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Archive for February, 2010
How Build-a-Bear invented a bear market
posted by Happy Business Guy @ 1:14 PM
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
(Fortune Small Business) — Cute sells: Stuffed animals are a $1.5 billion industry in the U.S. Commanding nearly a third of that market is Build-a-Bear Workshop, a St. Louis-based retailer that lets customers personalize plush teddies, bunnies and other fuzzy friends. Founder Maxine Clark got the idea for the company in the mid-1990s while toy shopping with a 10-year-old girl who suggested that she and Clark could make their own stuffed animals.
The first Build-a-Bear Workshop debuted in 1997 at the St. Louis Galleria. Since then about 400 additional stores have opened around the world, mainly in malls. Build-a-Bear’s 4,800 employees have sold more than 75 million toy animals to date. In 2004 the company went public. In 2008 revenues hit $468 million. Clark, 60, tells Fortune Small Business how she did it.
Before becoming an entrepreneur, I spent 19 years working in merchandise development, planning and research for May Department Stores. From 1992 to 1996 I served as president of Payless ShoeSource. Although I loved working for big companies, I was ready for a change; I wanted to have more fun. With any business size, and keeping cost down, we all are looking for cheap business checks, with quality paper.
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You can go to sams club, costco and other warehouse stores that you can purchase more and save more. Its always a good idea to buy more if you want to save more. Just got to spend more upfront vs. small amount at a time. Same thing applies to when your buying things for your business, or office.
When your buying checks, usually the more you buy, the cheaper each check will be. Whys that? Their is the process of getting the information, putting the information in a program, the time amounts it takes to do it, the qyt of checks, printer usage, ink, electricity and etc…. So alot of people dont think about that. So if your buing more, less it will be per check, because not as much time is involved with setting up everything for that one print job. Its easy to find cheap business checks, and you can save alot. Just gota look in the right places.
What are some of the main reasons why a business fails. Poor managers and leaders. Products that isnt check to make sure its working fine and have a massive re-call. Customer service and poor accounting with business checks being returned. Thats just some of it. I feel sorry for Toyota but they should of really tested their products, even though someone else is making it.
Failing products that you have someone else to do, is a huge risk. Why not have someone to really test a product (even though its a part) to make sure its not faulty. So with running a business, if you run it good in every single way, you’ll succeed easily with your business.
Want more sales? Expand your customer service and inventory.
posted by Mr. Peachtree user @ 1:03 PM
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Want more sales? Expand your customer service and inventory. Want to expand your business and gain more customers along with sales? The best way is to expand your customer service. The more options, greeting, and letting your customers know you care, the sales will reflect that easily. Then you’ll need to keep up your inventory. If your company grows and need more room, your customers will like that.
Then you’ll need to hire more people to cover the extra space you just opened. The accounting dept will like this as well. That means they will have to order more cheap business checks, and see the sales increase. With a good year of sales, you’ll be able to give bonuses to your employees, creating a good working environment for everyone.
Business checks are great for record keeping
posted by Mr. Peachtree user @ 11:50 PM
Monday, February 1, 2010
Keeping up with your records is always a good thing to do. It can be a very good thing to use your business checks so you can get copies of the bills you paid or your employees. Ordering cheap business checks is very easy to do, so you can keep your cost down. Using your business checks more, than your debit card, will help to reduce the fraud.
Theirs so much fraud going on out there, and most of it is with debit/credit cards. Using your business checks will make it harder for them, but easier on you. Make copies of your business checks after they clear.