Remarkable Retailer | The Show for Savvy Shopkeepers Vicki@RemarkableRetailer.com (Vicki@RemarkableRetailer.com)

Vicki Adrian brings adaily dose of Inspiration
& Education for Remarkable Retailers and Savvy Entrepreneurs.
In today's episode we talk about Momentum...

Here’s the real deal truth…I’ve never been much of a science
person…and I never went past General Science I & II in high
school…just not my thing!Subjects I don’t prefer: physics, math,
biologySubjects I do prefer: writing, literature, technology,
communication, friends & lunch!

However, today we’re going to talk about a scientific fact…
Momentum…We’re in the 4th quarter after all, and we need Momentum
to keep going… Let’s Define Momentum: Merriam-Webster defines
Momentum as the property that a moving object has due to its mass
and motion.

Sure, it made sense after seeing pictures and drawing a million
graphs, but what I didn’t appreciate about the physics definition
of momentum is that it didn’t account for everything that came
before it. Rather, it just focused on something that is already
moving. Where was the force in this equation?

I couldn’t help but wonder how such a big thing – momentum –
could have a definition that left out all the things that had to
take place beforehand so that it could actually exist. How do I get
momentum?

It’s no wonder so many of us start something – a blog, a
website, a salon, a service business, a restaurant, or like, me, a
retail store – and then grow incredibly impatient wondering where
our momentum is.Physics teaches us that momentum is just that: a
mass in motion. Never mind how it got started in the first place,
or why the velocity might be stronger in some cases versus
others.

What physics never taught us about momentum is all the work that
comes before the motion: the force. Building momentum takes
time!

Momentum is not a single event. Instead, momentum is something
that is built over time – the result of several things coming
together to create a movement that is powerful, and in some
contexts, difficult to stop. When looked at in a business sense,
momentum might refer to any number of things, including:

• The growth of your email list;

• Your brand awareness;

• The number of customers you have per day, week or month; or

• The sales your business is generating

I’m sure you can agree that the amount of work (or the force) –
the several separate tasks and the consistency with which those
tasks are performed – greatly contributes to the momentum you might
see in any of the business-related examples I’ve just
mentioned.

Because growing an email list doesn’t start and end with someone
signing up. Just as your brand awareness doesn’t increase
simultaneously with the creation of your logo. Momentum is not only
something you must create yourself, it’s also something that will
determine the strength and growth of your business.

Is it easy to create momentum?

No! It takes a ton of hard work and dedication and practice and all
that other good stuff to create it.

Momentum feels great because once you have the force behind it
to actually continue building it, it’s hard to stop: 12 email
signups per week becomes 112; 25 clients per week becomes 225. 1
team member becomes 10;

And just like a snowball that is rolling down a steep hill,
momentum will continue to build on itself – it multiplies – all the
while, the amount of force you have to actually continue applying
becomes easier, either due to the systems you’ve built, the
audience you’ve grown, or the ease with which the task at hand
comes to you because of how often you do it.

Thank you for listening today!

Vicki Adrian

RemarkableRetailer.com

Vicki Adrian brings a daily dose of Inspiration
& Education for Remarkable Retailers and Savvy Entrepreneurs.
In today's "Scope", Vicki talks about the absolutely priority that
"Tribe Building" needs to take in your business! We must build long
term relationships with our clients in order to grow our
business!

The #1 Priority in our business is to deliver a stellar shopping
experience on each and every visit so our clients willingly give us
the permission and the information (email, physical address, etc.)
we need so we can invite them back to become life-long members of
our “Tribe.”

We work hard to change the focus from Transactional (the sale
today) to long term Relationships where your shoppers come back
again, and again and again!

You all know that talk is cheap… DAILY ACTION is what is
required to move your business forward! How do we take action when
it comes to building our Tribe?



1. Make sure your team knows the PRIORITY you are giving to
building your Tribe: their action is required to make sure you are
constantly adding to your customer base.

2. Make it a “non-negotiable standard” to ASK for each and every
clients contact information at check out. TRAIN and practice with
your staff members so they learn to do this naturally.

3. Commit to a weekly email to your customers….Whether you have
20, 2,000 or 12,000 on your email list, give being in front of your
customers on a weekly basis the importance that it needs. Schedule
time in your calendar to get this done! Find another business owner
to be your accountability partner to check in with each week so
that you are both getting your email done.

Send Thank You cards… this past week I received a handwritten
thank you card from Gold Crest Distributing in Mexico, Missouri. I
believe this is the FIRST time in over 30 years that I have
received a thank you card for placing an order at market. We send
out thousands of these cards each year.

These are just a couple of ways that you can transition from
running our business as transactional to to a more long term-
relationship focused business.

Lifelong Learning


We cannot continue to run our business like we ran it last year, or
even last month! Change is constant! It never stops! Opportunities
to learn are all around you...Listen to Podcasts, attend LIVE
events, go to workshops at the next market, take an online training
course, INVEST in yourself and stay up with the times!

Vicki Adrian

RemarkableRetailer.com

Vicki@RemarkableRetailer.com

Vicki Adrian brings a daily dose of Inspiration
& Education for Remarkable Retailers and Savvy Entrepreneurs.
In today's "Scope", Vicki concludes her series on "Theming Your
Work Days" with some productivity hacks. If you've missed the
previous episodes in this series, go back and listen or watch
Episode 117 through 122.

In our business, our Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are slower,
and business picks up Thursday, Friday & Saturday. This is why
in the “Theming Your Days” plan that I use, the first part of the
week is used for concentrated, detail work. Financials on Monday,
Email & Social Media Marketing on Tuesday & Connection –
Building professional relationships & education on Wednesday.
Things change later in the week! The last half of the week we are
busier with customers in the store, and SATURDAY is the busiest day
of our week!

So here’s what our Saturday should look like: Many times we
start with our staff having breakfast at our local coffee shop.
This gives us a chance to connect on a personal level, talk
informally about our week and what’s been going on…also a great
chance for some girl time!

For those of you who follow me regularly, you know what comes
next…Morning Meeting with all of our staff. We do this most days of
the week, but it is pretty rare that we miss this on Saturday. Most
of our Saturday staff only works this one or maybe two days per
week, so it is up to us to bring them up to date with new arrivals,
product focus and education, what specials might be going on, etc.
Our staff arrives 30 minutes before our store opens and is expected
to be clocked in and ready to go by 9:30 every morning.

I usually have a few notes for the essential things I want to
cover, and many times will play a product training video, or a
sales training video, or read an article to the staff that I think
is relevant to help them grow professionally or personally. I know
my friend Flo from Michigan does an amazing job with encouraging
her staff members to keep educating themselves, and to work on
their health, both mentally and physically. She is a trainer and
cheerleader for her team members! Very inspiring!

On Saturday’s, our re-send of our weekly email goes out. I love
to give our weekly email (created this last Tuesday) a second
chance at success! We re-send this email to only the people that
DID NOT OPEN it earlier in the week, and we usually get an
additional 600 – 900 opens on that email. It takes 5-10 minutes to
do this and is well worth it! I have a little step-by-step tutorial
on exactly how to do this that I will be happy to email out to you.
Just email Vicki@RemarkableRetailer.com with 2nd Chance in the
subject line and I will get it right out for you.

I hope you have enjoyed this series on Theming Your Work Days
and that you have learned a little bit about setting time aside
each day to tackle the most important tasks that will lead to
success in YOUR business!

Thank you for joining me...and I hope to see you "LIVE" on
Periscope soon! Please "FOLLOW" Remarkable Retailer on Periscope so
I can answer your questions, and learn from you as well!

We’ve got a couple of helpful FREE resources for you today!
Would you take a minute after this Periscope ends and stop by
RemarkableRetailer.com? On the right side of the page, you’ll see
my picture…click the button to sign up for our email list and
you’ll get a link to our Remarkable Retailer Resource book right
away. I think you’ll find some great information there!

Also, if you’re interested in the Step by Step Tutorial on
giving your weekly emails a second chance at success, just email
Vicki@RemarkableRetailer.com with “2nd Chance” in the subject line,
and I will get it right out for you!

Vicki Adrian

RemarkableRetailer.com

Vicki@RemarkableRetailer.com

Vicki Adrian brings a daily dose of Inspiration
& Education for Remarkable Retailers and Savvy Entrepreneurs.
In Episode 122, Vicki continues her series on Theming Your Work
Days, also known as Block Scheduling your work.

In our business, our Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are slower,
and business picks up Thursday, Friday & Saturday. This is why
in the “Theming Your Days” plan that I use, the first part of the
week is used for concentrated, detail work. Financials on Monday,
Email & Social Media Marketing on Tuesday & Connection –
Building professional relationships & education on Wednesday.
Things change later in the week! The last half of the week we are
busier with customers in the store, getting ready for weekend
events, sometimes we have an outside retail show on the weekend,
etc.

So here’s what our Fabulous Friday looks like: What is going on
for the weekend (we call the weekend Thursday, Friday &
Saturday) in our shop. Many times we have an event going on and
that really determines what our day looks like. If possible, I like
to be on the floor as much as I can be on Friday’s, but here is
what goes on behind the scenes in the office…

I love to give our weekly email (created this last Tuesday) a
second chance at success! We re-send this email to only the people
that DID NOT OPEN it earlier in the week, and we usually get an
additional 600 – 900 opens on that email. It takes 5-10 minutes to
do this and is well worth it! I have a little step-by-step tutorial
on exactly how to do this that I will be happy to email out to you.
Just email Vicki@RemarkableRetailer.com with 2nd Chance in the
subject line and I will get it right out for you.

Maybe your earlier email just didn’t hit them at the right time
of the week…by sending out to only those that didn’t open earlier,
you’re not “over-emailing” to the clients that do open your weekly
emails! This has been a great method for us and we have
consistently done this for over a year now.

There is also catching up that will need to be done in the
office, a couple of quick Facebook posts to keep it “real”
(remember that most of our Facebook posts were done back on Tuesday
for the week), and just making sure that any essential emails are
answered, schedules are done, etc.

Whatever business you are in, I would encourage you to give
“Theming” a try! Our goal is to encourage retailers and
entrepreneurs to have a successful business and a somewhat well
balanced life.

We’ve got a couple of helpful FREE resources for you today!
Would you take a minute after this Periscope ends and stop by
RemarkableRetailer.com? On the right side of the page, you’ll see
my picture…click the button to sign up for our email list and
you’ll get a link to our Remarkable Retailer Resource book right
away. I think you’ll find some great information there!

Also, if you’re interested in the Step by Step Tutorial on
giving your weekly emails a second chance at success, just email
Vicki@RemarkableRetailer.com with “2nd Chance” in the subject line,
and I will get it right out for you!

Thank you for joining me today!

Vicki Adrian

RemarkableRetailer.com

Vicki@AdriansBoutique.com

Interview with Genia Vineyard, owner of Simply Creative in Wheatland, Wyoming.  Genia is one of those Never, never, never-give-up Retailers who has steadily built her business in a very small town, and she is a great example of an entrepreneur that perseveres through adversity, reaches out to others for inspiration and help when needed, and has a huge heart for giving back to her community, her colleagues and her family.
Favorite Quote: Success is not measured in how much money we make, but by how we inspire others.
 

Vicki Adrian offers a daily dose of Inspiration
& Education for Remarkable Retailers and Savvy Entrepreneurs.
In today's "Scope", Vicki continues this series on Theming Your
Work Week.

If you missed the first part of this series, go to vimeo.com/VickiAdrian and watch
or listen to Episodes 117 through 120 to catch up.

I love that our listeners are taking ACTION by theming their
days…Yesterday my friend, Carol sent a screenshot of her computer
with one Sticky Note on her Dashboard for each day of the week,
along with the THEME for each day.

Here’s what Carol said, “I thought the sticky notes would help
me stay focused. If I am working on financial projects on Monday
but remember an idea for an email, I can just hit the "hot corner"
on my laptop which takes me to my "sticky notes" and add it to my
Creative Tuesday note. Then, I can get straight back to work and
not have to worry about forgetting something important. This won't
take place of my calendar but it will hopefully take place of all
the pieces of paper on my desk! Have listened to your "Theming Your
Work Days" Periscope series several times and keep getting good
ideas. Keep up the GREAT WORK!”

Of course, I copied her right away and posted a photo of my
dashboard on the Remarkable Retailer Facebook page yesterday so you
could see it…a picture’s worth a thousand words right???

Another simple tool that goes along with the Theming your Days
concept is file folders. Yes, plain old file folders, or if you’re
like my friend, Carol, super fancy, awesome file folders! I keep a
file folder with a label for each day of the week, Monday -
Saturday in my desk drawer and drop in pieces of paper or
information that I would use on those particular themed days. It
gives you a place to corral all of those lose papers (although you
wouldn't know it to look at my desk today!). That idea is from
David Allen's book "Getting Things Done" that I read a couple of
years ago.

Today's focus is on Thursday’s theme: Weekend Prep &
Marketing

In our business, our Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are slower,
and business picks up Thursday, Friday & Saturday. This is why
in the “Theming Your Days” plan that I use, the first part of the
week is used for concentrated, detail work. Financials on Monday,
Email & Social Media Marketing on Tuesday & Connection –
Building professional relationships & education on Wednesday.
Things change later in the week! The last half of the week we are
busier with customers in the store, getting ready for weekend
events, sometimes we have an outside retail show on the weekend,
etc.

So here’s what our Themed Thursday looks like: Take a look at
what will be going on for the weekend (we call the weekend
Thursday, Friday & Saturday) in our shop. Do I have signage
made for special offers? Do we have an event going on that requires
extra food or drinks to be prepared? Is the store looking clean and
organized for the weekend? Our teammate that does most of the
decorating works Monday through Wednesday, and products keep
rolling in the back door, so we may work on displays, getting
merchandise to the warehouse, etc.

Thursday is also the day that I am double-checking our social
media presence for the weekend. I try to have my iPhone handy and
take photos of groups that are coming to shop together…I email the
guest a copy of the photo, then post it to our store’s Facebook
page as well. Our customers love to see real people out having
fun!

We pre-populate our Facebook page with 2-3 posts per day on
Tuesday, then pop in more “LIVE” type of posts as the week rolls
along, and Thursday is a great day to focus on gathering photos of
customers, new arrivals and materials to get that done.

Sandy, our gourmet guru will also take a look at our gourmet
inventories and choose a dessert or soup or other item to sample
over the weekend. So the good news is, Thursday’s Theme is a little
“looser” than the first days of the week, but it is important to