luck? Fluke? Don't know, don't care. It just seems to be working. Maybe it's just keeping the right stuff, and advertising to sell that stuff, along with continuing the service. Whatever. New cheese. It keeps moving. It all started with Poly. Maybe it all started with the idea to get on Poly. I just know that you guys have all helped keep my grandbabies in toys these last few years, and for me THATS what it's all about!

Peace, A Polygon member www.polygon.net


How to eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Start today, soon you'll have more cash, less debt, a store with merchandise that sells, a staff with enthusiasm and more room. Because the elephant is now been eaten!

David Geller

David Geller
www.jewelerprofit.com