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A Busy Weekend!

December 16, 2007 It's been quite a busy weekend.  Saturday, I went down to the store and took a look at the receiving area and decided it could work better in the coming year, if it were reorganized.  Supplies need to be closer to the kitchen and bathroom and I needed a flat surface that was up off the floor to assemble items.  I moved one of the big shelving systems to the back and opened an eight foot table for my work bench.

Next I took a look at sales this year versus last year.  Since the move to larger quarters, one month is great then the next is slow followed by a good month.  We thought, naively,  the move would be seamless, yet we are down about 17% year over year.  We have picked up a number of new interior designers as clients, but our retail customers are missing. 

I realized from reading Instant Income by Janet Switzer that our most valuable asset is our database of customers.  I updated the list and decided on a marketing plan aimed just at this group.  Bev and I decided to have a day long open house after the holidays, show off the new location and make those customers that have been with us since the opening over six years ago,  feel special.  We have plenty of time so I am designing on-line, a postcard for the event using Vista-Print.

Next, I took a look at our adwords accounts with Yahoo and Google.  The first thing I did was look at the data about our web site visitors.  One thing stood out, the search engine that works hardest for us is Google.  I visited my account there and Google has some new things to help us succeed.   One new thing is called "optimization, which analyses your ad and key words, then makes recommendations.  One little thing seemed to make sense.  They suggested changing the web address in the ad from www.landfairfurniture.com to www.LandfairFurniture.com.  Our name just seemed to pop out better.  I put some other changes in place in one campaign and not the other.  The key is test, test and test some more.

Lastly, we took some time off Saturday night and saw the movie Juno.  What a wonderful film, and it has already garnered a nomination for best picture and best actress.  Then today we bought the flat screen TV that I posted about recently.  We'd done our homework.  Didn't have many questions, just wanted to see it working along side a Toshiba and Sony.  We bought a JVC 1080P, 42-inch LCD flat screen.  Last March, Consumer's Report rated it the top choice and the price at the time was $2,700.  We paid $1,199 at Video Only.  That's quite a drop in price in nine months!  We brought it home at 4:00, prepared the area and I had it working by 5:30 just in time to watch the Trailblazers win their seventh game in a row on the road.

PS, I almost forgot while surfing through Apartment Therapy, I had a Martha Stewart moment and tried my hand at making a Clementine candle:



How has your year been?  Good?  What are you going to do to keep it that way or make it better?  Bad?  What are your plans to right the ship?  Email your thoughts to me at landfair3554@comcast.net

Posted by Mike Landfair on December 16, 2007 | Comments (0)