The POS Software Blog
News from Tower Systems about locally made POS software for specialty local retailers.
The federal Small Business Ombudsman has launched a new survey about late payment. Taking the short survey is a good way to have your voice heard about late payment. The website page with the survey details also has useful information on dealing with late payment.
Here is another free resource we created for small business retailers.
By offering access to innovative and inspiring marketing collateral…
Here is a new unbranded marketing video we have created for small business retailers.
This is another in our series of practical, everyday, advice for small business retailers.
Gifts for teachers can be lucrative not only at the end of the year but also through the year by establishing your business as a destination for gifts for teachers. As with much in retail, it takes a commitment of time, space and capital.
While you can make money sourcing a teacher pack from a supplier, you will make more by taking a broader approach.
Our advice is that you offer a selection of gifts for teachers including the traditional plaques, mugs, apple-themed, frames and pens but this you expand the offer to include other suggested gifts such as scarves, Charlie Bears, soap, fudge, plush, jigsaw puzzles and other premium gifts.
Don’t be restricted by the traditional teacher gifts. Also, don’t be restricted by a price point. We suggest you show how two or more students could pool funds to buy a bigger gift such as a jigsaw puzzle. Show your customers how they can do this. For example: $19.99 or $10 each if two of you share giving this gift. Maybe even consider a whole of class gift.
Promote the broader range of gifts with an appropriate sign such as: GIVE SOMETHING THAT WILL ACTUALLY BE USED.
Have your suggested gifts represented together in a location branded as gifts for teachers.
Be sure to include cards in your range – Thank You cards and blank cards. Consider packaging selected gifts and cards together to make buying easy.
Also consider a discount if customers purchase above a threshold for multiple teachers. For example, you could offer 10% off for purchases of $25.00 or more. Choose a spend hurdle that suits your area.
Marketing and promotion tips:
Beyond the usual training you see POS software companies offer, here at Tower Systems we offer training deep into the business, looking at ways we can touch the business beyond what is usual or common for a small business POS software company.
Next week, we offer a workshop, 10 ways to save time and money using Retailer, for small business retailers using our software.
This free workshop will cover at least ten ways retail businesses can use our Retailer POS software to to save time in their businesses and reduce costs in their businesses.
This training will be based in years of experience across many retail channels. It will reference channel-specific opportunities as well as broader retail business opportunities.
The small business POS software training will offer action items that can be implemented in businesses without costs.
This free interactive and live workshop from us is another example of how we reach out beyond what is usual for POS software companies in what we do and how we do it. It reflects how we help our customers deep into their businesses, in ways that are measurably and appreciably beneficial.
We are grateful to our customers for their support of our free training workshops. It is their support that encourages us to run these week in week out and to go beyond the POS software and provide valuable broader business management training.
Our evolving POS software training workshop program can be seen online at our website on a publicly accessible page. We add sessions regularly, often showing for a month or two our what is coming top in training opportunities.
To participate in an online meeting all you need access to is a computer with a broadband internet connection and a phone to receive a call so you can hear the audio. Each session runs for approximately 45-60 minutes depending on questions.
Tower Systems expands training session topics based on customer feedback, offering new material tailored to needs that have been pitched to us. We love getting suggestions and working on new training content for our customers. Suggestions can be made through our software help desk team.
The Tower Systems POS software actively helps small business retailers to reduce the time it takes to comply with government requirements.
We do this in a range of ways. We also enhance our engagement with this as government regulations change. By evolving our software offering, we ensure we help businesses leverage time-saving opportunities.
Preparing the BAS, Business Activity Statement, is easier and faster thanks to easy access to accurate data collected and managed by our POS software This is a key time saving. It also helps reduce stress by ensuring the provision of data that is accessible and useful to business owners.
Managing accurate business performance tracking through the profit and loss statement and the balance sheet is facilitated through automatic data flow between the POS software and Xero, MYOB or Quicken. Indeed, the accounting software links we provide in our POS software make it easier for small business retailers to undertake more accounting work in-store, reduce accounting fees and facilitate more accurate accounting records.
So, time saved, mistakes cut, errors voided, accurate data curated and managed – all through there work we do for small business retailers in 0ur POS software – these are real benefits for small business retail.
We see businesses put in our POS software, connect it to xero and cut bookkeeping costs. This can save a business thousands of dollars a year without any additional spend within the business beyond the low cost of POS software and attendant support services.
This is good business that we are proud to deliver for the small business retailers we serve through our smart POS software.
Saving time takes careful thought and planning on the software design end. As retailers ourselves, doing this time saving work in our own retail businesses, we know what is needed first hand. Having a CPA in our office, working with us enables us to be knowledgable for an accounting perspective too. These two things – being a retailer and having in-house accounting capabilities – ensure that we prove a proven and practical solution to our small business retail customers.
This is another bankable Tower Systems advantage for small business retailers.
We love this video from the newsxpress newsagency marketing group.
Onboarding is a term some POS software companies use to describe their process of bringing on new customers.
Onboarding is a corporate term, a big business term, for detached remote setup and installation. It is not personal. It is not small business.
Small business is personal. Most small business rely on providing personal local service.
That is what we do at Tower Systems through our POS software.
We don’t onboard, not in the big business corporate sense. No, we work personally, face to face, in your business. We setup our software in your shop, leveraging installation options to provide you with as much of a tailored solution as we are able. We do this working alongside you.
Not on the phone.
Not by email.
Not via Skype.
Our service is personal, like small business retail is personal.
Of course, if you would rather we did the work remotely we will happily do this. However, this is not our recommendation.
So, here at Tower Systems, no impersonal onboarding, no distance learning. We work with you, in your business, personally and engaged with your Like a conversation. Friendships develop. Understanding of your needs develop. This makes it better for you and for us.
We are confident that the personal in-store approach to setting up your POS software provides you with a better outcome. It is calmer and more engaged. We think you will learn better by our experts working with you in your business. And isn’t learn ing better vital to you and your business? For sure!
Every time we are in a retail business we learn. This is another reason we are keen to install and train on-site, in retail businesses. Working remotely on the phone denies this learning opportunity. It means the outcomes are less appropriate and useful. This is another reason onboarding is not a smart move in our view.
Small business retail is personal. Tower Systems gets that and delivers on the through its personal POS software installation and training approach.
We are grateful to serve in excess of 3,000 small business retailers today, retailers we have learned from by being in their businesses.
The authorised and government approved integration of scales with the Tower Systems POS software enables us to deliver a beautiful solution to small business and independent retailers in many situations.
Through the integration, our POS software talks with the scales, reducing the opportunity for data entry mistakes, making the sales process faster and delivering business outcomes that enable small business retailers to benefit.
Delivered years ago and maintained since, our POS software scale integration is a fine solution for retailers that sell products by weight: candy stores, pet stores, produce businesses, garden centres, butchers, supermarkets and more. We can connect scales to the POS and enable sales by weight. It is easy and fast.
We have structured advice and support for connecting scales to the POS software.
Any retail business selling products by weight can rely on our scales integration for fast and accurate selling at the counter or anywhere in this business.
Although there are alternatives to selling by weight such as splitting and pre-packing stock and double-typing prices at the counter, these methods waste keystrokes and time while increasing the risk of avoidable data entry mistakes that can impact a business bottom line.
The scanner / scales tool that we recommend is connected to our POS software provides a range of solutions / benefits:
We work with each of our customers to deliver a solution tailored through settings and other opportunities to serve the needs of the business. Our experience o=ver the years from POS software scales integration has enabled us to provide a flexible and valued solution to our customers in this area.
Scales integration is another way our small business focussed POS software company serves businesses well, providing solutions that enable local family-owned small business retailers to compete against big businesses.
Here is another video we have produced in-house for social media circulation, pitching shop local, for the benefit of all Australians. As a POS software company that only sells to small business retailers, supporting small local businesses is important to us. It is also important to all Australians who appreciate local jobs, local communities and local suppliers. We’re all in this together…
In our work with Australian newsagents, one of the specialty retail channels in which we serve, we shot a video recently where we look at 2018 so far and offer commentary on the latter half of the year. Here is that in-house produced video:
The 2017/18 financial year has been terrific for us and we hope so for you too. May the 2018/19 year be your best ever!
Beyond our awesome POS software we create collateral any small business retailer can use to spread the small business message.
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