How do you make sure that everyone on your staff knows what’s happening in the store? We have always used an employee newsletter, originally printed and put in our staff members’ files along with their biweekly paychecks. Now that they all use direct deposit, they get the newsletter via email. We also print and post… Read More

I remember reading Howard Schultz’s book Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time when it came out in 1997.  In a Linkedin article about the book, Ashutosh Saxena says that Starbucks offered the best-in-industry employee benefits, even to the part timers. “Schultz proudly talks about how many… Read More

It’s always fun to test yourself in a multiple choice quiz with unexpected answers – so here is one for us shopkeepers. I don’t have a good way to make the correct answers hard to read, so no cheating! A. How many retail establishments (of any size) are there in the US? B. What is the… Read More

An open sign has been described as “a beacon of connection between businesses and consumers.”  While this may be a bit melodramatic, it’s true that nothing is better at communicating that your shop is ready to welcome customers.  If you are in a mall, you probably have set hours. But for the rest of the… Read More

Abound is the latest B2B site to announce that it is going to stop selling wholesale.  But in this case, there is a twist – on June 9th they are switching to a new business model offering drop shipping. The new program, which will be called Droply, is currently in a limited beta mode. But… Read More

It’s touching to know that the top Instagram hashtag today is #love. (It could be argued that anyone clicking on that link is looking for love in all the wrong places, but I digress.)  In case you’re new to the game, here is the definition of how hashtags work from Hootsuite: “Hashtags are clickable. Anyone… Read More

The last time I wrote about the federal minimum wage was 2016. At that time, Walmart had just announced that it was going to raise its hourly salary to at least $9.00 an hour – causing its stock to plummet 10%. Today their website states that Walmart is “continuously investing in higher wages, and the… Read More

Quickbooks recently announced that it is sunsetting its B2B site Trada on July 20, less than a year after its official launch. Originally part of TradeGecko, a platform that originated in Singapore, Trada made a splashy entrance into the American market with free shipping for retailers on all orders, and no commissions for sellers.  The… Read More

I’m not sure if it good news or bad news that Forbes reported last year that nearly 40% of moms said they were planning to get their own Mother’s Day gift. They also noted that sales were expected to total $31.7 billion – so it’s clearly a holiday worth paying attention to. This is especially true… Read More

Canva, the graphic design platform, has recently launched AI tools aimed at helping independent retailers create professional-looking designs for their businesses. The tools use machine learning algorithms to suggest design elements and layouts that best suit the retailer’s needs. This is expected to save independent retailers time and money in creating high-quality designs for their… Read More