Manny
True Grumbler
I do a lot of reading, mostly Busines, Trade magazines and I attend a few seminars. I've noticed that in the past several years, experts or professionals say that in order to keep the flow of customers walking through the door we should or must give away our time, knowledge, merchandise or some form of charitable donation or if we need to, "the farm". I have tried all of these things over the past ten years to the point that the business becomes neglected or broke. We own a Gallery/Frame Shop and our prices are kept below what we call retail prices. Because we do this for a year round incentive we do not have "Sales". I feel that my Artists and Framers do not need to lower their standards. What we do is have a one time Boxing Day Sale(the day after Christmas for those who have never heard of Boxing Day) and our regular customers get 15% off their custom framing order.
My take on this "give away" approach has spoiled the consumer to the point that they have totally lost respect for the Medium to Small sized Business. We as Framers or Business owners are now having to work so much harder for less. The cost of doing business is continually going up. Why are we not standing our ground and demanding respect in our industry(wholesalers included). My competitors feel that the undercutting is the way to go. Are they not exhausted yet? Do they not realize that what we do is creating, designing and that the craftmanship deserves reconition?
Because of the way our industry has reacted to the consumer's demands, we have put ourselves in a business category that they don't take seriously.
I think every child should take "Respect Businesses 101" in school, after all isn't the small business the core of the community, the dream of our future generations.
Bankruptcy rates are up which increase taxes. Can you imagine if people just paid a good reasonable price for their merchandise and if our businesses failed after that,we'd know why. I'm tired of giving away the farm. If this give, give, give approach is supposed to work, why are the consumers wanting more, more , more.
I just took up "venting 101".
Marie
PS: I put this in the grumbler's forum because I would like lots of input and comments to this subject. Thanks.
My take on this "give away" approach has spoiled the consumer to the point that they have totally lost respect for the Medium to Small sized Business. We as Framers or Business owners are now having to work so much harder for less. The cost of doing business is continually going up. Why are we not standing our ground and demanding respect in our industry(wholesalers included). My competitors feel that the undercutting is the way to go. Are they not exhausted yet? Do they not realize that what we do is creating, designing and that the craftmanship deserves reconition?
Because of the way our industry has reacted to the consumer's demands, we have put ourselves in a business category that they don't take seriously.
I think every child should take "Respect Businesses 101" in school, after all isn't the small business the core of the community, the dream of our future generations.
Bankruptcy rates are up which increase taxes. Can you imagine if people just paid a good reasonable price for their merchandise and if our businesses failed after that,we'd know why. I'm tired of giving away the farm. If this give, give, give approach is supposed to work, why are the consumers wanting more, more , more.
I just took up "venting 101".
Marie
PS: I put this in the grumbler's forum because I would like lots of input and comments to this subject. Thanks.