April 11, 2013

Three Steps to Buying With Confidence

To attract customers, your store should be filled with cool products that customers want and need. But finding out what customers want can be daunting. Leslie Faltin of Instrumental Music Center explores three questions to ask yourself before committing to a purchase order.

March 8, 2013

Move Your Inventory by Choosing the Winners & Losing the Others

One of the biggest problems most music retailers face is inventory. They have too many things that aren’t moving and not enough of the things that are. This can be fixed by avoiding a few key pitfalls and identifying the winners and losers in your store. Learn from Donovan Bankhead of Springfield Music.

February 28, 2013

Plan for Profit, One Department at a Time

Do you know what departments or product categories are profitable at your store and, more importantly, what are not? Having a hunch doesn’t count. You need profit and loss statements at the department- or product-category level. Only when you know where your profits lie can you make the best decisions that maximize profitability. Departmental profit and loss statements give you an objective way to judge performance.

February 28, 2013

How to Keep Your Freight Costs From Breaking the Bank

A recent news report estimated that the average American household spends about 4 percent of its annual income on gasoline. Plus, most freight shipments that get delivered to our doors arrive in vehicles running on diesel, which is even more expensive. For this reason and many more, we have to keep a close eye on our daily freight costs. Mike Guillot of Mississippi Music shows you how.

February 26, 2013

Make Purchasing a Team Effort

Does your company handle purchasing as a team? Are the voices of your sales and support staff heard before you place purchase orders? Obviously, a purchasing director or manager needs to make final calls on buying decisions, but the more you can get your associates involved in what they're going to sell, the more they'll be motivated to sell it.

October 21, 2011

Planning for Profit—Budgeting Essentials

Hope is not a plan! Join Lori Supinie, NAMM'ss Top 100 Dealer of the Year for 2011, to learn why you should create a budget and how to get started. It's easier than you think and critical to planning for success!

December 2, 2008

Internal Fraud

What are the warning signs that internal fraud or theft might be occurring at my store?  Every year, statistics are compiled about internal fraud and theft that happens in U.S. retail stores—and those statistics are startling:

December 2, 2008

Bank Financing

How do I convince my bank to lend to me?  There’s an old saying, “The time to get a banker is when you don’t need one.”  That’s because most people wait until there’s a severe cash flow crisis before they contact a banker to obtain a much-needed loan. Unfortunately, a retailer's chances of getting a loan are greatly diminished if the store is unprofitable and losing money. But even the most pro

December 2, 2008

Budgeting

Watch this video for an easy lesson on creating a budget and steering your music store toward profitability and success.

December 2, 2008

Advertising

How much should I be spending on advertising?  Advertising is an important expenditure for any retailer. Yet the field is always changing, which requires you to explore and consider new avenues of delivering your message to keep the image associated with your store fresh and to attract the best customers to your store. The good news is that with changing advertising media, some of these new way

Pages