December 9: A Stolen Treo, Record-Breaking Sales, + Chaos Galore
A Stolen Treo
Saturday, December 9th. The day my well-loved Treo was stolen while I was manning the kiosk. For those of you who know how dependent I am (was) on that phone… it’s depressing.
I’m the kind of girl who leaves her keys in the car, unlocked, with the engine running, while I run back into my house (also unlocked) to get my laptop, which is sitting out of its bag in the front room in plain view.
In fact, during the summer, it’s pretty common for me to leave my house doors open, not just unlocked, when I go running or to a neighbor’s house.
So sue me. I lived in Rexburg, Idaho for way too long… one of the truly “small” towns left (even though there are 17,298 friends you haven’t met yet, according to the welcome billboard on one of its two freeway exits). Maybe not thoroughly small numbers-wise, but definitely small in street smarts.
(Yes, I also leave my clothes in the dryer at the laundromat– am I supposed to waste 45 minutes waiting for them to dry?)
So it’s no surprise that leaving a $400 phone out in the open on my kiosk desk, with 50,000 weekend shoppers walking by, didn’t seem like a really bad idea to me. It never occurred to me that one of them was a thug. 
Karma has probably been racking up all those times that my car, house, and other misc. were never vandalized. But even though fate slapped me on the face, irony’s got my back.
See, the antenna had recently broken off my Treo, giving it the worst reception ever. I’d managed to wedge it back in generally, but on this particular day, it’d fallen off at home, and I couldn’t find it. Since I’ve always been fond of ’80s TV star MacGyver, I pieced together an antenna made from a paper clip, which was more like a homing device/ear-piercing gun than a cellular accessory, but props to me for trying.
In summary…
Suckers! Some quality phone you ran off with.
And when I found the antenna at my house this morning, it was the one bright spot in the whole experience. They may have gotten my phone… but they’ll never get the antenna!
So now my fellow mall/T-Mobile salesmen friends are trying to take advantage of my vulnerable phone-less status to work their sales mojo. But, since I know their tricks, I’m immune.
What does A Stolen Treo have to do with The Hundred Dollar Business?
Nothing, except that I was really frustrated by it, and it happened at the kiosk. Just more of the adventure, I guess. (Someone once said I’d make a gazillion dollars off each bad experience I have by writing about it. I guess he didn’t understand the economics of a blog.)
And now, on to…
Record-Breaking Sales
Can you believe this– today we broke $900 in daily sales!!! That is just amazing to me. It’s about 3x what we made last Saturday, which is probably a combination of the increased mall traffic + our improved displays, more products, and general awesomeness.
I know we set a daily sales goal of $1000, but I didn’t know how realistic that was. Now that we’re almost there, I can see how it will be possible, and what kinds of things we need to do consistently to hit that goal. (Especially the closer it gets to Christmas).
Way to go, all of us!
Chaos Galore
This “running-a-business” thing is funny. Every time I get past one hurdle, another smacks me in the face. At least, that’s how this is going. We have the sales thing going well, and now the growth-induced chaos has become stumblingly apparent, and I’m working full-speed at taming it.
There are so many details that we just didn’t think about it! Blame it on the lack of retail experience. Or the frenzied immediacy of the experiment. Or whatever you want. But any way you look at it, these details will quickly mount into friction & unpleasantness if we don’t take care of them.
(By the way, things aren’t last minute due to procrastination (whew!), but last minute due to the spontaneity of this whole thing. I don’t know that the results are any different, except that I don’t feel guilty about being a procrastinator, since it doesn’t apply).
For example, when we first opened last Saturday, I didn’t even think about having cash for the cash register. Doh! Kelly brought in some bills, which was good– but we didn’t even have coins the bulk of the day. How does something like that slip by unnoticed?
So, there’s chaos in things like that. Except, multiply it by 8 looong days, and several sleep-deprived people. That’s a huge opportunity for discrepancies, and they are definitely starting to crop up.
Though, I am trying to squelch the chaos through systematizing things. Kind of tricky, especially because I forget that I’m in charge, and that if I don’t deliberately organize things, it’s not going to happen by itself. Argh.
So anyway, I think that is the next phase for us. Getting things to “run themselves” as much as possible. I known a lot of really amazingly organized people, so I’ll be picking their brains. If you have any thoughts on this, let me know!
And, if you see a Treo roaming around with a paper-clip antenna, you know who to call. Er, e-mail.
A Quick Catchup
Hi! I’ve neglected the blog, and I’m sorry!
I spent much of the last three days organizing processes at the kiosk. It’s hard to believe that after only 7 days of business, we already created a mountain of paperwork and chaos.
I know that’s not the most glamorous, exciting thing to report, but it’s what I’ve been working on.
The biggest thing I learned from that is… sometimes there are big messes to sort through at a business… and it’s ALL on the owner, ultimately, to:
1. Notice it.
2. Sort it out.
3. Put systems into place to prevent further future problems.
4. Take responsibility for what isn’t working & find solutions.
5. Take responsibility for fixing the consequences brought on by the chaos.
I also realized that the best way to get past a problem is to dive in and fix it. For example, because things have been so helter skelter just getting started & then our amazing sales growth, things like record-keeping, accounting, and inventory have been more on the back burner.
(And just to clarify, we have been doing those things, but with a somewhat sloppy approach, for which I am completely to blame– either through being the one who wasn’t as careful as I needed to be, or else through not organizing systems in the first place).
So now, instead of working on ways to improve the product display and concentrating on sales (which will ultimately make the business a financial success), I am putting in several hours sorting out details. Argh, indeed!
But even so, especially since we’re having so much business, those things would only grow exponentially as a problem if I don’t dig in now. However big of a challenge it is today, it would definitely not be pretty dealing with this at the end of the month if ignored.
Another thing to note, is that today, I am also sitting here with an additional pile of small problems, and have been chewing on them all day instead of solving them. The strange thing about that is that the major purpose of The Hundred Dollar Business concept is to use innovation, resourcefulness, and a proactive approach to starting and operating a business, and not getting sidetracked by excuses or challenges.
So, why the roadblocks? I think simply because I forgot to apply my problem-solving skills. Seriously, these are not difficult challenges– just for your amusement, I’ll give you an idea:
1. We ran out of credit card slips & since I’m at the kiosk most of the day, I haven’t yet had a chance to get more.
2. My phone was stolen and there’s an inconvenient gap in communication for coordinating with my vendors, employees, etc.
3. We don’t have enough employees to handle a busy kiosk at Christmas time. Seriously, we don’t.
Are those strange, unique, amazing problems? Not really. Isn’t that crazy, that these dumb little things can add up and become frustrating and get in the way of the business going as well as it should?
So anyway, the problem of the credit card slips solved itself– basically, I was talking with Julia (our first customer, who also works at another kiosk and is now hooked on the bundt cakes!), and she told me she had a whole pile of the old school style credit cards slips they never use, that we could just have.
Yet another example of things coming together for us, through networking? Or luck? Or… something? What would happen (or what does happen) for businesses, when they share resources and offer solutions to each other instead of acting as independent competitors?
(Julia, your next cake is definitely on me!)
The other problems, are they really roadblocks? I have calling cards, why am I not using them? Or just going and getting a new phone? Or resurrecting an old phone I have? Or using any of the phones that friends have offered to let me use? I have no explanation.
Why am I not putting the word out that we are swamped and need some kiosk help? I don’t know, it just… didn’t occur to me that I should be simply solving those problems.
And I think that happens a lot in business, and I’m going to keep an eye out from it continuing to happen through this experiment, as well.
Which, to be fair, there are a lot of things on my mind, and that combined with the long hours, is making me less aware than I should be. And as I write that, I think I realize that is probably the very first roadblock to get past, finding a way to implement a less demanding schedule so I can have a better perspective on the challenges we face.
Alright. There’s the catchup. Your thoughts?
P.S. Just as a teaser– we just got our video back from Copper Rain today. They did a great job. We’ll likely be posting it tomorrow. 
If It’s Not Selling, Do Something.
We just realized that some of our products aren’t selling well. And frankly, some aren’t selling at all.
On one hand, I could let it ride out for the month, and just blame it on those products, or the market, or the time of year, or whatever.
But the reality is, that if the products aren’t selling, then I am “paying” for them to sit there, at least from the opportunity cost of the profit I could have earned from selling them. And since being a storage unit is not the purpose of a mall kiosk, something needs to change.
So, we went through and looked at the kiosk as a whole last night. There are a lot of great things happening with the display, but definitely some gaps, as well. We evaluated everything based on:
1. Why is/isn’t this product selling?
2. What makes this display successful or not?
3. What is the overall message that is communicated to the shoppers by this arrangement of items?
4. Would people understand what this section is selling?
5. Would I personally buy these items?
6. If we improve the display, could these items do better?
7. Is this the right kind of product to have on a kiosk as anyway?
8. Does this product fit with the overall theme of our kiosk, “Treats & Treasures”?
We took everything off that was a sure “no-seller”– which had been on display for the last ten days but hadn’t generated any interest or sales. It was frustrating on one hand, to realize that the kiosk has been carrying a lot of dead weight, but it was also wonderful to do something about it, and start making plans to get products & displays matched up so we will do better overall.
There are still 18 shopping days left in December, 12 of which are before Christmas. If we move quickly, we can get our new displays working well before the weekend, which is when about 1/2 of our sales happen. With 2 pre-Christmas weekends left, plus the frenzied week before Christmas, and an additional weekend after Christmas, the time to get things improved is now.
It would be interesting to set up two kiosks, both with the same products, but one with a fabulous display/well- strategized visual merchandising plan, and the other with the items poorly represented, and then compare their sales trends. I know the difference would be amazing, but I’m wondering how amazing– would sales be doubled, tripled at the well-presented one?
Even with the improvements we’ve made since the first day, things drastically changed for some of our products. So, I’m hopeful that with some additional changes, the other products will see similar improvement.
Another challenge coming up is that the week after Christmas, holiday items won’t be as marketable, so I’m already thinking of what we’ll need to do to either push the inventory that we do have, or have a “winter holiday” enough theme that we’ll be okay for those last 6 days.
Anyone have some visual merchandising tips… for the holidays, and for kiosks? We’re looking into all of this (I love Google…), but really, your thoughts are helpful as well.
Internet Options Part 2: Thoughts And Reservations
My Thoughts & Reservations About Viral Marketing Tools
I think most of these reservations result from a lack of experience using these tools, combined with my sense of wanting the experiment to be taken as a serious effort, not a hype campaign. So here they are:
1. How Will Monetizing The Site Affect Readers?
In applying anything to our blog which monetizes the content/site (AdSense, Yepic, Commission Junction, Lulu.com, YouRep), what message does this send to the readers– and if we use these tools on our site, will we lose some visitors who are put off by an emphasis on revenue?
2. Do YouTube Videos Convert To Sales?
What will be the effect of releasing our video on GoogleVideo, YouTube, YouRep, and our site? Will there be an increase in the amount of visitors we get, and if so, will they also become interested in what we’re doing over the longterm, or just the day that they watched the video?
3. Does Anyone Buy CafePress Shirts?
Will anyone actually buy one of the shirts/stickers we made on CafePress? And will those products do anything to help spread the concept of The Hundred Dollar Business, or will they end up as a discount item at The Salvation Army?
(Seriously, I’m not a graphic designer… and I used WordPaint for the graphic. I know there are better options out there, but I was strapped for time. And P.S., if someone does buy one of those shirts, we will definitely post your picture on the site wearing it. If you want.)
4. Can Social Networking Sites Promote Business Effectively?
Are MySpace and FaceBook really applicable to spreading business concepts? If I was a band groupie, it could be effective to use those tools, but for this market, what can MySpace & FaceBook really offer us?
5. Aren’t Friends & Family Already Tired Of Hearing About It?
By e-mailing and blogging about The Hundred Dollar Business, what is the benefit/cost on my relationships with my friends, family, and network? (I’m sure a few of you may be little sick of hearing about the kiosk. )
By the way, I sent an e-mail to some friends the other day, letting them know that my phone was stolen & I needed their contact info, and within a few hours, I had 22 e-mails back. So obviously, e-mail can spread word quickly, but is there an annoyance factor that results from combining business interests/relationships?
6. Free Content Versus Paid Content
Are e-books and paid articles presumptuous things to do when there is so much free content available (like our main blog, for example!), or is that really a tool which can provide compensation for the time an author/business invests in creating information for others? And, is there really a demand for paid articles yet?
7. Is Our Business Compelling Enough To The Media?
Will anyone pick up our story from the press releases, and if so, what kind of media attention will we be able to get, and ultimately, will that increase customers at our kiosk, online purchasing of our products, or our blog readership?
8. What Will Be The ROI of Affiliate Marketing?
In publicizing our vendors’ sites or using Commission Junction, will any of them see an increase in traffic & purchasing of their products online, and if so, how great of an increase? And, what will that translate into for our business, in terms of revenue– and will that offset the man hours of setting up those applications?
The Sum-Up
I think there are a lot of great tools we have available, and I’m interested to see what results will come, if any. What we would like to have happen is:
1. An increased local awareness of the kiosk to drive business & improve sales.
2. Recognition for our vendors and their products, as part of our thanks for working with us and also because we really like their products!
3. To spread the concept of The Hundred Dollar Business.
4. And frankly, to have a backup way to generate revenue in case the experiment bombs and we end up owing on part of the kiosk lease.
My prediction is that either:
A. We will have minimal attention from these efforts, but we’ll be more familiar with how these tools work, and our readers will have to cut through more features to read the content they’re interested in.
B. The marketing will spread quickly & we’ll see huge daily spikes that trail off with probably a long-term double or triple increase in blog readership, and we’ll have some revenue, although not much (less than $500 total on all accounts).
I don’t think that our mall kiosk will see an increase in sales, unless a local news station picks up the story & all our friends come down to take advantage of the friends & fam discounts for last minute gifts.
By the way, currently, we are at about 850 visitors/week average, 100+ day, so double would be 1700/week, average of 200+/day, and triple would be 2550/week, 300+ day– if those numbers are off… I’ve had a long week.
And so, let the viral marketing roll!
