ETD: 861 New challenges; Reorganizing, promoting and pumping
new life; Gifts & Dec - Special Poll
E-Tailer's Digest
etd_post at gapent.com
Thu Feb 17 12:43:36 GMT 2005
E-Tailer's Digest --- Everything for the Retailer
Issue #0861 February 17, 2005
George Matyjewicz, Moderator mailto:georgem at gapent.com
Published by: GAP Enterprises, Ltd. http://www.etailersdigest.com
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CONTENTS
[1] Greetings
[2] New challenges
[3] Reorganizing, promoting and pumping new life
[4] Gifts & Dec - Special Poll
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[1] Greetings.
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Hi All:
We're looking for new challenges, and have discovered some interesting
opportunities. It's always fun and challenging to grow a business. What
do you think?
List member and party planning guru Patty Sachs has some interesting advice
on reorganizing, promoting and pumping new life into your business,
subjects that will be covered in the Buyer Education Program for the
TransWorld Halloween, Costume and Party Show, March 4-6, Chicago, IL. For
the fifth year Patty and her partner, Phyllis Cambria will produce the
education program which consists of 18 Early Bird Seminars (6 per morning)
and 42 Workshop/Demo presentations (14 per day) on all aspects of running a
party/wedding/gift/costume/event venue/haunted attraction business. Check
it out.
Our friends at Gift & Dec Magazine, the premier publication for the
giftware business, are conducting a survey on a new service they are
planning - online classified ads. We urge you to participate.
Tell us about your business, which will remain for posterity at
our "Members: Who Are You?" site. This is a courtesy to our members who
contribute to our forum, and not merely a way to advertise for
free. Anything to do with the retail world, i.e., supplier, retailer,
consulting, etc. http://etailersdigest.com/resources/members/index.htm And
we have a form there for you to tell us about you. As I said when I first
proposed this idea, we have "known" each other for a long time, yet we
often don't know anything about each other. So, tell us who you are and
what you do.
Now, let's get to everything for the retailer.
Sincerely
George Matyjewicz, PhD
Chief Global Strategist, GAP Enterprises, Ltd.
mailto:georgem at gapent.com
http://www.etailersdigest.com
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[2] New challenges
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Last month I posted a note looking for new challenges, and was pleasantly
surprised at the replies. One is to head up a beauty supply distribution
business and get them international exposure (much like Sally's Beauty
Supplies). Sounds like an interesting challenge. Two others are in the
technology arena - a software house and a service company both who have
some excellent potential and an opportunity to cash out in 2-3 years. We
shall see.
In December we completed a two year engagement at a professional firm where
we established a successful plan to get them major Fortune 100
accounts (risk management, including Sarbanes-Oxley) , even though they
are a very small firm. We are now looking for a new challenge, and we are
interviewing companies who want to grow.
Many organizations contact us for assistance, and we have learned over the
years to only take on engagements where they will listen to what we tell
them, and they will be successful. We work with organizations either on a
fixed-fee basis (monthly retainer) or a retainer and a piece of the
business. The challenge is far more important than the money.
Where we shine is with the ability to see a different slant for a business,
i.e., either a new use for existing products or services or a new target
market for the products/services. For example, a software house we helped
sold an outdated software solution to distributors in the paper
industry. We refaced the front end, and developed a marketing plan to get
them into a new arena where they are now successful.
In another case, we had a retail chain that was losing money because of
poor buying and lack of focus to details. We designed an application to
get them to learn more about their customers to buy for the customers and
to maintain the inventory that customers want. It sounds simple (which it
is), but takes discipline. However, the rewards are wonderful.
The problem most small business owners have is that they don't see the big
picture. It always amazes me how I hear somebody stating their long-term
goals as earning $100,000 or growing their business to $2 million in sales
or selling a business for $1 million. Think BIG and you will be
BIG! The world is very small, especially with the Internet.
I have never been lucky enough to have unlimited funds in growing a
business. Usually it's a struggle to get the business on track, and then
line up investors (Venture Capitalists - VCs) who need to be cajoled and
wooed and convinced that this is the greatest business since sliced
bread. Then the work starts as you negotiate terms of a funding
agreement. VCs are smart people. If you say you need $3 million, and they
analyze your business and see you will really need $5 or $7 million, they
will invest what you want ($3 million) knowing that you will be back for
more, at which time they get more equity.
It would be dumb to think I have been successful with everything I
did. There were some failures, at least in terms of monetary loss. But, I
did learn from them, so the monetary loss was the cost of education. When
we were successful, we were successful! We brought a number of companies
public and sold others to larger companies. That was our goals. Some
people want to build a long term business that they can pass on to their
kids, which is great. The point is to have a long-tern goal and do some
strategic planning to reach those goals.
All-in-all my main criteria is to have fun. We work with organizations
either on a fixed-fee basis (monthly retainer) or a retainer and a piece of
the business. The challenge is far more important than the money.
I think we all know about some of the ventures we were in - like the
company in Tortola where we built a customer base in 190 countries in less
than a year - all on a shoestring. And the service organization with
minimum sales, that we repositioned successfully to be sold to a public
company for 32 times annual sales.
So, if you have a potential opportunity that you would like to discuss,
send me a note to
mailto:georgem at interimhelp.com?Subject=Need_Growth_Help We have simple
rules:
1. You will listen to what we say, and follow our guidelines.
2. We have fun.
Hope this helps. Let me know if you need help. I'll keep you posted.
Regards,
George
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[3] Reorganizing, promoting and pumping new life
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Speaking of reorganizing, promoting and pumping new life into a business,
those are subjects that will be covered in the Buyer Education Program for
the TransWorld Halloween, Costume and Party Show, March 4-6, Chicago,
IL. For the fifth year my partner, Phyllis Cambria and I will produce the
education program which consists of 18 Early Bird Seminars (6 per morning)
and 42 Workshop/Demo presentations (14 per day) on all aspects of running a
party/wedding/gift/costume/event venue/haunted attraction business. The
focus is always on adding new services and products, building new business,
invigorating current business and letting the world know you exist and what
you do.
One of the seminars that I enjoy giving is called "Your Old Customers Are
Your Best New Customers." I give dozens of ways to inspire folks who have
given you business in the past to give you business again and regularly--in
other words, to get them almost addicted to doing business with
you. Sometimes we waste money in getting new customers when we only need
to keep in touch with current ones to remind them that we are still in
business and that we would love to see them again, soon.
So, if any of your dear readers are doing business in any area of the
celebration world--this show is a good place to be the first weekend in
March. By the way, if you have products to sell to businesses in this
industry you should definitely attend to see if it is an event that you
should be a part of. Over 10,000 buyers come a shopping so you can make a
lot of "sales calls" in a short period of time.
I would love to see you there. I am running the Party Demo Stage (what
else?) and presenting two Early Bird Seminars, as well. Look for me...I am
the one on a skate board. (Well, not really but I should be.)
Patty Sachs, Co-Producer of Buyer Education TransWorld 21st National
Halloween, Costume and Party Show
http://www.partyplansplus.com/transworld05.htm
P.S. Check the website for information on the Las Vegas Halloween Show
which is a small, but mighty showing of services and supplies for
businesses in the spooky and scary business. (I know all businesses are a
little spooky and scary.)
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[4] Gifts & Dec - Special Poll
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Your opinion counts!
Responding to numerous requests from our readers, The Retail Group, of
which Gifts & Decorative Accessories belongs, is planning on launching an
online classifieds advertising section. Our goal is to provide a
comprehensive, easy-to-use classifieds directory that spans all eight of
our Retail Group magazines in the gifts and home furnishings industry. We
would like to create a one-stop-shopping experience for all our users to
post, find, and announce in one central, easy-to-find location.
We value your input and want to make sure we capture all your
needs. Please take a few minutes to answer the series of questions in
this survey.
http://email1.reedbusiness.com/cgi-bin7/DM/y/eduL0Eq7Mr0OGd0vXG0EJ
Thank you for your time and response.
Cliff Annicelli
Director of Web Operations
Gifts & Decorative Accessories
360 Park Avenue South
New York, New York 10010
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