The POS Software Blog
News from Tower Systems about locally made POS software for specialty local retailers.
Good POS software offer these 5 benefits. Tower Systems does.
Of course, thanks to the Tower Systems POS software, there are many more benefits than these. Now, here’s a new video from us about these 5 benefits from the Tower Systems POS software.
Rising interest rates are on the mind of everyone in Australia right now it seems. News stories appear daily about the impact of rising interest rates … for homeowners, for businesses. Everywhere we turn there is a ‘take’ on rising interests rates.
In local small business retail we can see the impact of higher interest rates through several lenses: consumer confidence, actual sales and business costs – for businesses with loan funds in place to support the business.
Our Tower Systems POS software company helps local small business retailers deal with rising interest rates in a range of ways …
We help retailers track trends on their shops. This is vital because while there is news out there and plenty of speculation, a retailer can only rely on what they bank through their register and our POS software is that register. we can help them access facts as they pertain to their business as opposed to feelings based on news and other stories. Facts matter. One retailer told us last week that rising interests rates were impacting their business through less sales. While their transaction count was down, revenue was up in higher margin areas meaning the business was banking more profit. facts matter.
We help retailers cap costs. The rental / subscription cost of our POS software has not changes since mid 2019. We have no plans to change it. Our customers know this. We are iota adding to their costs. We also help them require the cost of labour in their businesses and this can save money and free cash for other, more productive, uses in the business.
We help retailers free up cash in their businesses. And, this can help reduce their reliance on loan funds, which means a lower impact of rising interest rates. now, how do we help retailers free up cash. We do this in a range of ways, through smart tools in our POS software. We helped one business release more than $20,000 of hitherto dead money. The released funds helped them reduce their overdraft and that reduced the amount of interest the business was paying. It all comes back to using business data.
Rising interest rates are a thing. Rather than getting caught in the quicksand over them, our focus is on helping local small business retailers develop and walk through a plan for dealing with rising interest rates so that their businesses are not as impacted as they might otherwise have been.
The news out there on rising interest rates can be scary, and distracting. Our advice is to focus on that over which you have control, to understand, seek out a pathway through and to step thoughtfully along that path.
The cost of freight is increasing. Freight into Australia costs more. Freight around Australia costs more. Freight locally costs more.
Small business retailers can feel challenged as to how to deal with this, now to manage the cost of freight, how to protect their business against the cost of freight.
Tower Systems helps local small business retailers deal with the cost of freight by providing in the software the ability to easily spread the freight cost of a package containing a range of goods across the sale provide of all the goods received. This allows the business to pass on the cost, spread the cost, reflect the cost fo freight across all items brought into the business.
Too many small business retailers stress about then high cost fo freight and what to do about it. the thing is, freight is. cost everyone has. There is no such thing as free freight.
Trucks cost money. Truck drivers cost money. Warehouses cost money. Fork lift drivers cost money.
Every item in every shop in town has a freight cost associated with getting it on the shelf. There is no point complaining. It is a real cost, a universal cost, one that is best managed efficiently, and spread across the sale price of every inventory item that you have in the shop.
Use your POS software to do this. Tower Systems helps local small business retailers deal with the cost of freight. We do this through software facilities in the POS software as well and through advice on how to use the POS software and business management advice. This is where we leverage our experience as retailers to provide practical advice ion the test way to deal with the rising cost of freight in small business retail.
Once you discover that it is easy when receiving new inventory into your business to spread the cost of freight, you can systemise the process, structure it, make it part of your operational processes. This takes the emotion out of the situation. It stops you having tom micro manage it. You benefit and the business benefits.
Freight is a cost all businesses confront. There are myriad ways to deal with it, manage it and leverage it sol that it is not as problematic for the business as it may seem.
Tower Systems is a full service POS software company focussed on local specialty retailers in selected retail channels.
For years we have been sharing stories on social media for our own shops. We started this to reflect on the diversity of shopper situations we engage with. The stories provided context for shopping by customers. Here is an example relating the greeting card purchases. It received over 200 lives in less than 24 hours:
Storytime. The twenty-something guy had been standing looking at cards for ten minutes. He seemed lost. “Hey, mate, you need a hand?” I said, without wanting to intrude. “Yeah”, he said with a sadness uncommon for a young guy looking for a card. “What are you looking for?”, I was careful in my approach. “My best mate’s dad died suddenly”, he paused. “He’s angry and wrecked” he paused again. “I, I want to tell him I’m here for him. I figured a card could be good,” he looked back at the range. “But, they’re too flowery.” He was right, the sympathy cards he was looking at were too flowery. After a while, we found a blank card with a dog on it, because his mate likes dogs. We worked out some words that got across what he wanted to say without being flowery.
Some days in retail we get to help in ways that will stay with us for years.
And then there is this one:
Storytime. Joe is 89 years old. He lives in a nursing home. When he moved there, he was limited as to what he could bring. The old shoebox with the collection of cards he’d received was the first thing he chose.In that box are cards from his time as a local community Aussie rules coach. Parents and players had written cards over the years and Joe had kept them. “Each card is a memory”, he says with a smile, looking through his collection.The oldest card Joe has is from 40 years ago from a player grateful for Joe’s help. Here it is so many years on, making Joe’s day.
Greeting cards hold the most wonderful memories.
Storytime. Ethan’s school assignment asked that he write about his earliest memory. “That’s easy,” he said, “it was the first letter I ever got. It was a birthday card from grandma. I was 4 and she posted me a birthday card with a tiger on it and it came in the mail. That’s the first memory I have. I still have card, and the envelope. Mum got them framed for me.”
The card created in Ethan an interest in mail and letters more specifically. Now, 6 years on, every couple of weeks Ethan will write to a relative in the hope of receiving a response in the mail. And it all started with that birthday card, which remains his first memory.
Cards give us memories and stories long after they are received.
Storytime. “Sorry, it’s just a card, no money for a gift this year.” That’s how Chris signed off the card to Jules, her friend of more than 20 years, since they were in high school together. Swapping birthday gifts with a card and a note were a tradition. Since they lived on opposite sides of the country, they’d usually include a note with the card and gift each year.
Jules wrote back: “your card and note mean the world to me, every year. While I may have, possibly but please don’t judge me, re-gifted the odd gift from you, I have kept every card, every single card from you. I have 23. They the story of us. They are a perfect gift. Thank you.”
The card we send today can provide heart-warming memories for many years to come.
Social media provides us an opportunity to share the narrative of our businesses. Local small business retailers are well placed to have wonderful stories they can share.
Our small business retail advice today is to take a break from shop here or shop local or look at this product and share something of yourself, share stories that speak to those who have shopped with you and yourselves.
Oh, and to answer an expected question for comment about using text and not images? Most social media posts use images. Going with text content could be more easily noticed. Certainly that is my experience in using posts like this over recent weeks.
Here is another in our series of retail management advice based on our decades of service to local small business retailers using our Tower Systems POS software:
How to calculate gross profit by floorspace and how to use this information
With retail space usually costing between 11% and 15% of (non agency) revenue, it is usually the next highest cost outside of the cost of stock itself.
Spend half an hour on what we suggest here and the result could provide clarity on immediate steps you can take in your business to improve what you make.
This is not advice you will get from your accountant or from reviewing your P&L or computer reports. It is designed to be practically helpful in managing your business.
Please follow these simple steps.
Once you have the marked-up floor plan with the space percentage and percentage of total gross profit, think about your floor space allocation.
The above steps do not take into account product size and the average gross profit percentage from each dollar of revenue for a department. For example, ink is a lower margin product than stationery, gifts are a higher margin magazines. Typically, the analysis will highlight challenges with lower margin product.
Here are actions the work you do could lead to:
You can take the analysis a step further by looking only at one department and analysing performance by category, using the method outlined above.
For example, in one business we saw pens taking 7% of stationery space while they contributed more than 40% of gross profit earned from all stationery.
The type of analysis we are suggesting here is intended to give you a fresh view of your business as you engage in the process of constant change.
We are often asked at our Tower Systems POS software company for help when it is too late. In this article, we share steps any retailer can contemplate from them moment they realise their business is in trouble, from the first thought that closing may be the only option.
Tower Systems is more than a software company. We are retailers too. We cherish the relationships with our retail business customers. We will help whenever and wherever we can to help small and independent retail businesses survive challenges and grow.
If your retail business is in tough times and facing imminent closure, you may be able to save it if you act quickly and ruthlessly. Based on years of working with many different retailers, I have found that some basic steps can successfully turnaround a business in trouble. But you need to be ruthless.
The following tips are designed for businesses with a little (but not too much) time available to fix things. While they are not appropriate to every business, the ideas can lead to others that may be appropriate.
This advice is also appropriate or businesses not facing imminent closure but certainly facing tough times.
Crucial to saving a business from closure is to understand why it is in this situation. You have to be honest with yourself about this. How did it get to this?
Do not be afraid or ignorant in confronting these questions.
Make an honest appraisal of the state of the business as the truth can inform what you do next.
You have to own your situation. This means being realistic about what you face and what got you there. This is important as it opens you to what you need to do to resolve the situation, to rehabilitate your business.
Now, to the urgent steps you could take to avoid the closure of your retail business:
What we offer here is general advice, a shopping list of advice from which you can choose. It is intended to get you thinking of ideas that could work for you.
No two situations are the same. No situation is impossible. No business is dead until the doors are closed for the last time.
Never give up. Fight hard and fight smart to turn your business around.
Facing tough circumstances in retail can be like the deer in the middle of the road at night facing the headlights of an oncoming vehicle. Don’t freeze. Take action to mitigate your situation. A series of small steps could be the difference between closure and trading out of the problem.
In your business data there are bound to be opportunities and insights around which growth can be achieved. If you are not sure where to look or what they could mean, ask us. We will help.
A fresh look from at retail today and the opportunity for intentionally pursuing change for a brighter future.
Find a private place, hang a do not disturb sign on the door, put on music you love and please read on.
In this blog post, we share what we hope will prove to be valuable ideas, which help you create a more successful business and a more enjoyable business life. You will have seen some members embracing some of these ideas already as we have shared our thoughts through a process of evolution.
While this is advice from our Tower Systems POS software company, it is advice from us as retailers – yes, we own and run successful retail shops.
To us, conscious intention is deliberate decision making, pursuing change, for a better outcome for you, your business and all it serves.
Retail is changing, faster than ever. In change, you can create opportunities. This is exciting. The key is to be deliberate in your embrace of change.
Yes, you have heard that before, probably so much that you ignore it. What we share here is important, new, and written for you.
Today, the pace of change is faster and the extent of change more comprehensive, most likely beyond what you see. There are myriad factors at play, myriad pressures on retail.
There are more competitors, many you will never see.
Shoppers are more empowered.
Shopping is less like shopping.
No business is immune: city, country, high street and shopping centre.
The days of making major changes and leaving them in place for years are over.
The borders between types of retail businesses are blurred.
Your customers can easily now be more than locals.
People want to be able to buy when they want to buy.
What constitutes a shop has changed, forever.
It is okay to keep doing what you are doing. Our advice is you make your decisions and take your actions with conscious intention. Drifting is not an option, unless you do it consciously, with intent. If your decision is to not change, we 100% respect that.
In summary, to get you thinking, here is a list of what we see as different:
Every business needs a Unique Selling Proposition (USP), that which is unique about their business in the area from which they draw customers, that which separates the business from other businesses.
It is vital that you know what your USP is and that you are mindful of this in all business decisions. Please see our knowledge base article on USP.
The process of change itself has changed. Whereas in the past we would plan, plan and plan before execution, today, we are in a world of rapid change and more change if the changes are not delivering what we need.
Motion (change) is and must be perpetual. It is almost like every day you asking what can I change today?
It is easy to feel overwhelmed. We suggest a small steps strategy. Undertaking many small steps can make any project more digestible and affordable. You do not have to do everything at once. Take small steps, but keep taking them.
Your inventory determines who your shop will appeal to, the occasions they will buy for, whether they talk about you, whether they will come back and if they trust you.
The more your business looks like a traditional business in your channel, the more it will be judged as traditional, the more it will perform traditionally. There is nothing wrong with this, if it is a conscious choice.
We encourage you to not run a traditional business because there is no evidence in performance data or in retail history to indicate that traditional model has any upside.
The best way to not be considered traditional is to not look like one.
Here is what this means:
Be grateful people are in your shop and show this in your interaction and the interaction of all team members.
Saying hi to shoppers is nice, but not out of the ordinary.
Encourage team members to change up their greeting: good morning, nice to see you, thank you for coming in today…
Work on farewells: thanks for visiting, it was good to see you, take care out there…
In-store, offer experiences that are unexpected and / or appreciated.
Love your customers. Consider a wall of customer love with photos you have taken of customers and photos customers have brought in.
Reset your customer interaction with a focus on more fun and happiness.
What you do, say and share outside also defines the business in the minds of shoppers and would-be shoppers. It is vital that your out of business communication and representation is intentional and reflective of how you want the business seen.
The more you post on social media and talk about products and services that are not known to be in your type of shop the more you become your own thing.
Be intentional in what you do and say outside your business. Further your mission ahead of the mission of the channel or channel traditional suppliers.
If you do not change your business it will perform in line with its current trajectory. If you are happy with that, embrace it.
If you are not happy with the current business trajectory, change is essential.
Tower Systems, through its local small business experienced retail team can provide insights, suggestions and encouragement for you to reset your business.
We all have current retail experience.
We can bring detached perspective to help you combat store-blindness.
Leveraging our engagement starts with asking.
A consequence of Covid is short-term retail space opportunities. Ion our work with retailers and through our iPad / tabled based Retailer Roam product we have experience helping retailers with pop-up shops. Here is advice we have to share:
Definition: a pop-up shop is a temporary shop, one that is open for a limited period of time, usually around a month, rarely more than three months.
We have assembled our pop-up shop advice and tips into key topic areas.
WHY?!
Like any business decision, a decision to open a pop-up retail location needs to be based on good research and the business itself needs to have a purpose. So, before you begin, think about why.
Here are some reasons to do a pop-up shop:
LOCATION.
With a pop-up shop you don’t have time to find your customers. The location needs to already have good traffic passing daily, traffic you can easily leverage. Even more so than in fixed-location retail, location is critical.
The best locations are shops that have good passing traffic that is of interest to you and that have been vacant for a while where a landlord might be happy with something rather than nothing.
OCCUPANCY COST.
Negotiate the lowest rent cost possible. Some landlords see pop-up offers as a reason to charge a premium. Only sign up for a price you are 100% happy with. If it is expensive and does not work financially, don’t sign hoping it works out, because in retail it rarely does work out better. In a pop-up business you have less time to see if it works out. Also, preferably, no contingency deposit.
LABOUR COST.
Staff the business with a lean roster. This shop is about selling. that means, products placed for a price proposition rather than beautiful displays that take time to maintain. Every staff member is there to sell and maximise revenue from every shopper visit. There is no room in the roster for fat.
FIXTURES AND FITTINGS.
Don’t spend a cent on fixtures and fittings. That needs to be your starting position. It’s a pop-up shop. People expect it to be efficient, cost-effective. Using tables and boxes adds to the feel of the shop feeling low-cost and that can help drive sales. Suppliers can be a good source for loaned fixtures.
INVENTORY.
Ask suppliers to offer consignment stock or special clearance deals they’d like to move fast. Go for items that can be sold out of a box, to make display and ranging easier. In-box displays of particularly cheap items can work very well.
PRICING MODEL.
Price to sell. This means being below usual retail. Price to understandable price points. For example, you might have a $10 table, a $20 table and so on. Consider bundling items into packs, which make price comparison difficult.
PROMOTION.
Don’t spend money on sign writing or marketing. Use social media and bargain websites and anywhere similar where you can list the store and its products.
Host an opening party. List this as a local event on Facebook.
MANAGEMENT MINDSET.
Your mindset in managing the pop-up shop needs to be different to a fixed-location retail situation. Pop-up shops are about low cost, low overheads, low prices. Be ready to do deals. Whoever manages the pop-up shop needs to be different to how they would be in the fixed-location retail business.
SPEED.
You need to move fast. From the moment you sign a lease or agreement, the clock is ticking. Ideally, you’d open within 24 hours and when you are done, closing and clearing out the shop is done in 24 hours or less. This is all about maximising the time for income-production.
TRACK PERFORMANCE.
Cultivate good data that can guide business decisions for your next moves.
Is a pop-up shop worth doing? Only you can determine that. We have seen plenty of pop-up shops work well for the retailers, contribute good GP, help move slow stock and help open to the owners category opportunities not previously considered.
Do the planning and you should expect to benefit.
2021 has been some year for sure, packed with challenges, things that can make your retail business less enjoyable than you hoped.
Tower Systems serves thousands of local small business retailers with POS software. We see retail in many situations and, over time, have learnt from these businesses and the people in them.
There is no doubt for us about the value of being happy in retail. But, it’s not something you can decide to feel. It’s not a switch you can flick.
Finding happiness in retail takes planning and engagement throughout the business. While it does sound like work, it is also about respecting the business and that there will always be challenges, and knowing that being happy can help you get through them.
Here are our tips for finding, nurturing and managing happiness in a local retail shop:
Have good data. Yeah, we know this is a boring topic for many. But as a POS software company with decades of experience we know the value of good data. Good data is your rock. Build on a rock and life is, for sure, good. Good data will make you happier because your decisions will be better, and by better we mean you’ll make more money, and that will make you happier.
Be in control. Stop getting pushed around. If a supplier pushes something on your, use your data to deal in the facts. This, too, will make you happier. Facts matter. Any time someone says fro this or that ask for evidenced preferably in your business data. yes, we are still banking on about the value of good business data.
Price for margin. Maximise when you can.
Price for turn. You can’t bank a gross profit percentage until you sell something. So, price to turn, and bank dollars.
Lean on others. Spread the load, share the responsibility. Hire well. Train well. rely on the team to help you and this will make them happier, you happier and the business a happier place overall.
Set your narrative. In social media posts, stories you share in the business and in your marketing set the tone, set the narrative to be positive, happy and optimistic. This will encourage others to do this too. Own your narrative and own your happiness.
Of course, there is way more everyday practical stuff too: happy music paying, happy window displays, happy product displays, featuring happy products, samples, taste tests, games, fun events, giveaways, competitions … all these things and more can make the shop transactionally happy, which is good, too.
Happiness is good for business and all who interact with it.
Good luck. Now, get out there and smile. 😃
Analysing gross profit by floor space allocation should be done at least annually in every retail business in our view. This is based on decades of service by Tower Systems in our work with our POS software in thousands of local retail businesses.
With retail space usually costing between 11% and 15% of revenue in many retail settings, it is usually the next highest cost outside of the cost of stock itself.
Spend half an hour on what we suggest here and the result could provide clarity on immediate steps you can take in your business to improve what you make.
This is not advice you will get from your accountant or from reviewing your P&L or computer reports. It is designed to be practically helpful in managing your business.
Please follow these simple steps.
Once you have the marked-up floor plan with the space percentage and percentage of total gross profit, think about your floor space allocation.
The above steps do not take into account product size and the average gross profit percentage from each dollar of revenue for a department. For example, ink is a lower margin product than stationery, gifts are a higher margin magazines. Typically, the analysis will highlight challenges with lower margin product.
Here are actions the work you do could lead to:
You can take the analysis a step further by looking only at one department and analysing performance by category, using the method outlined above.
For example, in one business we saw a category taking 7% of department space while they contributed more than 40% of gross profit earned from all in the department. It’s this data where good POS software can provide insights.
The type of analysis we are suggesting here is intended to give you a fresh view of your business as you engage in the process of constant change.
Tower Systems is grateful to serve local retailers with POS software, which is backed by everyday retail management advice.,
Labour cost in many retail situations is usually the highest or second highest cost of business after the cost of inventory is considered.
Here at Tower Systems we are grateful to serve a diverse community of retail businesses. It is our experience that labour cost sits somewhere between 9% and 11% of retail sales revenue in these business.
What this means is: if your revenue, where revenue is product revenue plus commission from agency lines, is $1 million, your total labour cost should be $110,000 based on the benchmark.
Labour cost needs to include fair market value for owner labour invested in the business.
Too often, we see business owners putting in anywhere between 60 and 80 hours a week with the majority of this time unproductive
A small business cannot afford unproductive management time. Your big business competitors do not have this overhead, nor should you.
This is why we suggest where possible and practical that you have no back office or, if absolutely necessary, a small back office that is not comfortable.
While many go into business to be the boss and not at the front line serving customers, the front line is where the business makes money. It is where you ought have your best people.
Allocate your boss time to fit with the size of the business. In a typical small retail business turning over $2M a year or less, we suggest boss time should be no more than five hours a week. This, of course, depends on what you do with the time. If you do bookkeeping, saving the cost of an external resource, it could be more.
Use your POS software to track and measure sales by time and sales by employee as these can factor into decision opportunities before you.
A more practical way to look at this is issue of labour cost: cutting three hours paid adult time a day, Monday to Friday, will add more than $20,000 a year directly to the bottom line profitability of the business.
If you think this is not possible, look at where you do your boss work. Some of this could be done at the counter or on the shop floor. You could multi-task and thereby cut paid hours. It all depends on whether you want the business to be more profitable.
One mid-size retail business following our advice based on data in our PO)S software cut their labour cost in the business by $50,000. In the same period, revenue was up 6%.
Getting your labour cost under control and within the benchmark starts with your roster.
Tower Systems is grateful to offer advice and suggestions to local small business retailers that goes beyond what is usual for a POS software company.
Here at Tower Systems we are an Aussie POS software company serving more than 3,000 local specialty retailers. Having switched many from other software, here are the top 7 benefits we offer compared to overseas product.
We are a small POS software company. All of our customers are small business retailers. This means we are not dominated by any one customer. It also means that our focus truly is on local small business retail. Your needs do interest us.
To catch a look at our Aussie made and supported POS software, click on any marketplace listed below for a video of a recent brief demonstration:
If we can help, please call 1300 662 957 or email sales@towersystems.com.au.
Thank you for reading and considering our locally made and supported POS software. The local Australian IT sector appreciates you for this consideration. Oh, and thank you for shopping local. Local retailers appreciate this too.
Too often small business retailers focus on the sale of their business as their pay day without actually acting, every day, to ensure that day delivers the best value for them.
Every day in any local small retail business there are decisions that can be made, steps that can be taken that nurture more value from the business. These steps, most of which cost little or nothing to implement, can have long-term gains for the profit and loss of a retail business.
We see this in our work with more than 3,000 local small business retailers. We see the value of good moves. We see the costs of inaction.
Thinking about this, what we see, here is a list of 10 things any local small business retailer could do in their business to drive value today and, more importantly, value tomorrow when they choose to sell their business.
This list is in order of the value we see being achieved in local small retail businesses that act on these things.
This advice is part of the regular advice Tower Systems provides its customers.
The website development side of Tower Systems has developed websites for many retail businesses. It is a tech. partner for Shopify, Magento and WooCommerce. We have experience with each.
While each platform serves a different need, Shopify is the widest used in the small business retail space by far. Magento is good for complex requirements, but maintenance of a Magento website will require a developer. Shopify can be maintained, modified and enhanced without web developer skills.
WooCommerce will require a developer for site maintenance. It also does not have as rich a support network as Shopify. This has been the experience of so many of our customers.
In our experience, small business retailers can achieve better, more cost effective, commercial outcomes with a Shopify website than a WooCommerce website.
We mention this because in our experience local web developers are more likely to recommend the WooCommerce platform. We think they do this because it is better for them commercially in that web development is often their prime source of income. A Shopify website will not drive repeat business for them from a customer whereas a WooCommerce website is more likely to.
A retailer we spoke to recently told us they were paying $9,000 for a WooCommerce website and there was a monthly maintenance cost.
Our point is shop around, ask a ton of questions. Be sure to understand on-going maintenance costs. If they say you can maintain the site yourself, ask them to show you how to change the look and feel, how to add a new web page, how to change categories. Being shown how to do this will, for most newsagents show them that a WooCommerce website platform is not the right fit for them.
We don’t have a vested stake in this in that the web team in our company is skilled in Magento, Woo and Shopify as well as the even more complex and technical native web development. That team has a full room of booked business already.
There are many Shopify website developers out there you should consider before a WooCommerce developer since a Shopify site is more easily maintained by non technical people.
A challenge in this website space is that often it is a friend, or friend of a friend, or family member involved. They may have the best of intentions in recommending WooCommerce. For the reasons outlined already, WooCommerce is not a platform I recommend for retail newsagency website development.
Be careful. Do your research. Get all commitments in writing. If you are not sure, delay your decision.
If you have some software development skills, then Woo could be perfect for you to create your website yourself.
A cashflow crisis is when you can’t pay your bills on time or a sustained period of dissatisfaction with the cash reserves in the business. Too often, small business retailers ignore a cashflow crisis, leaving action until it is too late. We have put together some basic advice for dealing with a cashflow crisis in local small business retail and share it here with you today:
The cashflow achieved by a business is a product of decisions in the business. Be thoughtful in each decision and single-minded in your focus on a better cashflow outcome.
A few years ago, a local retail business we knew well closed, and the owner walked away. They said they could not handle the changes going on around them.
The thing is, the changes had been happening, slowly, for years.
The biggest challenge faced by the retailers is faced by many in local small business retail: how to nurture relevance for your shop in a constantly changing world.
It takes guts to embrace and chase change. The sooner you engage with this the better. This is what we say chase change, because that is what we need to do – go find change rather than waiting for it to come to you. Advice on change and help with it will most likely come from new sources, sources not rooted in your past.
The more you reach outside your usual lane for insights and encouragement the more likely you are to find fresh ideas. the alternatives are to do nothing or complain and do nothing.
Complaining is not a management activity.
Here is some practical advice for any retailer feeling overwhelmed by challenges and, maybe, contemplating closing.
Change is challenging. It is also essential. Too often we see local small business retailers resist change out of fear, ignorance or an expectation that things will naturally improve. The reality of retail today is that change is everywhere, including where we cannot see. And, this is what makes it difficult for us in that if we can’t see something we may not worry about it.
One of our jobs in our POS software company is to encourage local small business retailers to be the best they can be. Through good use of our software we can do this. But, it starts with desuire, desire for change and the benefits that flow from change.
here at Tower Systems we make POS software for specialty retail businesses. We have businesses that have switched to us from Square POS as their needs have evolved from the basic to the specialty retail.
Our specialty retail business POS software is different to Square POS software in that we go beyond the everyday POS transactions of tracking sales, inventory and customers.
Our EFTPOS integrated POS software goes beyond Square POS in offering integrations with specialty retail suppliers, specialty retail functionality like repairs management, customer special orders, bagging up your own products, multi-layered loyalty tools and much much more.
While Square POS software serves basic retail needs, we dive deep every day, guided by the evolving needs of the specialty retailers we serve. This includes working with suppliers, retail business owners and the field force working in retail.
Beyond the sales counter, where Square POS software is most loved, in the back room, on the road, on the shop floor and at home ur tower systems specialty retail POS software serves, serves and serves as it helps retail business owners to uncover opportunities, to see what they might otherwise not see in and for their businesses. This is valuable differentiation on which the retailers can rely and bank.
The thing about Square POS is that they say there is no cost for the software, and that you pay a fee per transaction. It’s easy even for a small business to rack up fees using Square POS that make it more expensive than the Tower Systems POS software. take a gift shop, using our POS software, the cost is under $1,200 a year. our of a $300,000 turnover, that equals a percentage of turnover cost of .4%. That’s less than half the cost of Square POS. Plus, a gift retailer using our POS software has access to facilities and serves considerably beyond the Square POS software options.
Our software is Australian made and Australian supported. Our business is Australian, serving the Australian community. these are all factors for businesses that appreciate and support buy local – because they want their customers to appreciate their own local credentials.
If you are thinking about Square POS soft your local retail business, let us show you a comparison, so your decision can be more informed.
At a POS software company that only serves local small business retailers we have caught and cultivated a broad range of retail business management advice over the decades. we are grateful for opportunities to share this advice, especially in our retail business coaching clinics.
For us, successful retail business coaching has its foundations in business data for it is in the data we see opportunity. There is a business management maxim from decades that is true today … you can’t manage what you don’t measure. This is where data plays a role as it provides the measurement of performance.
Our local small business retail coaching starts with business data, capturing it, understanding it and uncovering opportunities to nurture and harvest this.
We work with small business retailers across different channels, offering practical retail business coaching services designed to help them run more successful and enjoyable businesses.
From phone contact to Zoom meetings to reports, we have a range of touchpoint in our local small retail business coaching services. we work with people how, when and where they want. It is all driven by the business data, understanding what is needed to help the business owners and others who rely on the business to achieve their goals.
While we are a POS software company in our roots and for most of what we do, local small business retail coaching advice is another way we are able to help deliver tangible and loved benefits that differentiate our POS software company. It is us relying on the data management tools in our POS software to deliver appreciated benefits to our small business retail clients.
From helping business to understand supplier performance, employee performance, location performance and the more traditional product category performance, our business coaching services are an everyday part of the Tower Systems offer.
We see business coaches touting their wares and suggest to small business retailers that getting their business data right and understanding their POS software could deliver more benefits to them for no extra cost. This approach is those in the business being responsible for what they can achieve with and for the business rather than having someone outside the business and somewhat disconnected being considered to be responsible.
We help local small business in practical and appreciated ways. If you are looking for local small business retail coaching, talk to us as our approach could provide you with a more sustainable outcome.
Here in Melbourne we are in our fifth Covid lockdown. As well as owning our POS software company and working with local small business retailers every day, I also own three retail businesses and several online businesses.
This Covid lockdown To-Do list for local small business retailers is practical advice you can action without cost, to make the most of the lockdown opportunity.
Whether your shop is closed or open but with less traffic, now is an ideal time to work on your business.
We are a local Aussie POS software company serving 3,500+ local small business retailers with POS software and beautiful Shopify websites. Beyond this, we also offer retail business management advice and help to our customers every day.
Thanks for reading. have an awesome rest of your weekend …
Mark Fletcher | mark@towersystems.com.au.
This advice is something we have shared before. But, it’s been updated for today. We have found, over many years, this to be the most useful, beneficial and appreciated advice for small business retailers.
There was a time when small business retailers could rely on selling their business for a handsome increase on the price they paid thereby providing a good pay day, when businesses sold for a good multiple of net earnings.
Today, the best way to extract financial value from our businesses is to make every day your pay day, to not rely on your pay day being the day you sell the business.
If you do this, if you focus on making money every day, you get ahead, in small steps and increments for sure, but you do get ahead, and long before you actually sell your business.
Our advice is that you look at your business differently. This starts with the mindset of every day being your pay day. Each decision needs to be considered in this context.
Focusing on profit today will give you a better result today and make your business more valuable tomorrow.
Here are some suggestions for making every day your pay day:
Be responsible for the profitability of your business. Don’t blame your suppliers, your landlord, your employees or some other external factor … it all comes down to you – the decisions you make and the actions you take.
If you relentlessly pursue profit with a clear focus you are likely to see profit grow. That’s better than waiting to make money when you sell because that’s less likely to happen in this market.
Doing all this relies on your measuring the performance of your business. The Tower Systems POS software helps with this. It is easy.
Christmas in July is a terrific retail tradition in Australia. It is an excellent opportunity to clear stock, boost foot traffic and reset the shop floor of any retail situation.
Using our POS software retailers can easily manage the Christmas in July. In particular, our POS software can help with:
Christmas in July is a wonderful opportunity in almost any retail setting. We say this based on our experience working with a broad variety of specialty retailers. The key is to have a strong offer, well situated, pitched well, understood of all team members and targeted to sell what you need to sell. That’s the key here – the commercial outcome for your retail business.
Here at our POS software company we can help you make the most of the Christmas in July opportunity.
Here is a refreshed list of tips for making Christmas in July a success.
Christmas in July is an excellent opportunity to get suppliers on board. Maybe they could provide products for you to give away as gifts – I.E. every shopper gets spending over $10 a ‘Christmas’ gift. Suppliers could use your promotion as an ideal time for trialling products and getting your customers engaged.
Selling quickly at the counter and from anywhere in the shop is critical in retail today. Selling accurately is even more important. Combine the two and your retail business is able to offer a lever of service that customers will love.
What helps us offer smart fast and accurate selling through our POS software is our work with a ton of different specialty retail businesses.
All of these and more have influenced what we offer in our POS software. A specialty need for one becomes a useful add-on for another, helping them to broaden the appeal of their businesses, by being smarter, faster and more comprehensive in function.
It is this breadth of work that has enabled us to offer fast and accurate sales management at the retail sales counter through our Point of Sale software. We are grateful for this, for the guidance of our customers into these areas, to help grow our business and what we offer our customers.
A point of sale system is a software, training and services package that enables a retail business to manage sales, inventory data and customer data in a way that makes the business more successful and profitable, more able to compete locally and online. It is a holistic package serving the business.
Our approach at Tower Systems is to demystify the POS software and the system itself. We try and make it easy to learn and understand, to ensure that anyone can use the software to their advantage without having to be technical. This is done through plain English training, without jargon or nerd-speak. We back this up with extra training as needed, to help our customers top up their knowledge when they want.
Fast selling at the sales counter and from the shop floor is part of what we offer. We make it easy for small business retailers to achieve this and to do so with accuracy, for it is data accuracy that matters most in retail today. Good data feeds good business decisions.
It’s a new financial year and with that we have new opportunities to consider. Today, we share our advice for small business retailers, local independent retailers, for the 2021/22 financial year. This advice leverages years of experience serving local small business retailers and, in particular, the experience of the last eight months in which the coronavirus pandemic has played a big role.
This is some of our small business retail new financial year advice. we are grateful to help our customers, through our POS software, in a variety of ways.
Requests from schools, charities and other community for donations can be a challenge for any size business. If you do not take a structured approach to this you will find yourself giving away plenty for little or no return.
Requests are often loaded with guilt. People can be passive aggressive in their approach. Often, people requesting help leverage pester power. It can be hard to say no. There are too many stories of retailers giving a gift as a prize, receiving the Thank You poster and achieving no benefit for the business.
having heard many stories from our POS software customers and experience ourselves in running retail businesses, we have put together advice for small business retailers on this challenge of the constant stream of community groups asking for donations.
Our advice is to manage your philanthropy as you would any business activity.
THE PRIZE / GIFT
Decide the amount in cash or product value or both that you are prepared to donate in a full year, calendar year or financial year.
Our recommendation is you give away cash, but in the form of a voucher to spend in your business. This ensures that value of the gift or prize is greater than the cost of it to your business.
The best mechanism for giving away cash or an amount to spend in-store is to do it by way of a gift voucher. Use your software to manage this as any manual approach is dangerous and time-consuming.
YOUR PITCH, NOT THEIRS
Get on the front foot and write to local community groups outlining that you budget a year in advance. Seek their submissions. With this advice sheet we have included the text of a suggested letter. Please read the letter as it outlines the approach we suggest and why. It is important you communicate this with all community groups.
On the page after the letter is a suggested notice for use in-store when you are asked for donations.
HOW TO PICK GROUPS TO SUPPORT
Focus on community groups that support you. That is, groups with members who support you. The more they support you the better you are able to support the community.
Be prepared to ask where people shop for the items you sell in your business. Ask if they will change in return for your support.
Asking these questions underscores to you the importance of approaching the decision as a business decision.
Be thoughtful and deliberate. Support the groups that support you. This is important as it helps you stay within a budget.
LET YOUR SHOPPERS CHOOSE
If you run discount vouchers and if customers say they don’t want the voucher, invite them to contribute the voucher to a local group – one of three you setup for in the business. Every month, two months or three months, tote up the vouchers and give the group a parentage of the total voucher value ‘voted’ for them.
This idea could be in addition to any giving program you run in the business. It offers a daily reminder of your commitment to local giving.
Grill’d burgers run a program kind of like this where each shopper is given a bottle cap, which they place in a tub to vote on a group to receive a cash donation for the month. The process of groups submitting to be considered is onerous. You can find out more about that program with this link – it is a good place to research what others do: https://www.grilld.com.au/localmatters/
REWARD ENGAGEMENT
In addition to any direct gift, consider an offer whereby anyone who is a member of the group who shops with you accrues an amount you donate to the group. You could manage this through your software. It could be you offer a discount to the shopper as well as accruing a value for the group.
This type of program could also be in addition to your core giving program as the value here is driven by sales – hopefully, incremental sales.
EDUCATE GROUPS ABOUT GOOD ENGAGEMENT
Here are things groups you support can do to help your business. You should ask them to do these things:
WRITE ABOUT YOUR ENGAGEMENT
Once you have a decision on which groups you will support, write about this in your newsletter and on Facebook. Not just once but multiple times. Invite them to provide you with content to publish too. Talk about their good works.
Ask them to write about you too.
Your giving must serve your heart and serve your business. Going about it in a structured way will ensure you meet your objectives.
Here is suggested text for a letter:
[date]
Good morning
I write to invite your community group to submit a proposal to be considered one of the groups we support this coming year. We are taking this more formal approach rather than considering donation requests when they are pitched trough the year.
We are a small family business with limited resources. We seek to be engaged with community groups that support us as the more successful we are the more we can help the community.
The approach we are taking here is to allow us to plan our giving, to be deliberate in the support we provide.
We will not take on donations through the year from groups who call or visit. While this may seem unfair, we think it will result in more valuable support for the groups we engage with.
In addition to a financial donation, we will support the groups we select through promotion on our business Facebook page and in other practical ways. We want an involvement that is more than just financial, we want to help the groups we partner with to reach further into the community.
To help us consider your business please provide a one page written submission that briefly outlines:
We will consider all submissions at the same time and advise the outcome of our deliberations.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Here is suggested text for a notice:
OUR POLICY ON HANDLING COMMUNITY GROUP DONATIONS.
We receive requests to support local community groups and charities regularly. As a small family business with loans, rent, wages and other costs, we cannot say yes to everyone. We wish we could but we cannot.
To help us better connect with and serve the groups we do support, we now decide at the start of the financial year the groups we will support over the next year. The selection process is based on written submissions from groups.
Our decision to select the groups we support at the start of the year means we cannot take on additional donation requests through the year.
We hope you understand and respect this.
Please consider applying in advance of the start of the next financial year.
But all is not lost…
If your group can bring in new customers to our business to purchase items they want we may have another way we can help. Ask us for details.
Thank you and we wish you all the best in your community group.
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