Recently, I overheard a business owner lamenting the fact that he had forgotten that it was National Coffee Day. He mentioned that he had been planning to give away coffee all day as a promotion but it had slipped his mind. As I looked around, I noticed that his restaurant was pretty slow for a Monday morning. Several employees were taking a break at a table next to me and others were patrolling the dining room, searching for something to do. Throughout the day social media alerted me to the fact that many of my friends were celebrating Coffee Day at various businesses in our area and I wondered how much busier my breakfast spot would have been, had the owner remembered to run the planned free coffee promotion. Having been to his business during other promotions, I’m confident it would have been packed. Clearly this was a missed opportunity. As I was leaving I heard him remark “Every day is something. We’ll catch the next one.” If you find yourself saying this about missed sales, then you really should check out our free inventory software for small business. It's free and easy to use and will keep you from missing sales due to low stock situations.
That may be true, but an opportunity lost is still an opportunity lost. As a small business owner, even one lost opportunity can be one too many. Choosing to pass on promotion is far different from forgetting to implement one. In a previous post we talked about back office technology for your small business including calendar, file sharing and other applications. Adding things to your calendar can help you remember them. Sharing ideas with employees can help as well. Not only can they remind you of things, they can help come up with ideas as well. Delegating tasks not only reduces your workload, it makes employees more involved and allows them to offer input and ideas creating a sense of pride and ownership regarding store activities.
Each promotion is another chance to improve customer retention. When your customers look forward to your in-store promotions, they’ll keep checking back for the next one to be announced. If they’re checking in with you, there actually doing half of your job for you. Promotions are a great way to attract new customers as well. Sometimes a free cup of coffee is all it takes to entice a customer to stop by your establishment instead of your competitor’s. As easily as you could gain a new customer, you could lose an existing one if one of your loyal patrons decides to try a new place and discovers a reason to start frequenting their establishment.
Every missed opportunity can add up to so many more misses for your business. You really can’t afford to let one slip by. With all the resources available to help your small business, there’s no reason for you to miss another one. Keep checking back with our blog for more tips to help you grow your small business. And if you find yourself missing sales opportunities due to low stock, then try our free inventory software for small business.
Don’t let inventory management woes be the reason that you miss something. Try Stockpile today! Our free inventory software for small business will help you track and transfer inventory easily. Setup is quick and you’ll have no trouble training your employees to use Stockpile. Stop struggling with inventory management and start using Stockpile - the world's best free inventory software for small business.
