tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-94673872008-04-16T20:09:13.735-04:00Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14196606228617340229noreply@blogger.comBlogger205125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9467387.post-1159237616255814532006-09-25T22:24:00.000-04:002007-04-14T16:02:42.910-04:00

The latest Carnival of Capitalists is online at Crossroad Dispatches. Always an interesting batch of posts about investing, the economy, management, and business in general. Check it out.

Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14196606228617340229noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9467387.post-1159008536158061612006-09-23T06:36:00.000-04:002006-09-23T07:23:25.283-04:00

Huge home improvement retailers Lowes and Home Depot have hit a rough spot with investors and customers. Both had soft second quarter earnings and warn of slow sales. Their stocks are down about 15% for the year, and the housing market slowdown isn't the only cause. Home Depot is famous for rotten customer service and Lowes isn't much better. I went to Lowes last night to look for kitchen

Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14196606228617340229noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9467387.post-1154871214580951062006-08-06T09:18:00.000-04:002006-08-06T09:33:34.596-04:00

So, you're ready to create sexy ads for your business. But where will you find the right models? I recommend using models who are already famous on the Internet. Check the ranking of the top 40 Internet models for ideas. These beautiful ladies have name and face recognition that you can put to work in your sexy ads. Hire a photographer experienced with this type of work -- your model can

Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14196606228617340229noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9467387.post-1154166470648269222006-07-29T05:11:00.000-04:002006-07-29T05:57:54.010-04:00

Retail stores have always given away advice along with selling products. Now some stores are turning helpful services into a profit center. Medical services are leading this move into retail stores. Medical clinics are popping up in pharmacies across the nation, and thousands of new clinics are planned to open in stores over the next couple years. No appointment is necessary to get quick, cheap

Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14196606228617340229noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9467387.post-1153657532881363452006-07-23T08:15:00.000-04:002006-07-23T08:25:32.896-04:00

Malls are scrambling to find new anchor tenants. Department stores are no longer an attraction for many shoppers, so malls are recruiting restaurants and big box discounters like Target to generate traffic. "New" downtowns are cited as the hot retail location. Obviously the "location location location" for retail changes over time, so what's a smart retailer to do? Work toward making your

Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14196606228617340229noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9467387.post-1153052687778140422006-07-16T08:10:00.000-04:002006-07-16T08:24:47.793-04:00

Jay Steinfeld has grown his business from a single bricks-and-mortar store to a thriving online retail store success story. Blinds.com generates $45 million in annual sales and is the 10th fastest growing ecommerce site. Steinfeld opened a drapery store with his wife in 1987, and the online store started in 1994 and has grown in sophistication and sales since then. His ecommerce business grew

Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14196606228617340229noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9467387.post-1152441653127214022006-07-09T06:27:00.000-04:002006-07-09T06:40:53.146-04:00

Seth Godin tells a short story about effective retail selling at a farmers market. He reminds us that good selling overcomes the buyer's fear -- in this case the fear of eggplant. If you sell products that you're genuinely enthusiastic about, you can often pass that enthusiasm on to a shopper. It's not about giving a "hard sell" ... it's about retailing good stuff with passion. If you can't

Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14196606228617340229noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9467387.post-1151887035394622662006-07-02T20:25:00.000-04:002006-07-02T20:37:15.410-04:00

Okay, you accept my argument that professional photography is critical to marketing success for retailers and other businesses. But hiring a photographer to create custom photos is expensive and time-consuming. Is there another way? Yes. You can often use stock photos in your advertising. Stock photography can be downloaded in an instant, and might be as cheap as $1. Yes, at online stock photo

Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14196606228617340229noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9467387.post-1151577122392820302006-06-29T06:04:00.000-04:002006-06-29T06:32:02.436-04:00

Professional photography is worth a fortune to a retailer or other marketers. Consider the famous retail catalog and ecommerce website of the Pottery Barn. Would the products be as sought-after if the photography wasn't so good? The Pottery Barn catalog and website are like a home design magazine -- full of decorating ideas that inspire the purchase of the products. The Quality of the

Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14196606228617340229noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9467387.post-1151012647600521542006-06-22T17:33:00.000-04:002006-06-22T17:50:29.576-04:00

The dismal showing of the American team at the World Cup is just the latest example of why you should use models in your ads instead of athletes. Athletes can embarass themselves with crappy play on the world stage. Imagine if you'd signed a U.S. soccer player to represent your company - and then the team only scores one goal in 3 games and is (mercifully) eliminated in the first round. Yikes!

Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14196606228617340229noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9467387.post-1150631918738960222006-06-18T07:21:00.000-04:002006-06-18T07:58:38.770-04:00

A month ago, I wrote about the opportunities for making money from sharing your knowledge on the Internet. I also pointed out that retailers can make money from websites without selling anything. But how much money can you make just by presenting what you know on a website? Tim Carter makes more than $30,000 a month from his website. Tim is a syndicated newspaper columnist who writes about home

Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14196606228617340229noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9467387.post-1149899239768874652006-06-09T20:11:00.000-04:002006-06-09T20:27:19.786-04:00

Office supplies retailer Staples has become a retail success story with memorable marketing and an improved shopping experience. Their "easy button" is a wonderful iconic object that helps spread the company's message. I was tempted to buy one when I was recently in a Staples store. About a million have been sold for $5 a piece. The easy button icon is also available on a downloadable toolbar

Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14196606228617340229noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9467387.post-1149347296689258172006-06-03T11:00:00.000-04:002006-06-03T11:08:16.716-04:00

You don't need an expensive store or thousands of dollars of inventory to become a retailer. Entrepreneur magazine has this article on 4 cheap ways to break into retail. The 4 ways: 1. eBay - begin by selling unwanted stuff from around your house and then build your own niche 2. Amazon - sell your products alongside the ecommerce leader 3. Direct sales - demonstrations at home parties sell

Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14196606228617340229noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9467387.post-1148671601314522232006-05-26T15:04:00.000-04:002006-05-26T16:47:54.840-04:00

Hooters succeeds by catering to the tastes of men. For more than 20 years, the famous restaurants have provided girls, finger food, and beer for millions of happy customers. Like Wal-Mart, Hooters appeals to the common man (if not the common woman) with a simple strategy well carried out. The original Hooters restaurant was opened in Clearwater, Florida by 6 partners. Beer, chicken wings, and

Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14196606228617340229noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9467387.post-1148471614771715652006-05-24T07:37:00.000-04:002006-05-24T07:53:34.806-04:00

For some businesses, sexy advertising goes to the next level and becomes a profit center of its own. For example, TeaseUm is a bikini and clothing company with a very provocative style. Naturally they use beautiful models in their ads, but the company has gone farther. TeaseUm sells calendars of their models and sells special events for amateur photographers. They also post exellent pics of

Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14196606228617340229noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9467387.post-1148044453817032202006-05-19T09:06:00.000-04:002006-05-19T09:14:13.840-04:00

Verizon and the other phone companies catch a lot of flack for their customer service, but I recently had an excellent experience with Verizon DSL. My laptop computer self-destructed and I bought a new desktop to replace it. The new machine didn't have the correct settings to use my DSL modem, and I hadn't saved the documentation from when I'd installed it on my laptop. So I called Verizon DSL's

Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14196606228617340229noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9467387.post-1146482826532987962006-05-01T07:14:00.000-04:002006-05-01T07:27:06.546-04:00

Last week I wrote about my Internet home business and how I make money from website publishing. Can retailers take advantage of the web in the same way? Yes they can. Retailers are in a great position to make money from websites without selling anything. All you have to do is share your expertise about your products on your website. You know what questions your customers ask. Answer them online

Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14196606228617340229noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9467387.post-1146222685146097132006-04-28T06:37:00.000-04:002006-04-28T07:11:25.200-04:00

A year ago I started a little home-based business in my spare time. It's a good thing I did -- my regular job was eliminated a few months later. Instead of finding another job, I decided to commit my time and energy to my fledgling business, which was showing great promise. It's the best decision I've ever made. Now my little website-publishing business makes enough money to cover all my

Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14196606228617340229noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9467387.post-1145792368505824982006-04-23T07:29:00.000-04:002006-04-23T07:41:10.780-04:00

Franchises are a short-cut to small business success. The franchise buyer spends money upfront to buy into a successful business and reduce the risk of failure. The heart of this business model is the franchise system, which spells out every little detail of how to successfully run the business. A good franchise is based on concepts proven in one or more prototypes. There the system has been

Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14196606228617340229noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9467387.post-1145271076253788922006-04-17T06:37:00.000-04:002006-04-17T06:51:16.266-04:00

Once a year we're all reminded how crazy our system of taxation is. There is an alternative: support the FairTax. The FairTax is a national retail sales tax that would replace federal income and payroll taxes (including personal, gift, estate, capital gains, alternative minimum, Social Security/Medicare, self-employment, and corporate taxes). The FairTax proposal features dollar-for-dollar

Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14196606228617340229noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9467387.post-1145042275461646692006-04-14T15:03:00.000-04:002006-04-14T15:17:55.483-04:00

Customer loyalty rewards programs are a fairly common way for retailers to entice repeat business. A small bookstore near me runs a "bakers dozen" program -- if you buy 12 books, a 13th book is free. They keep the records right there in the store so you don't have to remember to bring your punch card (a nice touch). The kings of customer loyalty programs are casinos. The giant Harrah's casino

Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14196606228617340229noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9467387.post-1144666181656298382006-04-10T06:38:00.000-04:002006-04-10T06:49:48.306-04:00

This week's Carnival of Capitalists presents good business blog posts from the last seven days. From "changing the rules in your market" to "5 lessons from a marketing guru" there's lots of interesting posts to read. Enjoy.

Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14196606228617340229noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9467387.post-1144522357653624472006-04-08T14:10:00.000-04:002006-04-08T14:58:50.853-04:00

Credit has the power to drive your business and improve society. It enables companies to build a loyal relationship with customers, and enables people to improve their lives now. I'm building a small house and over the next several weeks I'll spend tens of thousands of dollars on building materials, fixtures, tools and more. Building supply companies have long recognized that it is worth

Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14196606228617340229noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9467387.post-1144500764970189832006-04-08T08:40:00.000-04:002006-04-08T08:52:45.000-04:00

A while back I wrote about problems I'd had with website hosts. I'd like to revisit this important issue and provide an update on my own experiences. Here's what I've learned about Website hosting (I won't reproduce that entire page here). This is a service that almost every business purchases, but customer satisfaction is the pits. The industry is extremely fragmented but it's growing so fast

Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14196606228617340229noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9467387.post-1142782039686573122006-03-19T10:11:00.001-05:002006-03-19T10:39:31.140-05:00

The internet facilitates the spread of popular culture around the world in ways never before possible. For example, Ramona Chorleau has become a sensation in Italy. "Bambola Ramona" (the doll Ramona) appears on a couple television shows and has a famous calendar. Photos and videos quickly found their way to the net and "viral marketing" spread them around the globe like wildfire. Ramona Chorleau

Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14196606228617340229noreply@blogger.com