An entrepreneurs distinguishing quality may not be the willingness to take risks, but his ability to put the past behind and seize new opportunities in the future. You have probably had your head caved in over the last year with this horrible economy, but that entrepreneurial spirit is still shining and if your business is still holding up, you are probably doing things right. I believe now is the time to start the push for better retail performance through improved inventory selection, retail management software and a new optimistic outlook.

It’s the same old story; it has to get better because it can’t get any worse. While all your competitors are hunkered down in their bunkers, you do the unexpected, and come out firing. If you need help in your POS Software selection, call and we can make it affordable and give you the big gun you need.

Bob,

I am still researching POS software. Do you have a rep in the area as one of my concerns is service. Honestly I am fed up with talking to someone from India who doesn’t speak or understand English. I am looking for a system that is dependable, can grow with us as we grow, customer service that can be relied on, ability to inventory in the thousands of products and will not crash.

Answer:

Bill, There is a reason I put my mug shot and direct number on all the correspondence I send out and that is to make sure all your needs are taken care of. Being able to contact the POS software developer directly means faster, more efficient and more reliable service when you need it most. Our support staff can be called immediately when an issue arises and you need to have an answer now. Nothing can be more frustrating than needing to know how to perform a certain task and not getting a knowledgeable answer. If you don’t get your support from the people that develop and work with the software every day, are you really getting the reliable answers you need?

Will your POS software grow with you? The decision you make today will have huge consequences down the road. Whatever you ask your software to do, it should support your growing business needs, rather than add to your workload. As your customer base increases, the last worry you want is whether or not your retail software can keep up with your ever increasing business demands. Good support should be the first thing you ask about when considering a new software company. This is why we sell direct and support direct.

If you are selling T shirts at Times Square and a quarter million new faces go by, any POS Software will do. Ring up cash customer, sell, close drawer and when the T shirt stack gets down to two feet tall, re-order. Any old horizontal product can do this. That’s the difference in products that are glorified cash registers and products that allow you to market to your best customers, replenish with the right assortment of product at the right time and give you an up to date review of your financial situation.

Many times I am asked why we are any better or different than other software companies and I always try to take the high road, even though that usually doesn’t work in reverse. If you talk poorly about other companies, you usually don’t have enough good things to say about your own product. You have to make your decision on the comfort level you have with the companys sales and support, functionality requirements and price. Nobody has been doing Windows POS software longer that we have, won more national awards and will work any harder to make you happy.

Four-in-five workers looking to small businesses for Jobs: I found this article interesting because small business already provides most of the jobs in the U.S. and gets the least amount of help in surviving this economy.

17 August, 2009–By Mark Cox

As workers navigate through one of the toughest economies and job markets in the nation’s history, they are turning to small businesses in greater numbers, according to data from a new CareerBuilder survey. One-in-five workers (22 percent) who were laid off from full-time jobs in the last 12 months and landed new positions found those opportunities with small businesses. Another 59 percent said they are interested in working for a small business, while others are considering starting a small business of their own.

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, small businesses employ half of all workers in the private sector and furnish half of the private gross domestic product. They also account for most of the nation’s new job creation.

“Small businesses will play a critical role in the rebuilding of the U.S. job market,” said Brent Rasmussen, President of CareerBuilder North America. “As drivers of innovation, small businesses will help to re-energize the economy and support recovery efforts. In turn, workers will find that working for a small business can provide a wealth of experience in a variety of roles, a competitive compensation structure, a flexible work environment and more.”

Every retailer should have an inventory requirement plan, preferably an open-to-buy plan. This ensures that a retailer has the right amount of inventory, in the right assortment for the time period being planned. You should set a total amount of inventory you would like to carry in your store and using department and class categories, break down the amount to order and to carry any given time. You need to be disciplined in your purchasing or end up overstocked and facing unnecessary markdowns to free up cash down the road. A good open-to-buy plan is broken down into department, class categories. Never try to control a store’s inventory down to the item level. It is important to review and adjust the open-to-buy plan as the marketing strategies change within your store.

When you are purchasing a software support and upgrade package, you are investing in a plan that will guarantee you the most current software which is like getting a brand new system every year. This has never been more accurate than this year will all the PCI-DSS compliance issues for credit and debit cards. With a support and upgrade plan, your investment keeps your software’s usable life good until a hardware upgrade is needed. Every time you receive a software upgrade it is as though you just bought the latest and most current software available with the newest, most up to date features for your retail establishment. The most current feature set ensures that you have the best POS software available that will address changing needs of the retail marketplace.

If your software vendor is diligent about keeping backwards compatibility, then it is as simple as downloading and upgrading. Also product enhancements made for other clients are available to you at no cost. A yearly fee is charged giving you unlimited upgrades, updates, answers to technical issues and procedural issues. Most customers will agree that there are huge benefits and savings when they option for the support package and they will secure the full value of their investment in their software.

By Dagen McDowell-Taken from Fox Business

I just got back from a week with my entire family at Virginia Beach, Va. A vacation. Something that still feels foreign to me. When I was little, other families would rent beach houses or drive to Disney World. We didn’t. Once every few years my parents would take a three-day weekend. We might make it to the beach. But that was it. Why weren’t we like other families who took vacations? Now I understand. My parents owned and operated their own business. They simply couldn’t leave town. Running a small wholesale grocery business, they always ran so lean and worked with such a tight budget that there was no one there to fill the gaps when they were gone. My grandfather was so dedicated to the business that he famously (at least in my small hometown) unlocked the front door of the wholesale house every New Years Day for 63 years. New Years Day was not a day of rest; it was when they took inventory. My family never took a break or got a break.

But I know my parents and grandparents are not unique. Their kind of work ethic is on display every day among small-business owners across the country. People dedicate their lives to the businesses they start or run. Maybe they love what they sell or the service they deliver. Maybe it’s just about the joy and pride of providing for your family, being your own boss and about serving your community. The hard work is there — where paid vacations do not exist. Knowing that, the most frustrating thing to see is that these dedicated business owners do not get a break from Uncle Sam. The government, especially lately, never seems to make things easier. Instead, let’s make life and namely work even harder. Let’s continue to add hundreds, no, make that thousands of pages to the tax code, so filing your taxes becomes more complicated, frustrating and costly. This is a bi-partisan effort mind you.

Oh and let’s raise your taxes while we’re at it. That’s what House Democrats want to do for many small businesses to pay for the health care overhaul. Let’s mandate that you provide health insurance and tax you if you don’t. Another idea from Democrats in the House. Let’s insert another hidden tax through a cap and trade system. In the works in Washington.

Even when the government tries to help some, it fumbles badly. The stimulus package expanded COBRA health insurance benefits for people who had lost their jobs. But once again, the burden fell on the business owner. Employers had to cover the beefed-up benefits (a 65% subsidy) and then essentially had to wait to be reimbursed by the government. Many were scared of possible cash crunches, which I heard about frequently on Your Questions, Your Money. Why can’t the government do something to make life easier for the men and women who’ve created up to 80% of the jobs in this country, who sleep too little, who work too hard and rarely take a vacation?

I don’t have that answer.

Bob

I want to compliment the ProphetLine technical representative on his recent visit to our retail facility. His ability to adjust his communication level to the person he’s talking to, provides great results. Our team is compromised of many personality types, and your representative is outstanding at relating to all of them. Again, we feel he is an outstanding representative of ProphetLine, giving a great impression to your company!

When you are dealing with Point of Sale software implementations, both sides need to have an ability to communicate with each other and come to a valid conclusion of the steps that need to be taken for a successful installation. We pride ourselves on customer service, which in the end is the most important part of what you are buying when you put in new point of sale software.

Many small retailers started their specialty retail business because that specialty was their passion. A golfer opened a golf shop; a skier opened a ski shop and so on. Those people are also probably early adaptors and would have bought almost anything if they thought it might enhance their performance. Unfortunately that might get in the way of understanding the assortment and amount of inventory to carry. They might not possess well-developed inventory management expertise. They invariably have a passionate commitment to the merchandise they are carrying, but a poor understanding of their customer’s needs and expectations. This is where they need to develop a plan from previous sales records pulled from their Point of Sale software. Effective inventory management is having the right products in the right place at the right time in the right quantities. It combines merchandising, operations, logistics, vendor management, in-depth quantitative analysis and a commitment to detailed planning. This planning can be accomplished with hours of painstaking work with spreadsheets or using retail software that does it for them. You need to do what you do best, be on the floor and sell, not a captive to your computer.

Your budget is shrinking; You have fewer resources; You are working harder. Now, more than ever, retailers are under pressure to increase sells and maintain their customer base. To succeed, retailers have to not only gain new customers, but maintain the ones they have. While gaining new customers can help your business grow, a lot of times it is not enough. Imagine gaining 20 new customers each and every month, but losing 25 existing customers every month during the same time frame. The math doesn’t add up and just getting new customers would not be enough in this situation to keep your business going. You must find a way to gain more customers than you are losing. This is where your Point of Sale (POS) Software can be a valuable tool. ProphetLine has integrated customer marketing. With the availability of information on your customer purchases and user definable fields, you can easily give your customers that personal touch that will keep them as a valued customer even if you don’t have the best prices in town. High quality customer Service is something, we at ProphetLine know is valuable and is one of the reasons we make it easy for you to give higher customer service to your customers as well.