Tip 5: Don't cut out your "Wild Thinking" by Tom Shay

Tom Shay is the feature speaker for the 2013 Business Management Workshop in San Antonio at the Crowne Plaza Riverwalk, Jan 10-11, 2013. See his tips and more at Profit +Plus Solutions for Small Businesses.

Tip 5: Don't cut out your Wild Thinking:

• Challenging times require radical action. The economy caused most all business to reconsider how they operated during the holidays and will require them to continue to do so throughout the foreseeable future.
  
• Make preparations for the challenges, but also make changes in how you do business. However, do not change your thought pattern in the way you do business best.
  
• When things are rapidly changing in you business's community, customers, and industry remember that your thinking style got you this far, it is not time to abandon it.

This New Year Spend 15 Minutes A Day on Social Media

Time is of the essence, but this New Year, why not try spending just 15 minutes a day on increasing your social media footprint. Involve your staff and upper management to help identify your company's brand on a variety of social media platforms.

1.  Facebook (Spend 4  minutes)

• Scan your company's Facebook wall and answer any new posts, comments or questions then post an update, add a new product photo or link to a story about something relevant to the Nursery/Landscape industry. Try to post on your Facebook Wall at least once per day. (Be sure to tie in your Facebook feed to your LinkedIn and Twitter accounts.)

2.  Tweet on Twitter (Spend 4 minutes)

• Search for trending news on your topic or business, find new stories of interest to you,  your customers or followers. Google Alerts can help you narrow down your search. Auto schedule several tweets throughout the day by using free websites like HootSuite.

3.  Blog About It (Spend 3 minutes)

• Find the latest headlines or posts on the top leading blogs in the Nursery/Landscape industry. Set up an RSS feed to see them all in one place and then post a few comments on a few attaching your twitter handle at the end to help expose your brand even further. 

4. Pin It (Spend 2 minutes)

• Upload or find 4-5 great images that relate to your brand and "pin" them to your Pinterest boards. You don't have to put much thought into this one, search for images under  "Gardening," "Customer Service" or "Landscaping."

5. Answer a Question on a LinkedIn (Spend 2 minutes)

• Spend a few minutes answering a question on LinkedIn by utilizing the Groups you are part of or in LinkedIn Answers. This helps you gain some further exposure and will put you your company in a better position to be an expert on the subject matter.

Learn tips like these and more at the 2013 Nursery/Landscape EXPO.

Tip 4: Be Ready to Step into the Competition's Space by Tom Shay

Tom Shay is the feature speaker for the 2013 Business Management Workshop in San Antonio at the Crowne Plaza Riverwalk, Jan 10-11, 2013. See his tips and more at Profit +Plus Solutions for Small Businesses.

Tip 4: Be Ready to Step into the Competition's Space:

In this challenging economy your best opportunity may be to expand your business. Tips to  

• Take a careful look at your competition and observe what they have been cutting back on.
• If your competition's cut backs defy logic as you observe the dance for business in your community, you should take a serious look at adding these components to your business. 
• This may be the time to stock more basics; add some hours to your weekly business schedule, or perhaps take a look at the great salesperson that has been working at the competition who now finds themselves only working part time.       

Tip 3: Systematically Plan Your Changes by Tom Shay

Tom Shay is the feature speaker for the 2013 Business Management Workshop in San Antonio at the Crowne Plaza Riverwalk, Jan 10-11, 2013. See his tips and more at Profit +Plus Solutions for Small Businesses.

Tom Shay's Tip 3: Systematically Plan Your Changes

In a challenging economy, many businesses approach the challenge with a ‘butter and toast’ strategy; they simply want to spread their cuts around like one would evenly spread butter on a slice of toast. However this approach does not always work for business.

• Analyze what your best hours are before cutting them back, don't close your doors for the day at a high traffic time when most of your customers are looking for you.
• Don't lose sells, research what your top selling inventory is before taking it off the shelf.   
• Evaluate your staff before cutting, for an outlet known for great customer service, you may be eliminating your best selling point.

Tip 2, Don't Go Looking for a New Customer Base by Tom Shay

Tom Shay is the feature speaker for the 2013 Business Management Workshop in San Antonio at the Crowne Plaza Riverwalk, Jan 10-11, 2013. See his tips and more at Profit +Plus Solutions for Small Businesses.

Tom Shay's Tip 2: Don’t go looking for a new customer base

• In a changing economy, there's a temptation to re-position the store’s merchandise; and you perhaps consider dropping some of the more expensive lines of products and stocking only the basics or less expensive items.

• Think about how long you have been in business and the customers you have targeted for all those years. By shifting, you may find that you have instead abandoned your target customer. 

• The image you have developed with your customer took time to achieve, don't throw away years of effort for something that is only going to last months, and then start again to rebuild what was lost.

Planning for Just In Case with TNLA President, Amy Graham

Be sure to visit TXNLAOnline.org for more information on what the Texas Green Industry has to offer!

Tip 1 from Tom Shay: Target Your Advertising

Throughout the next few weeks TNLA is going to provide advice from expert Tom Shay's Profit +Plus Solutions for Small Businesses. His experiences as a fourth generation merchant provide him with the knowledge and background to present tried and proven strategies to assist owners managers and staff with the day to day operation of their business.

Better yet, Tom Shay will be the featured speaker at the upcoming 2013 TNLA Business Management Workshop, Jan. 10-11, in San Antonio at the Crowne Plaza San Antonio Riverwalk.

Tip 1 from Tom Shay: Target Your Advertising

• Direct your messaging specifically to existing patrons. 
• Offer patrons a reason to share their contact information so you can mail announcements of new products or discounts. 
• Ask each of the media outlets you are advertising with for the demographics of their target audience. (You may find that they have different audiences on different days or different times of the day.) 
• Develop your advertising needs to specifically speak to those that are most likely to visit your shop.