Saving Your Data

I’m always shocked when I hear that someone keeps all of his or her important business data on a single computer. Have you people never heard of hard drive failure, viruses, and power surges? Bad things can happen, and if you’re not backing up your data, you could have huge problems when tax time rolls around.

I always recommend keeping a backup on an external hard drive. If you can, use two and make sure that one is always near your computer and the other is kept off-site in a secure location. You have no idea what it’s like to lose all your data until it happens. Be careful.

Holiday Promotional Ideas

A lot of businesses give away little gifts or treats during the holiday season. That’s especially true if you have a brick and mortar store. Here are a few thoughts about what you could do over the following weeks.

-Warm cider and holiday cookies. In all seriousness, I would probably make a special trip to shop somewhere that did this.

-Candy Canes. They’re cheap, but kids and adults love them.

-Free package of Christmas cards for puchases over $X. This is handy for early in the season sales.

-Holiday music. Yes, it should be playing on your speakers, no matter how crazy it makes you and your employees.

-Peanut Brittle…although you practically need a liability waiver for the dental bills that may come from eating it.

Feel free to post your own ideas in the comments…

A Caution

I used to work at a bank, so I’m pretty picky when it comes to my checking accounts. I refuse to pay a monthly account fee, and I definitely wouldn’t bank anywhere without free online banking. I’ve never understood people who will.

For business purposes, I haven’t always been so lucky, but that’s to be expected. Even still, you can do very well if you shop around. Don’t take the first account that you see, and don’t assume that a good personal checking account means a bank will have good commercial accounts. Little expenses can mean a lot, especially if you’re just getting started.

Quick Tip - Make Your Own

A lot of small gift stores buy paper products from a number of individual artists and vendors, but if you’re creative, you don’t have to. Instead of buying and doubling the wholesale price to make a profit, try developing your own simple products and enjoy tripling (or even better) your money with each sale. Many web-based printers will give you great deals on relatively small quantities, allowing you to maximize profits. You may even have some luck selling your items to other nearby stores.

Of course, you can also go the hand-made route if you’re especially crafty. The additional upside there is that you can test a very small quantity before you spend hundreds of dollars on printing.

Some things you might try:

-Christmas Cards
-Gift Tags
-Notebooks
-Invitations

That’s just a start - I’m sure you can think of more.

I’m Guilty…

You’d never know it by talking to me, or by encountering me in any normal, everyday situation. You probably wouldn’t even guess it by the way that I dress. For most people, it’s quite a shock. It’s not until someone comes to my house that they realize it - I am pretty much a man when it comes to decorating.

My walls are bare, my windows are unadorned, and I don’t even own a picture frame. I’m all about the essentials. If something doesn’t serve a purpose, I don’t own it. Given the fact that a big part of my day job involves shopping for the gift and home products I’m always blogging about, that surprises a lot of people.

Lately, it’s come to my attention that my lack of decorating is kind of weird. That’s why I’d like to start out simple, with an elegant but understated Harold Miller Atomic Clock. That way, I’m decorating my house but still getting the function that’s important to me. It would actually look pretty nice in my living room, and I’d be able to use something other than the clock on my cell phone to figure out what time it is when I’m in there. Even better, I wouldn’t have to worry about setting it, since Atomic Clocks are (mostly) automatic (the screwy daylight savings time rules aside, of course).

Looking around the 1-800-4clocks site, I realized that there are an awful lot of clocks in the world. I realized that I could probably use a new alarm clock, too. I also saw Howard Miller Grandfather Clocks that my mother would go nuts for.

Anyway, whether you’re an advanced decorator or a novice like myself, definitely check them out.

3 More Distributors You Should Check Out

If you’re looking for last minut gift items, you should check out the companies below. They’re all especially great for gift stores, but it’s not like their stuff wouldn’t do well in general merchandise or other more specialized areas.

Knock Knock - They sell cool paper producs.

Fred - I promise you: If you know anything about gifts, you will recognize their products.

Kikkerland - I’ve never been crazy about their customer service (it took 4 weeks and 4-5 calls to get a paper catalog, and their website doesn’t have everything), but they do have some cool products.

If you check them out, let me know how it goes!

Blog Hosting

When I first set up my blogs, I chose a host based on what I had heard from people I knew. Mostly, I selected it because I knew the company had been around a long time. Over the last couple of years, that’s caused some hang-ups with certain installations. When that happens, I usually end up spending 20-30 minutes (or more) on hold waiting for the host’s support team. So far, it’s always been fixed, but I definitely wish I would have thought about these things sooner.

Today, I would make the decision a little more carefully. It’s important to choose a blog hosting solution that allows for a great deal of control and scalability, because you really never know how big your blog will get in the future. There’s also no easy way to figure out what softwares you’ll eventually want to use, so you need to make sure you’ll be able to get plenty of MySQL databases.

If you want to run a number of blogs, you should also take that into consideration. Some services allow you to host just one blog per hosting plan, and that can get very expensive very quickly if you run many sites at all. And trust me, there will be those times when you think you have an awesome idea for your next site, you register the domain, and then you just let it sit there for months. I’m speaking from experience.

AQ Host is unlike a lot of hosting services because they offer Wordpress hosting plans that can accommodate a number of domains for one monthly fee. They also offer videos to help you figure out Wordpress, assuming that you need them. In fact, as I’m reading over their website, I’m realizing that my 37 domains would probably be better hosted with AQ Host. I’ll definitely be reading more of the details.

Starting & Stocking Your Video Store

I recently got an e-mail asking how to get started in the video store business, assuming that you’ve got the location and funding nailed down. Basically, the reader wanted to know how to find the items to put IN the store for sale and rental. That’s actually much simpler than you might guess. Here are a few companies to get you started:

Baker & Taylor - This is one of the biggest distributors of books, music, and video. The setup process can be a little intimidating, but it’s worth it.

Ingram Entertainment - Based out of Tennessee, this is another big entertainment distributor.

Navarre - There’s not much difference between Navarre and the others, but there are definitely some titles that will be at one of the 3 but not the others.

And, failing that, just go to Amazon.com. These things are pretty easy these days.

Good Cook Wholesale Kitchenware

I probably don’t spend enough time talking about kitchenware. The thing is, even gift stores can benefit from carrying kitchen items because everyone has a kitchen. I’ve always felt like the best way to stock a gift store is to strike a balance between items that people would only buy as gifts and items that people would actually purchase because they fulfill a need (an unimagined one, not the kind where you NEED fresh flowers for your dinner table or pretty knick-knacks for your shelves).

Anyway, if you’re looking to get into a few kitchen items, check out Good Cook. They carry a wide variety of the basics, so you really can’t go wrong with their stuff.

If you’d like to get in touch with Good Cook, do so at:

Bradshaw International
9409 Buffalo Avenue
Rancho Cucamonga, CA
91730
1.800.421.6290

Valentine’s Day Goodies

If you’re giving any thought to your Valentine’s Day product lineup, you should definitely check out DCI Gifts. They have an entire line of red, pink, and heart-shaped products that are perfect for the holiday. The best part is that most of them are totally functional, so they’re easy to justify purchasing. Take a look at this adorable dish scrubbing brush. I love the little rhinestones on the back of the head.

If you’re interested in reselling DCI Products, get in touch with them at:

DCI Gifts
275 Westminster Street
Providence, RI 02903
401.621.2324 Phone
401.621 5324 Fax
877.947.1577 Toll Free

Boing Designs

If you sell many fine pens, you’re probably well aware of Helios pens from Boing Designs. Their magnetic pens make great fidget-tools and conversation pieces for your desk, and even better business gifts. At $29.99 for the sleek wooden designs, they’re very reasonable, too. Take a look:

If you’d like to find out more about becoming a reseller for Helios pens, get in touch with them below:

BOING! designs, LLC
P.O. Box 3950
Wilsonville, Oregon 97070
503.299.6800

Accoutrements - Cool, But Can You Spell It?

I’m a huge fan of novelty products, especially in brick and mortar stores. Small gifts under $5-10 are a great way to increase your average sale without having to persuade your customer to buy another huge item. Accoutrements offers a variety of super-cool novelties that would be great for that very purpose. I guarantee that a large percentage of the people I know would be open to getting SOMEONE one of these gummy tapeworms:

If you’re interested in getting in touch with them, contact Accoutrements at:

Accoutrements
PO BOX 30811
SEATTLE, WA 98113
USA
• ph. 425.349.3838
• fax 425.349.5188
• info (at) accoutrements.com

Holiday Merchandise Need Forecasting

In retail, the last two months of the year are absolutely crucial. It really doesn’t take much to realize that. If you own or manage some kind of retail establishment, however, it takes on a whole new meaning. 80% (and sometimes more) or your sales will come from that time period, and yet that’s the period where you will have the most difficulty with both staffing and supply.

While most of us have done the bulk of our holiday stock-building by November, this is the time to evaluate those faint beginnings of the holiday rush. By taking a good look at things now, you can place the things you’ll probably need for re-orders before everyone else - and hopefully, you won’t be stuck with backorders in late November.

In early October, I ordered roughly 5 times what I normally need for a 3 month period. Next week, I expect to place similarly large orders for items that have done well in the last two weeks. I’d be interested to hear how others do it, though - There’s definitely no perfect way to go about it.