This is the first of 10 articles to help you increase your retail or restaurant sales or profit by 25%. These ideas are in no particular order. This is the first.

If you wish to contribute some of your own ideas, please go to:

http://www.quicktopic.com/44/H/kmftrxGq5dfrq

The link above is a link to Quick Topic. This is a FREE online discussion board that you may want to use in your business. If you go to the link above, you will be going to our 10 Tips Guaranteed To Increase Sales and Profits by 25%. It is anonymous and does not require you to logon in order to post to this discussion board.

Tip #1 Please Contribute to My Charity.

As the owner or manager of a retail store, you are constantly being asked to contribute to various charities and other types of organizations.

Giving to charities and helping out is a good thing. I am not advocating ending your charitable contributions, but here’s an idea that one of my favorite restaurants, The Dog House, shared with me.  The idea will work with any type of retail store (restaurant or non-restaurant).

When a local organization such as a school asks for a contribution, you can turn it around. The Dog House organized a Dog House week for a local school who had asked for a contribution. They made event menus available to the entire school. Anyone who made a purchase at The Dog House during Dog House Week who mentioned Dog House Week filled out a short form and was given a special receipt for their purchase. At the end of the week, The Dog House contributed 10% of their total Dog House Week attributed sales to the event to the school.

The event was a huge success for both The Dog House and the school. The school's proceeds exceeded any previous events or donations. The Dog House had a great sales week, helped a worthwhile charity, and added new, first time customers.

In addition, The Dog House was able to add names, street addresses and email addresses to its customer list that it would use for future marketing.

For those of you who were thinking about a school promoting hot dogs and hamburgers, The Dog House does have healthy salads and other dishes, as well.

The police, firemen, local churches, cancer, heart, and other health related charities, ASPCA, schools, baseball teams, GM (just making sure you're reading this) and others are all asking for money. Most of the these causes are good causes, but many retailers just can’t keep giving. Now you have a way to turn it around. Make many of these charities into customers.

Give each charity its own week. Make up some specials, especially for members of the organization. Collect those email addresses and give back enough to make it worthwhile for the organization you are working with.

Not good. When it comes to the products you are selling your customers expect that you know the answers. If you don't know the answer about one of your products, you should research it and get back to your customer.

2. We're closed.

You've come across this before. You walk into a store and someone comes up to you and says, "WE'RE CLOSED."

It would be far better to let the customer know that you are about to close and ask if there is anything you can do for the customer right now. Or, let the customer know that if he needs lots of time, he can come back tomorrow. If you can, it's always better to stay open a few more minutes and help your customer.

3. It's over there.

OK. Your customer wants to know where he can find a particular shirt. Your sales person points to the end of the store and says, "IT'S OVER THERE." It would be much better to actually lead the customer to the item that he is looking for.

4. We're out of that.

Oh great. You have a customer that came in for it and you tell him that you are out of it. Your customer is already ticked that he can't buy it. It would be better to take down his name and do a special order, or offer an alternative, or even offer another place where he may be able to find it. At least your customer will feel that you tried and leave your store with a good impression.

5. I'm busy right now.

I've been confronted with that phrase in many stores. You ask a sales person for help and you're rejected with the phrase, I'm busy right now. OK. You may be busy but you should still help your customer. You may want to let him know that you are currently helping another customer but will be back to help him as soon as you are finished. Or, you can call someone else over who can help your customer.

There are 10 more things you should never say to a customer. To see the entire list go to:

http://retail.about.com/od/customerservice/tp/bad-customer-service-phrases.htm

This is the third of 10 articles to help you increase your retail or restaurant sales or profits by 25%. These ideas are in no particular order.

If you wish to contribute some of your own ideas, please go to:

http://www.quicktopic.com/44/H/kmftrxGq5dfrq

The link above is a link to Quick Topic. This is a FREE online discussion board that you may want to use in your business. If you go to the link above, you will be going to our 10 Tips Guaranteed To Increase Sales and Profits by 25%. It is anonymous and does not require you to logon in order to post to this discussion board.

Tip #3 Keep a Perpetual Inventory.

Forget shoplifting for the moment. It is estimated that the cost to business as a result of employee theft is greater than 6 percent per year.

Employee theft is responsible for 30% to 50% of all inventory shrinkage. Shoplifters are responsible for another 40%. Your employees are your biggest cause for inventory shrinkage. These figures hold up for both retail stores and restaurants. In restaurants, sources for shrinkage include employees eating the profits and giving away free food to customers and friends in exchange for larger tips.

One way to lower inventory shrinkage is to set up a perpetual inventory system in your store. Instead of checking your inventory once or twice per year (called periodic inventory), check it continuously.

You already own Cash Register Express, Restaurant Pro Express, or maybe some other alternative point-of-sale system. One of the biggest assest to a point-of-sale system is that you always know how much is still in stock (or at least, your computer has an accurate account of what should be in stock).

Perhaps you have 200 screwdrivers in stock. You sell 110 screwdrivers leaving about 90 screwdrivers. The order point feature of your point-of-sale system tells you that you are low in stock and need to order 300 more screwdrivers. By the time the screwdrivers come into the store, you may only have 70 left. Add the 300 new screwdrivers and you should have 370 screwdrivers. The problem is no one counts to make sure that the number of screwdrivers in stock is accurate. You rely on your computer to tell you what is on the shelf and never take a physical count until your yearly or periodic inventory counts.

Get your employees involved and make them responsible. Have an employee responsible for a weekly or even daily count of the screw drivers. If an employee knows that he has responsibility for an accurate account, he is far less likely to steal a screwdriver and more likely to make sure thefts do not occur.

You need to do everything within reason. You don't want your employees to follow around every customer who enters the store in order to avoid theft. On the other hand, you want your employees to know that inventory management is important to you and the business.

As a further precaution, you may want to swap inventory control assignments. Your screw driver counter may be responsible for counting light bulbs next month and your light bulb counter may be responsible for counting hammers.

Making your employees responsible for inventory counts will lower employee and customer thefts. They may also help you figure out other reasons for inventory shrinkage that you may not have thought of.

For more information about the differences between perpetual inventory and periodic inventory go to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_inventory

For more information about how to control and prevent employee theft go to:

http://www.score.org/article_how_to_prevent.html

This is the fourth of 10 articles to help you increase your retail or restaurant sales or profits by 25%. These ideas are in no particular order.

If you wish to contribute some of your own ideas, please go to:

http://www.quicktopic.com/44/H/kmftrxGq5dfrq

The link above is a link to Quick Topic. This is a FREE online discussion board that you may want to use in your business. If you go to the link above, you will be going to our 10 Tips Guaranteed To Increase Sales and Profits by 25%. It is anonymous and does not require you to logon in order to post to this discussion board.

Tip #4 Pay More, Fire More, Train More.

You have already picked the ideal product to sell or have the restaurant with the greatest food.

You have found the ideal location for your retail store or restaurant.

Why are sales lower than expected?

Your employees can make or break you. You are the boss. It's your responsibility to retain and train the best employees.

How much should you pay your employees? My answer is always $1 above the employee who works for your competition.

Salary is very complicated. Your business is not a philanthropic organization or a government agency. You want to make the largest profit possible. That means paying your employees as little as possible.

On the other hand, if you are paying a lower salary, you are likely to have substandard employees who cost you and/or your business lots of potential profits.

If you pay your employees a dollar more than the average local wages in your area, you are more likely to get the best possible employees for your business.

Those businesses with the best reputation for employee wages tend to get the largest number of employees seeking out a position. These businesses have a line of people seeking a position (full or part time).

Treat your employees well and they will treat your business well.

Your employees are hired to serve your customers. You need to train your better than average employees to serve your customers better than any of the competitors.

Having some type of weekly training for all of your employees is a great thing. Make up some situations. Have one employee act as a "disgruntled customer from hell." How will your employees handle this customer? How do your employees handle customers with heavy accents? How do your employees handle customers with endless questions? Are you employees patient? Train your employees to up sell.

Many highly successful businesses have rules. One employee may not talk to another employee as long as a customer is within 10 feet of an employee.

You don't need to train your employees to be pushy. Train your employees to be nice, pleasant and go the extra distance to help your customers.

A restaurant server needs to take full control of the tables that they serve. They should always know which patron ordered which food. If the food is delayed, the server should not hide. Just tell the truth.

You will find that the extra dollar you pay, will more than be made up in extra sales.

Do you own a convenience store? The same rules apply. People are much more likely to come in more frequently when your cashier says hello and actually recognizes your customers.

If you have an organization with 10 or more employees, fire one every once in a while. That is, look for your worst employee. Who is your worst employee? If you can answer that question in less than 10 seconds, that employee should probably be fired. Find a new, better employee...If you can't name a worst employee, than you have reached your goal of having a great staff.

Your employees are an extension of you and your business. If you have a great business, make sure you have great employees and treat them that way.

This is the eighth of 10 articles to help you increase your retail or restaurant sales or profits by 25%. These ideas are in no particular order.

If you wish to contribute some of your own ideas, please go to:

http://www.quicktopic.com/44/H/kmftrxGq5dfrq

The link above is a link to Quick Topic. This is a FREE online discussion board that you may want to use in your business. If you go to the link above, you will be going to our 10 Tips Guaranteed To Increase Sales and Profits by 25%. It is anonymous and does not require you to logon in order to post to this discussion board.

Tip #8 Getting To Yes.