EQUINOX Business Law Group - Seattle Bellevue

Psycho-shopping

December 27, 2005

In light of the poor retail figures around the holiday season, I thought these points from an older Inc. article on The Retail Group, a hot Seattle-based retail strategy firm of the 1990's to be interesting and relevant. Note that The Retail Group went out of business in 2003 after a split of the founders but I thought the article was worth sharing for its advice to small retailers. Firstly, a shopper should be able to determine within 3 seconds of entering a store its name, its line of trade, its claim to fame, its price position, and its personality. This is necessary to lure in those customers who are not looking for you but are potential customers. Furthermore, because people are lazy, you need to provide strategically placed 'visual carrots' to move the customer to hot-spots within the store where the customer is relaxed, comfortable or intrigued. J'Amy continues that shoppers are typically intimidated by retail stores so the environment must be warm and familiar to the shopper -- music is often an element to drive this comfort and can drive sales by as much as 20%. Lastly, items in the store must be linked as brand 'contact points'. These may be color, scent, staff, and organization to drive an image of what the store is all about. Read more at Inc.com.

The future of retailing

I came across a couple of articles on small business retailers that had some key points of interest. The first article questions whether there's a future for small retailers in a big-box world and the answer, at least from Ted Hurlbut of Inc., is "Yes." He goes further, though, to say that small retailers must stay ahead of their competitors and know who they are and how they compete: "The future for the small retailer is in what teh Big Boys don't -- and can't -- do well; offering a full selection of high quality, specialty goods coupled with the state-of-the-art product knowledge and outstanding service that customers need and expect." A couple of key things to get you there and keep you there are listed in the article. Focus: You can only be what you do better that anybody else. Planning: An area I've discussed in previous posts -- Short term planning is really budgeting while long term planning focuses on your strategy ans what you need to do today to achieve your longer term goals. Decisiveness: An asset of small businesses is nimbleness and flexibility -- you must be able to react quickly and cannot be limited by inadequate information, family politics, aversion to risk or inertia. Execution: You must be able to provide results for the customer better, faster, more accurately or more efficiently than your competitors to win. Financial acumen: Your business success depends on your ability to understand and manage the key financial metrics of your business. Systems aptitude: Most small business owners do not take full advantage of the computer software they have or refuse to invest in it at all. This is a key way to manage customers, financials, and inventory and will provide efficiencies beyond your wildest dreams if you invest in it. Employee empowerment: Give your employees the tools and discretion to serve customers. Read more at Inc.com.

Last Minute Tax Strategies

December 20, 2005

Here's some interesting last minute tax advice from a November article in Entrepreneur Magazine to capitalize on some of the tax incentives expiring on December 31 and those coming into effect in 2006. If you fall into the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) category, you may not want to accelerate the payment of certain taxes that you may have previously accelerated to obtain a deduction for this year. With the AMT, there's no longer a benefit. If not, then pay your estimated taxes and make any charitable contributions and possibly invest in your operating expenses in 2005, rather than 2006, to obtain the deductions. Also remember that deferring income into 2006 for year end bonuses and the like does not help your tax situation if your company is a "flow-through" entity such as a partnership, S-Corp or LLC. Finally look at the tax breaks that expire on December 31 such as the ability to expense off-the-shelf software immediately and amortize it over 3-5 years or the ability to write-off the first $25,000 of first-year depreciation for an SUV (or other vehicle weighing over 6000 lbs.) for business purposes. In addition, charitable contributions of food or textbooks to public schools have no deduction limitation and the deduction is twice the cost of the gift as long as fair market value is greater than that. Finally, if your company is a corporation subject to "double taxation," consider why and whether now is the time to adjust the structure.

Please note, I am not providing tax advice here but simply summarizing an interesting article which you can read in full at Entrepreneur.com and before acting on any tax-related issues, you should contact your tax professional.

I have a website, now what? Optimization!

December 14, 2005

I was a naive small business owner who thought that once I built and published my website, it would then be searchable and accessible by potential customers using search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Unfortunately, it's not that easy. After website development and publication comes "Search Engine Optimization" that draws the search engine companies to your site to be indexed. Only then will it show up in a search on one of their sites. There are a handful of elements that help the web crawlers run by the search engines to find and index your site. First, your site must have metatags for its title, keywords, and content where the source code of the site spells out the keywords you would expect a potential customer to use to search for your site. In addition, the text on your site should reference those keywords frequently. Thirdly, you should update the content on your site frequently. You may consider a Blog as well. Blogs are updated regularly and provide additional links and content for the web crawlers. Finally, obtain as many links to your site from other indexed sites as possible. Links to your site from other sites are a key factor in grabbing the attention of the search engine web crawlers. After you've got your site set up with all these factors included, you then submit your site to the search engines and to the search directories. It may take a week, a month, or longer for them to pick up on your site but eventually they should if all these elements are incorporated. After much frustration and reference to the very helpful book "Search Engine Optimization for Dummies," my site is shows up on Yahoo and MSN searches. I'm still working on Google!

Alternatively, you can pay the search engine companies and get great results quickly. They have all kinds of payment models and sometimes this is the best way to get indexed. Happy optimizing!

More Small Business Resources

December 06, 2005

I recently met with Michael Franz of the Washington Small Business Development Center (WSBDC) in Seattle. The WSBDC works with small businesses and entrepreneurs to address roadblocks or challenges in starting and growing businesses. The organization provides free counseling to clients and plays an active role in helping the business reach pre-determined goals. The counseling is provided in a wide area of business matters from business plan review to assisting with obtaining loans and guidance with intellectual property and technology matters. The WSBDC has counselors all over Washington State so seek them out for guidance. An outsider's perspective often helps clarify the next steps to a problem.