If a potential customer’s first question is “How Much”, it’s usually useless to go any further with them. Inexpensive is different from cheap and the way you evaluate that is by the potential return on investment of the POS software. When you are trying to figure out good ways to increase your business in these trying times and go for the cheapest product, you will probably end up with a glorified cash register. The first question you ask is which software can I buy that will transform my business and increase my profitability within the current framework of my retail establishment?  POS software can help you become an efficient retailer by knowing which departments, classes and venders give you good margins, turn rates and sell through percentages. Capturing information at the point of sale is essential to determine these merchandising points and mine more business from your existing customer base. Your customers will gladly give you some personal information if they know that preferential treatment or special pricing is the end result. Notifying them of new product arrivals, private showings or a pending sale are a few of the ways to build your customer loyalty and keep them shopping with you and not your competitors.

Controlling your inventory through reliable reporting within your POS software will allow you to stock less inventory, turn faster and keep better margins.  These are the least expensive and risky ways to keep your business going in tough times. With ProphetLine POS Software, all of these objectives can be met with a low cash outlay. When the client asks “What can your POS software do for my business”, that is the potential customer we are looking for.

Small retailers can purchase POS Software with features comparable to those used by their larger competitors at a fraction of the cost. Most large retailers use two to three percent of gross sales as the dollar amount that they will invest in technology each year. A small retailer can do much better than that if they find POS software that is so easy to use, intuitive and does not require an IT staff. Find a POS software company that will be your IT staff and answer questions about procedural issues as well as ongoing support issues.

Yogi Berra once said; "If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up somewhere else." If you don’t have a roadmap for your business, you’ll probably end up at that fork in the road that Yogi talks about and it’s a fork that you have no idea where it’s leading. Your POS Software should watch your inventory and help you make purchasing decisions by using the POS transactions and showing you logical actions to take to be a well informed buyer. You don’t need a technical staff and professional buyers to make good purchasing decisions. You just need information that is simple to obtain and easy to understand. If your POS Software does not have open-to-buy and a Retail Stock Ledger, you are not maximizing your revenues. You don’t have to be brilliant to make good purchasing decisions, you just need the right POS Software.

ProphetLine is the POS/Premium Merchandising Software with easy to understand department/class comparatives, vendor comparatives and built in open-to-buy planning. ProphetLine has developed software for many Fortune 500 companies, but we specialize in providing small specialty retailers with high quality, inexpensive software that enables them to compete and beat larger retailers. If you are a busy specialty retailer that wears many hats, you can appreciate the ease of use and precise reporting. ProphetLine allows you to do what you do best, sell your products without having the hassles of being a technical guru.

 ProphetLine promotes good business practices and rewards good business people. We have all the features you would expect in a quality retail management system, without all the import/export, “integration” and other technical procedures. ProphetLine is truly a high performance all-in-one retail solution that makes technology simple, including point of sale, small business financials, inventory, e-commerce and customer marketing in one all-inclusive package. ProphetLine was the World’s first specialty retail Windows application and the winner of four Microsoft Retail Developer of the Year Awards.

Michelle Stockman works with Little Rock-based Arkansas Capital Corp.

To help small business owners create effective websites capable of competing for an online audience, there are 12 Web site tactics to keep in mind for the business site. These tactics include the following:

• Use headlines as this is the number one item that draws attention to your site. Also, do not include your headlines into graphics on the page as the web crawlers will not be able to read the text.
• Viewers only scan the first few words in the Headline, so get to the point quickly.
• People scan the left side of the site first (just like reading a book), so keep your headlines on the left.
• You have less than one second to grab the viewer’s attention.
• Under the headline, use smaller type as this will now engage the viewer into your content.
• Keep your site navigation at the top of the page.
• Use short paragraphs to encourage reading, long texts will disengage the viewer.
• Know that the first paragraph on any page will be read the most, so make sure you use your key words and information in the first paragraph.
• Ad placements on your Web site (whether internal or external ads to your business) are best at the top and left side of your page.
• People pay the most attention to ads placed next to popular content on the site.
• People read text ads more than graphic ads, except for when the ad is promoting something that is unfamiliar to the reader.
• Key words and their placement on the Web site, in the site code and within any blog, Tweet or facebook effort you engage in is critical. The better the use of key words, the more likely your site will show up in good rankings on the search engines.

Some POS software companies use a direct sales model, while most use a model based on resellers buying the software from the developer and re-selling to the end user. This reseller might also handle other products and their focus is not exclusively on the POS software you are looking to purchase. The difference usually shows up in the quality of the support.  The end user direct model allows the buyer to work directly with the developers to get support from the people that are dedicated to that one product. Resellers all too often have other projects in the works and the end user support suffers.  

There is an old saying that if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem. As we come out of this recession, many things should have been learned if you are still in business and thriving. Economic changes can rapidly change a company’s fortunes and good business owners recognize this and find opportunities within. If you are to help the company grow, you need to step out from the comfort zone of doing just the few things you enjoy and expand your functions to everything that requires a hands on approach. This also includes empowering your employees to learn other tasks besides the ones they were originally hired for. Hire, train, maintain and increase responsibilities and you will be ready for the leaner economy. Good people and good POS Software will make the difference, that’s a fact.

A recession, like the one that hopefully is ending, can put so much financial pressure on a small business person that everything has to be on the plate for cuts if you want to stay in business. In order to operate your business more efficiently you may have to cut unnecessary staff, eliminate wasteful spending, and better maintain your business processes and financial management. You will have to take your inventory down to a level that consists of only essentials, nothing that may be deemed high risk. Running your business efficiently could also mean eliminating poorly performing vendors and product lines and putting that extra money in fast turning items. In order to understand your options and make good decisions to increase operational efficiency, just remember that good inventory and merchandising POS software is required.

Retail entrepreneurs need to do what they love and that is sale their products, but there are several other factors including marketing and financial management. If you don’t do all of these well, then you need to either find people that are good at it or POS software that will do it for you. Since most small retailers can’t afford additional staff, improving your business comes from technology. While some entrepreneurs may be able to do well in more than one of those categories, no one is an expert in all three. The goal for entrepreneurs is to find out which area they are weak, be able to admit it and seek the resources that will fill the area of weakness.

First, someone in the business needs to be the expert in the product and that is usually the person that started the business because of their love for the business segment they are in. Either in inventing or selling, the product person must know all the ins and outs of what is being sold. Secondly, someone needs to be the expert at marketing and if you cannot afford a person, then a super POS software package can achieve this for you. From understanding the market place to getting the product sold, marketing entails a broad set of skills. Lastly, you will need to be a  financial manager who fully understands the cost of business as well as the reward of ROI. There is POS software that can accomplish all of this.

I always wonder why some company presidents or managers are so hard to get hold of and layer themselves with multiple people answering their calls. The simple reason is they don’t want to talk with you if you have anything negative to say. Your customers have a unique perspective on your product and your competitors.  Running a POS Software company is where you really need to listen to your customers and they may not always be right, but they do have useful insight to your product and the marketplace.