Just a quick note, as you are all aware Positive Solutions became a Mamut business partner this year and I would like to direct you to a couple of video’s of Mamut’s products, see below, i hope this give’s you an understanding of what and how Mamut and positive can help you.
With the current economic climate as it is business’s large and small are looking for ways to reduce costs and become more effective in their daily business activities, Mamut is a powerful easy to user CRM and accountancy package unlike other accounting packages which are hard to you and cumbersome and are really targeted at accountants Mamut is extremely focused on CRM (Customer Relationship Management) as its backbone and a really strong accounting package which is easy to used and can have you up and running in a matter of hours.
I have a lot of info on Mamut on our website ‘click here’ and if it does not answer all your questions please feel free to post back or contact me directly see here.
Again I would love to hear your ideas about how to become more efficient and profitable in the most difficult time and if I can be of any help to you please let me know.
It’s true what they say in a recession some people do really well,
I have been trawling the markets to see what types of businesses do really well in a recession and I have found a few.
1) Debt Collectors
2) Schoolwear providers
3) Local Credit Unions
4) State run saving promotions (Prize Bonds)
5) Super-Markets
I have a couple of clients using our software in the Schoolwear business and by god are they doing well or should I say they are doing the same amount of business they were doing last year and the year before actually what prompted me to post was the fact that a couple of them are expanding.
I know the reason they are doing well is because all of us who have Kid’s need to get uniforms and schoolbags etc each year and it’s a simple fact you have to buy them, where my little girl goes to school you must get your uniform from one of these shops “talk about having a monopoly” but in saying that they are good quality and it’s a good service and with a uniform all the Kid’s are the same so no bullying over the designer gear.
It got me thinking for my line of business which is selling management software whom can I target, if you like me are in business I would advise you to sit down and think what types of businesses are doing well in a recession or are doing the same as last year and if you have a product or solution that will fit into their market I believe you could ride out the recession with this type of client.
As always I would love to hear from people who believe they have a market or client base not affected by the recession that could be a niche for me to focus on.
Ireland is just one more country to be hit with this global recession and it seems it is affecting all industries, the announcement of the closure of Dell manufacturing in Limerick with the loss of 2000 jobs being the latest in the long line of bad news for Ireland.
While we also look in the retail sector the likes of Zavvi, Adams, and a host of other big name companies all going into receivership sure would put the shivers up you if your in retail.
Well i would disagree how are the smaller companies getting on, some are finding it hard and i could tell you why, a few months back i posted a blog stating how companies could become more efficient by use of technology and all who listened to this should have upgraded there EPOS or invested in a new system altogether, Look at Microsoft RMS this software package to manage you retail business has it all, integration to web-store (Nitrosell) live sales, trends,stock,reports and POS just to name a few. Those companies who didn’t listen there the ones finding it hard the ones with good EPOS seen this coming and were either running more efficiently already or were able to implement a strategy much much quicker.
Ask yourself this what is your biggest cost of doing business i would imagine it is labor unless you live in a remote village in India. A decent EPOS system saves you time,energy and gives you all the data you need to make informed business decisions. What if you could spend more time on your shop floor getting rid of some of your expensive staff costs, what if you could do this and still spend less time analysing your business because you have a system to do that for you????.
Also for any of you not in the arena of the WWW (Internet) i would suggest you get into it no longer do people need to come to you to buy something a quick trawl through google and ‘hey presto’ they have made a purchase on line now i am not saying that you dont need a store but you do now need to complement it with a web-store have a look at RMS and Nitrosell’s offering if you made an additional 20% on line this year what does it mean to your bottom line.
Folks as always please feel free to comment and if you want to talk to use please drop a mail or give us a call.
It amazes me to see how many people don’t count stock upon delivery. Or worse don’t enforce the task is carried out by whichever staff member is receiving in the delivery. Numerous customers, I have talked to have admitted to not counting stock upon delivery because they were too busy , weren’t available etc.. Well the reality is mistakes do happen, wrong quantities, and items can get delivered. The importance of taking control of stock is vital for the success of any business.
If you get the wrong items in a delivery, they may not be what your target market are looking for so you end up with the stock 1) taking up space and 2) if its perishable going out of date, both causing you revenue loss. It’s a matter of habit and getting into the right habits.
I have to say Microsoft’s RMS Store operation does an exceptional job of handling stock. You simply set up your suppliers, and the items for the suppliers initially. It is then a simple task of creating the purchase order which can be emailed, printed (which you can then fax), exported to excel, or word. A neat feature is the flexibility of creating your purchase order whether it according to suppliers (which warns you if you choose and item that is not set up for the supplier but will allow you to add it anyway after asking are you sure?), categories, departments or a blank purchase order plus many more options. If you want further info on the options post back with your query. When a delivery is received there is the option do a quick scan or update the items manually by filling in the correct quantity for each item delivered. If the order is all counted and matches the P.O. quantities you can simply click the receive all button and the stock quantities for the items are updated on the system automatically.
As you probably already know the quantities delivered do not always match and a delivery can be split, this is no problem in RMS, only the items delivered are updated with the new quantities and the items not delivered will be highlighted until they are delivered or you delete the purchase order.
I came across this article today and found it quite relevent to most retail owners out there interested in purchasing Retail Software, Please read on and as always if you have any questions or just need advice on selecting the right product for you just contact me or post below.
If you’re like most retailers, you don’t consider yourself a software expert. You may know a lot about this fall’s merchandise or last decade’s wines, but when it comes to selecting your next point of sale (POS) system, you’d rather wait until tomorrow…
Retailers are recognising how competitive the industry has become and are striving to find out exactly what will give them an edge over their competitors. In a rapidly changing environment like retail one of the keys to success is ensuring you know exactly what is going on in your business whether you have one or more shops. What items are your best sellers? Who are your best customers? What needs to be re-ordered or should there be automatic reorder levels? Who is your best cashiers? etc. Reports detailing vital real time information instantly, is the key to increased sales, efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Microsoft’s RMS provides a wealth of reports as standard including customer accounts receivable, sales, item quantity information, quotes, orders and layaway as well as a host of others.
Retailers can customise reports using different filter criteria but from experience my favourite feature of RMS reporting is the ability to memorize customised reports.
The export feature is very useful should you ever need a member of staff to email you on sales reports, or in the event that you need reports sent to your accountant, the report can be exported to a comma delimited file which allows you to open it in excel.
Filtering the reports allows you to generate a report according to specific criteria for example if you wanted to find out how many items you sold between specific dates you can use the “Date Sold” filter and set the start and finish date of the report. There are also filters for stock on hand, cashiers, categories, department plus a lot more.
Reporting features in RMS include: • Preview, print, or export data in multiple formats.
• Filter, hide, sort, and group data the way you want.
• Add your logo for formal reports.
• Drill down to modify the database directly from reports.
• View and print daily sales graphs and journals from any register.
• Preview, search, and print journals by register, batch, and/or receipt number.
• Print X, Z, and ZZ reports.
• Adjust report headers/columns on screen.
• Quickly drill down from summary reports to detailed reports.
• ”Memorize” report settings.
I am attaching a youtube demo of Microsoft’s Retail Management System Reporting, if you have any queries post back
This is the first post of a series of posts we’ll be doing on how to get the most out of your web store. So to begin we’ll start with the basics of effective content.
When it comes down to it, you get business from web traffic and traffic either directly (someone types in your www address) or from search engines. So when you are optimising your web store for search engines, don’t let yourself get bogged down or confused, there’s no magic secret. No special little code you hide somewhere that gets your site listed number one, it really comes down to just a few things done well.
2008 has been great to us here at Positive. We can’t believe it’s May already. We have to apologise for how quiet we’ve been on the blog as of late, but not to worry, we have some great posts coming in the next few days.
Nitrosell are our web-store partners and Tom Keane spoke with microsoft and has had this artical posted, which i found quiet informative and exactly in line with my beliefs.
So for all you retailers out there dont you think it is time to diversify and move your Brick & Mortar stores into the world of the Internet? Here is a little light reading i hope will give you a clearer understanding of where on-line selling is going “enjoy”.
NitroSell Retailers Turn Challenging Economy into Advantage by Going Multi-Channel
There are two sides of the ROI analysis that need to be considered. First, what is the investment to purchase the restaurant automation solution. Second, and perhaps more important, what is the cost associated with not purchasing the solution. In 100% of Restaurant Manager software customers, the ROI has far outweighed the monthly investment required to purchase the restaurant automation solutions.
According to the National Restaurant Association’sRestaurant Industry Operations Report 2002, the average restaurant spent a total of 35% of their annual sales on salaries, wages, and benefits. Labor costs are the highest expense. Restaurant automation integrates key business functions in order to maximize efficiency and reduce labor costs.Most restaurants operate on low profit margins. In fact, the average restaurant keeps less than a 10 cent in profit for every Euro earned. Furthermore, the restaurant industry has seen modest growth of 1% to 3% annually since 1991.
Low profit margins combined with modest growth result in numerous challenges. Restaurant automation offers opportunities to increase revenue and sales per customer.The following ROI analysis is based upon a restaurant with €500,000 in annual sales and €175,000 in labor costs.
Annual ROI
Monthly ROI
Decreases
Labor Costs (20%)
€35,000
€2,917
Increases
Revenue (5%)
€25,000
€2,083
Sales Per Customer (2%)
€10,000
€833
Total ROI
€70,000
€5,833
*All of the figures above are based upon the monthly and annual averages, and in no way guarantees specific performance.
