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Just as most other business owners periodically face challenges and problems, so too do those who own a dollar store. Fortunately most of these problems are easily resolved. Even the majority of the bigger problems can be quickly understood and resolved with a little focused time and effort. However for some unlucky owners there are major problems that if left unresolved threaten the very existence of their business. In most cases these are recognized only after sales and profits have plummeted downward. If you are among those unfortunate owners with dropping sales and profits, read on for 4 tips on troubleshooting big time problems when you own a dollar store.

TIP #1) Understand the problem. If your sales are diving downward, your profits are also at risk. For many the easiest thing to do is to look the other way rather than facing the problem head on. Don’t join them. This needs to be treated as a top priority. You must understand exactly what is happening and what is causing the problem. Is the total number of sales transactions down? Is the size of the average sale down? With this information you can dig deeper to understand why. Continue reading ‘Troubleshooting Big Time Problems When You Own a Dollar Store’ »

Those who own a dollar store know the concern that sudden drops in sales can produce. While these drops are frequently temporary and can be explained by inclement weather or a local community event, in other cases this isn’t the case. The sales drop stays, or even gets worse. And there certainly isn’t anything about the weather or some temporary event to explain away the decline. In those cases quick, decisive action must be taken to understand and then remedy the situation.

Examine the merchandise in your store. Make sure everything to meet the core needs of your shoppers is in-stock and on display. If you find this is the case look a little deeper. Did you relocate the items within your store? Did you change brands? Have routinely carried complementary items been dropped from the selections? Continue reading ‘Are Your Dollar Store Sales Dropping?’ »

When you manage a restaurant, an essential task that needs special attention is acquiring the correct restaurant equipment and suppliers. When looking for equipment and supplies, you want a supplier that is experienced, has a solid reputation, has an inventory of quality and durable supplies and equipment, and has a wide variety of top brands.

Before choosing a company, make sure you do not look for savings over quality. Supplies should be durable, come with a warranty, and are known for their performance and features. If you are trying to save money and want to purchase used equipment, make sure you inspect the products thoroughly. As well, when you receive your items, inspect them to make sure you received exactly what you ordered. Looking for quality and efficiency will ensure that you do not spend too much money. Continue reading ‘What Are Some of the Best Restaurant Equipment and Suppliers?’ »

Business ideas are as varied as their cost to start up. If you are starting with a low budget in mind good for you. you will find it easier get financing or to bootstrap finance for your business. Bootstrap financing is…using your own money. I highly recommend that in any case, unless it is prohibitively expensive.

With bootstrap financing you will get some important advantages over your competition. Some of the advantages are high business worth, since not money was borrowed to hurt equity, freedom from lenders, solid financial position for future investors, and less payments on the interest for the loans.

If your business has high projected income, and very little overhead expenses, then borrowing is not so bad specially if you pay the debt within a month, some credit companies give cash back and credits when payments are made in less than a month. It is important to note that most of your suppliers will not extend you any credit at the beginning, that as everything in business, takes time. Once you have established a relationship with them, credit will be given to you. Continue reading ‘Low Cost Small Businesses Are an Ideal Way to Get Started’ »

We’ll use our example of $140,000 we arrived at for gross sales in our previous article. There is also net sales which we are not going to get into at this time. We’re just keeping things basic and simple right now in order to get a general overview of how it all works together. Later, we can come back and look at further details.

So we need $140,000. The marketing plan is dependent on what we’re selling. The cost/price formula is worked out when the retail price of the widget is not known — like when we are manufacturing it for example. In the Internet business, if you are going to sell e-books that you will be writing, you need to know how much to sell them for.

Here you would calculate the unit cost of making the product, then you would multiply by 3 or 4 depending on the anticipated distribution plan — if you’ll sell through wholesalers, dealers or end users. Continue reading ‘Starting a Business – Marketing Plan and Cost-Price Formula’ »

If you run a small business, you will often have to do things that you really don’t want to do. After all, in a little company the proprietor wears many hats, and there are things that you simply can’t delegate. Most people that have the entrepreneurial spirit for instance are not very good at accounting and they hate to do paperwork, unfortunately these are two of the things that business people often have to do. These are not things that you can procrastinate with or put off.

So the question you need to ask yourself and your mirror is; “Do I have the Self Discipline to run my own company?” Now it’s true that if you are going to be making a profit you might get a little more excited about doing those chores Continue reading ‘Do You Have the Self Discipline to Run a Small Business? No Really, Do You?’ »