MacGregor Media - Creativity, Strategy and Technology
  • HOME
  • About
  • Busker Blog by David MacGregor
  • Archive
    • Leadership in the networked economy
    • The joys of Coffee Consulting
    • Signature Style in Graphic Design
    • Surviving Survivor Bias
    • Health Check - the near future of healthcare
  • EXCLUSIVES

What does your customer's point of sale experience say about your business?

16/6/2015

0 Comments

 
Arkwright from Open All Hours till had a mind of its own
Black Hop Burns is…? Well, actually, it's a beer, hot chile sauce and vinyl record store…obviously. In Dulwich - London, England. It's owned and run by a couple of kiwis and it is booming. The London Evening Standard just rated it a one of the city's great shops. Not bad for a fledgling business that seems to defy any kind of convention. Really, if a management consultant had prognosticated on Jen & Glenn's business plan they might well have advised 'concentrate on one of the three legs of their business stool, or maybe drop the hot sauce because that's just…weird…what's your core business?' I know, I nodded off writing it too. Beware of management consultants. Go with your gut.

But this post is about point of sale systems. One of the things I notice in dealing with small business owners, specifically shop owners - it's that they are run off their feet with the sheer number of things they have to take care of. From stock management to marketing, sharing their wares and experience with customers to make them insanely happy and even cleaning the place every day. Then there's dealing with suppliers and doing the accounts. You can't just concentrate on the fun, sexy things. Growing takes time and massive amounts of energy. Note I didn't say massive amounts of money?

Most small stores rely on cash flow, rather than investment from 'angels' or venture capitalists. It's the life blood of your business. A healthy business has good cash flow that is the product of getting the parts of the business iceberg below the waterline right - product selection, pricing, promotion, staffing, merchandising sorted so that when the doors open every morning new customers and returning fans are presented with an experience they love and products that satisfy their needs and wants. They show their pleasure and gratitude by exchanging their hard-earned cash for your goods and services and you process the transaction through your till…

Wait…your till? Remember Arkwright, the corner shopkeeper who's till had a mind of its own?  Times have changed. Cash has given way to EFTPOS, debit cards and credit cards. The idea of a transaction has changed and with it how transactions are handled in store. One of the most important decisions you can make that will positively effect most other parts of your retail business is the choice of point of sale management systems you choose. Stock management and ordering, building your customer database and integrating with your accounts will all be made so much easier if you commit to a system early on. The best time to decide is when you are planning to open your store - but any time after that is fine too. 

You have plenty of things to do and the more streamlined your business is the more time you will have to spend attending to the needs of your customers. And let's be honest, if you are anything like the people I work with, the more time you will have to enjoy life outside of trading hours. 

The video about Hop, Burns & Black was produced by Vend, a New Zealand based point of sale system that is growing very quickly with  small and growing retailers around the world. I recommend you have a word to them. Their site has a number of case studies of retailers in a wide range of categories you might find useful.

Picture
0 Comments

Crop of the Pics - Using stock photography to improve impact at a lower cost.

16/7/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
It's cornball and hackneyed but a picture is worth a thousand words. I'm a big fan of beautifully crafted images to help tell a story. 

In my early years in advertising photgraphy was a big deal. As an art director I would conceive an idea, lay out as a concept visual (rendering the image by hand - I loved rendering - even if it was a complete waste of time - most good ideas really could be sketched on the back of a napkin). Then I'd choose a photographer - either from the roster of trusted suppliers or from portfolios. I'd help cast models - sometimes even putting in my own 'discoveries' - like Rachael Hunter (who was in my sister's class at school) for a Steinlager KZ1 Merchandise brochure and later a trade ad for Pepsi…I'd choose locations, hair and makeup, styling…then pick the best transparency or image from a proof shoot - bending over light boxes with lupes…organising retouching and clear cutting. It was a complicated, high value business. There was stock photography - but a lot of it was terrible - cheesy and cliché - and it wasn't necessarily cheap. 

Then digital happened. Imagery exploded. Now stylised Instagram pictures, passed through a filter from an iPhone camera are often as good as professional images.

Photo libraries like the one MacGregor Media uses charge a dollar for an image. On the right you can see a project that I'm working on to get my novel, Vanishing Act onto the Kindle platform (I decided the worthy but dowdy cover of the physical book wasn't attracting readers - It features a great shot of Maui Dolphin I got from a Dutch photographer on Flickr years ago in return for a credit in the imprint - but it kind of sank like a stone). I haven't retouched the image yet - just crudely plonked two pictures together - but you can see the impact you can get for just a couple of bucks.

There are times when you should hire an insanely great photographer.

1. If you need a portrait of a real person 
2. If you need an image of an actual place or product or thing.

And that's about it really.
Short of video - which isn't always the right medium for all kinds of reasons - photography and illustration will bring your words and ideas alive.

But you don't need to spend a lot of money for flash photography.

Dollar Photo Club
Picture
If you would like to know when the ebook version of Vanishing Act is available (revised and updated), let me know by email  - or order a copy from BrainForest Press.
(Though the physical edition has the old cover).
0 Comments
    Picture

    David MacGregor

    This blog is a notepad of contemporaneous and sometimes extemporaneous thoughts about creativity, strategy and ideas.
    I also produce occasional white papers - join my mailing list to get priority on those.

    I'll try to share some of the things I've learned with you - I'll try to make the blog follow my rules:

    1. Be useful
    2. Be engaging
    3. Be yourself.

    Leave comments - discuss, debate and share.  Let's have some fun.

    View my profile on LinkedIn

    Archives

    June 2018
    September 2017
    June 2017
    October 2016
    September 2016
    July 2015
    June 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014

    Categories

    All
    Ads
    Brand Name
    Consumer
    Content Marketing
    Copywriting
    Design
    Ideas
    Low Cost
    Magazines
    Naming
    Native Advertising
    Pitch
    Planning
    Promotion
    Retail
    Storytelling

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • HOME
  • About
  • Busker Blog by David MacGregor
  • Archive
    • Leadership in the networked economy
    • The joys of Coffee Consulting
    • Signature Style in Graphic Design
    • Surviving Survivor Bias
    • Health Check - the near future of healthcare
  • EXCLUSIVES