Pamela Reeves

As retailers, what do we need to do to get tough? Certainly not join in with the rest of the world that seems to be predicting the doomsday of retailing. Keeping company morale up is vital to the success of your business and weathering this storm.

Make sure that your employees know that no matter how tough things get or what they might hear, never share that information with customers.

Over the last several months, many of our customers have asked how business has been. After all, they watch the same newscasts as the rest of us. Fortunately, although sales slowed after the holiday season, we have been able to say that we have been busy — which seems to make potential clients want to do business with us.

We believe that taking an overall look at our store and business practices is the logical place to start. Anything that we could do to make our business stand apart from the competition was a must, which for us meant changing the standard merchandise in some way so that became uniquely our own design. From Christmas decor right down to our gourmet food line, we take advantage of private labeling and in-house designing so that our merchandise stands above what other area stores are selling.

The beginning of the year is a good time to fine-tune every aspect of any business. There is something that can be done each day toward the goal of making your business practically recession-proof. Focus on providing exceptional customer service, drafting marketing campaigns and paying close attention to accounting practices.

We train our employees to care for our “guests” as if they were entertaining them in their own home. It might seem elementary, but always having something refreshing or warm to drink is a priority. Serving a product that we sell is a conversation starter and keeps the guests coming back for more. A definite win-win!

Last year, Ambiance Interiors & Gifts started stocking several lines of gourmet foods that we offered as samples in the store. Once a week in November and December, we hosted Free Lunch Thursday. This allowed those who were pressed for time during lunch or on holidays to grab a bite while shopping. All the while, we prepared only the food that we stock.

We recently hosted a Sweetheart Brunch on Valentine's Day and have planned both a Cajun Feast to kick off Mardi Gras and a St. Patrick's Day event.

We now have a cooking Fan Club and some of our guests even made up their own recipes, using our products, to share. What we found is that many of our clients — men included — host events in their homes, and they crave new and different delicacies to serve. Noting the incredible addition of the new West Wing to Atlanta's Americasmart and its entire floor dedicated to Gourmet, you have to realize that gourmet cooking and entertaining at home are hot trends right now.

Getting out the calendar at the beginning of the year and planning for a full year of store activities might be the last thing on your mind but, trust me, you'll be glad that you took the time to think it over at the beginning of the year. Life gets busy in retail and before you know it, the months go by and the holiday is gone, taking with it your chance to capture the moment and capitalize on sales.

We have found that our e-mail campaign is the most effective and least expensive means of advertisement. In this technological age, there are very few people that don't use some type of electronic mail. Tracking customer information is basic, but vital, and can be easily done on a good point of sale system. When our guests come into our store, our staff has been trained to ask for and input their personal information, allowing further contact for marketing purposes.

There are several innovative programs that can be used to prepare e-mails in advance and schedule each to go out at a specific date and time. We can tell, almost to the minute, when our clients receive our e-mails. This is the first step to a successful marketing campaign.

Paying attention to reports from our POS system has proved to be successful in both getting the tired inventory out the door and knowing what to buy (or not) when going to market.

A good inventory report will let you know what your best sellers have been in the past and which categories to anticipate buying for in the future. Vendors that produce the highest margin on a consistent basis are highlighted, as well as those companies whose products are still sitting on your shelves. Using these reports can save you lots of headaches and you'll be on the way to establishing better accounting practices.

Putting these few steps into practice at the beginning of last year is a part of what helped Ambiance Interiors & Gifts sail through a challenging season of tumultuous retailing.

After all was said and done (and counted) we were blessed to have had a fabulous season considering that our sales were up and our staff was half of what it was last season. Everyone pulled together and got tough, which is what we all have to do to succeed right now.