Farm Marketing II: Business Management

Transcription

1 Great Lakes Fruit, Vegetable & Farm Market EXPO Michigan Greenhouse Growers Expo December 8-10, 2009 DeVos Place Convention Center, Grand Rapids, MI Farm Marketing II: Business Management Tuesday afternoon 2:00 pm Where: Ballroom C CCA Credits: PD(2.0) 2:00 p.m. How and Why of Branding Kim & Wade Kuipers, Kuipers Family Farm, Maple Park, IL 2:30 p.m. Loyalty Cards - Can They Work For You? Sue Murdock, Goebberts Farm & Garden Center, South Barrington, IL 3:00 p.m. Point of Sales Anne Holcomb, Apple Annie's Orchard, Wilcox, AZ 3:30 p.m. What is S.C.O.R.E. Rick Walker, SCORE Vice Chairman, Grand Rapids, MI

2 Great Lakes Expo 2009 Loyalty Cards Can they work for you Presented by: Sue Murdock Goebbert s Farm & Garden Center sdmgoebberts@sbcglobal.net Goebbert s has had a loyalty program for the last 8 years. We started with a manual program, using plastic key fobs and paper gift rewards. This worked well until the program started to grow. Our cashiers were getting bogged down by all the manual paper work it required to issue paper gift cards. We hired Valutec to process our Loyalty program. They provide Loyalty programs and Gift Card programs for small businesses. We downloaded Valutec program onto our credit card machines as a third party application. You need to make sure your credit card processor is OK with having a third party application on your equipment. We use Valutec Auto Rewards program. Each time a customer spends a dollar in April, May or June, the customer is awarded a point. When they reach 500 points, they will automatically be awarded a $50 reward that can be redeemed for merchandise in April, May or June. The card does not expire and will continue to accrue year after year. Cost of our program is charged to the marketing budget. Processing $1092 year 12,000 swipes (based on number of swipes you need) Cards & Backers $.72 each Active cards 8010 Rewards = 1.6% of total sales 2006 = 7994 swipes 2007 = 8066 swipes 2008 = 8755 swipes (added gift cards) 2009 = swipes Pros of the program 1) Increased customer visits to the Garden Center 2) It is easy to track our good customer s sales activity without POS systems. -2-

3 3) Customers will come back to us for the fill in sale rather than the big box because they are getting points (value added). 4) Customers like the easy and non-structured program. They can use the reward for any purchase during April, May, and June. 5) Helps to build our mailing and list very quickly. 6) Easy for the cashiers to use. 7) Many rewards go un-used due to lost cards, multiple cards etc. Cons to the program 1) Make sure you can support the reward. Once you start a program like this, customers expect it. 2) Customers lose their cards. We have two options for them: 1) Re-issue a new card with no charge 2) Re-issue a new card & pay $5 to look up points and add to the new card. 3) Customer request to use the program outside the our 3 month window 4) Returns no way to remove points when using the auto reward program. 5) Some data entry to do Over-all we are very happy with our Loyalty program. Our customers like the program and it has increased customer visit frequency.

4 Great Lakes Expo 2009 Loyalty Cards Can they work for you Presented by: Sue Murdock Goebbert s Farm & Garden Center sdmgoebberts@sbcglobal.net

5 POINT OF SALE WHY QUICKBOOKS POS IS THE PERFECT SOLUTION FOR MY BUSINESS Anne Holcomb Apple Annie s Orchard - Willcox, Arizona apples@appleannies.com When we started selling apples out of our carport in 1986, a cash box was all we needed to handle sales, and inventory was non-existent! We started thinking about adding a POS system as our business grew to the point where our inventory control was out of control. Talking with friends that had markets similar to ours scared us off as we discovered that we could easily invest $20,000 - $30,000 in a system, and our business suffered as we put off the inevitable for another few years. In 2007 our daughter took the initiative, did the research and ordered QuickBooks POS for our business, and that s what I m here to discuss today. Who needs a Point of Sale System? Advantages of QuickBooks POS: Quick and easy to install and set up for your business EASY to learn Inexpensive, about $1500 per register Getting Control of Our Inventory All of the Reports We Need Credit Card Processing Integrated with QuickBooks No need for separate terminal Disadvantages No scale connection Yikes, a system crash in October! QuickBooks POS is satisfying our needs very well, and we re still discovering and implementing new uses. For next season we will be adding the Purchase Order feature and ordering from our vendors. There are many functions available that we have not needed, but they are there if we need them as we grow. Since we only spent $1,500 per unit, or a total of $4500, instead of the $20,000 - $30,000 that others had invested, we were able to use that money on other equipment that was needed on the farm!

6 SCORE: Counselors to America s Small Business What is SCORE? What do we do? How do we do it? Why do we do it? Can SCORE help your business? What is SCORE? Founded in 1964 by the US SBA Importance of Small Business Knowledge & skill of business owners, professionals & executives Help small business succeed! SCORE Nationally 11,000 volunteer counselors 5000 Workshops 100,000 counseling 400,000 counseling sessions 1.4 million volunteer hours annually SCORE Web Site Templates Online training Many ideas & articles newsletters All Free SCORE Grand Rapids 25+ years of serving Greater Grand Rapids 35 counselors 40% counselors still have careers Broad & specialized skills

7 What Grand Rapids SCORE Volunteers bring to the table! 160+ Years counseling experience Broad education 630 Years of Broad Business Experience Marketing Sales Banking Legal Finance Manufacturing SCORE Expertise Human Resources Management Business Strategy Retail QuickBooks What do we do at SCORE? Provide training in the basics Answer lots of questions Direct to resources Advice based on experience Serve as a sounding board Mentoring & coaching What do we do (cont d)? Listen, listen & listen You re not alone Maintain our Code of Ethics Be honest & objective Deliver the painful truth What does it take for Small A FOCUSED Business Plan Goals A clear road map for success Marketing & Financial A QUALITY product and/or service Good won t be enough Differentiation What does it take for Small A MARKET NEED and ability to get to it What is the market? Who is the competition? Do you know how to reach your potential customers? Can you be better, faster, cheaper?

8 What does it take for Small EXPERIENCE in the industry Know what it takes to make the business succeed? Ability to MANAGE people and resources Develop the skill of your workers Hire & fire with quality and compassion What does it take for Small FINANCIAL resources Good credit rating Lender wants to know you ll be a good risk Assets as collateral Personal funds to invest What does it take for Small HARD WORK and plenty of it 6 days, hour days are normal Your labor will be cheaper then hiring workers GOOD ADVICE Lawyer, banker, accountant Mentor Taking business to the next level Business Audit Teams Initial discussion Map out plan Bring key specialists to the table Follow through and monitor improvements How do we serve at SCORE? Telephone consultation (616) am-12pm, M-F score@grandrapids.org Low cost Workshops In our GR Chamber At any Chamber Office At the client s business We ll even meet in a coffee shop Why do we do what we do? 23 million small businesses nationwide Employ 50% of the private workforce 75% of new jobs created each year are in small business Represent 99.7% of all USA employers 675,000 new businesses opened each year (2007)

9 And In the first two years of operations, 80% of small businesses FAIL! Along with the failure. Well intentioned business owners: Lose their savings Lose their retirement nest egg Lose their homes Lose borrowed money Millions of employees lose jobs SCORE Grand Rapids Results: Success Stories Auto Source of West Michigan Incredible Edible Delights Eden Environments Many others with improved business processes Clients counseled Over 1000 annually including workshops 45% decided to NOT go into business Saving over $6 million annually in economic loss What can you do? Know someone starting a small business? Refer them to SCORE Business ready for the next level? Call SCORE Have some good business expertise and believe in small business? Join SCORE Helping Entrepreneurs Live their Dreams