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Today is an "off" day for construction. I have a countertop that we put a glaze on that needs to cure. Nothing is being done in the store but my builder is working on things at his shop and I spent the day looking for paint. Trying to find a 5 gallon bucket or 2 of gloss paint for my store. It's...

Thanks, with a title like that it pretty much guarantees success.

They were able to push it up to the 16th. Electrician was in today. $340 worth of stuff to get what is already there up to code. Going to present that to the landlord on Tuesday. $1250 roughly for the additions of stuff I want done. Plumbing should be finished up on Tuesday as well.

Took 47 minutes on the phone to order internet and phone and it won't be installed until the 22nd unless they can get it expedited through a local manager. Throws a kink into things when they can't guarantee the phone number until it's installed. So no business cards printed etc.

I would but it wont let me edit the title?

I agree about focusing on getting people in the door. However the square register app for the ipad has a built in loyalty program. Which lead me to the research. In all reality I'll just use that program, as I expect them to upgrade it quit a bit within the next year etc.

Internet wise I have become a sponsor of the local aquarium fish forum. I also have a website that aims to put up a new picture of a fish from the store every day. This will feed the link onto Facebook. I also setup a mailchimp account and have a newsletter with 15 subscribers so far, most of...

Most people who get an aquarium keeep buying fish every weekend until their tank is full. The worst thing that can happen is selling them an aquarium which has basically no markup and then them buying fish from somewhere else. But yes, a loyalty card is unconventional for a fish store.

Thank you for all those insights Opiate. I had thought about the punch card system. I hadn't thought about the starbucks system. But it's pretty clever. I'm not a coffee drinker and had only heard about it briefly once before. I'm gonna look into that some more.

The second thing the IPAD let me explore was loyalty programs. The square app has a program built in that lets you set a couple of parameters. The standard one setup is, 10 purchases of $10 or more gets you a 10% off coupon. You can change all of those numbers but it got me thinking of offering...

I ponied up and ordered the Square receipt printer and cash drawer. I was able to mess around with the IPAD square app and it is pretty darn slick. This lead my retail brain to some new research. Pricing. As I was playing around with it I was making test items. There is a ton of research on...

Yeah I agree on the printer. Waiting to order it until I play around with the app first.

Me picking retail was taking a very broad pet store and focusing one 1 element. Live Fish. Dry goods will be very limited. I think the lure of retail happens when consumers see wholesale prices. Who couldn't make money when you buy an item for $1.00 and sell it for $3.00?! Or someone says why...

I bought an Ipad on ebay first gen for $250. I'm gonna try it out. Square puts out their own point of sale app for free for the ipad. Not only does it take credit cards, but it has a loyalty program, like ever 5 fish you buy you get 1 free etc. Can also do giftcards I believe. The thing that's...

Anyone have current advice on payment processors for a retail location? I called my bank on the recommendation from another local business owner. They wanted 3% plus a setup fee, plus an annual fee, plus $8 each month minimum plus a terminal rental.. Once I listened to the rates, I said hmm...

It's only a 2 year lease, if you're asking how I can get out early. Otherwise I'm not sure what you mean. I tried to get longer terms, but here I'm running into landlords that don't want to lock in more then that as everyone is expecting the rents to go back up.

Landlord is taking their sweet ass time to get the signed lease back to me. Supposed to be back in my hands by Monday. I dropped off my signed portion on Friday. After not getting a response back on corrections for 2 days prior to that. Looks like real construction on my shop will start after...

I have. I want to look up the studies on who uses phone books? I know I haven't had one in my house in over 10 years at least. Most of my family would google to find some place they needed.

Demographics for the city my new store will be in: There were 16,904 households out of which 26.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.0% were married couples living together, 8.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.0% were non-families. 29.0% of all...

This study shows that 7.8-12% of all US households own fish.http://jerconsultingllc.com/US_Pet_P...tes_2-2010.pdf This study is very interesting:http://www.petage.com/news020801.asp 65% of Americans own a pet. Some demographics: 18 to 30yr :17% own Fish 31 to 40yr: 21% own Fish 43 to...

I'm not sure where to find exact info. I've been going based off what I've observed over 5 years. I'm working on finding concrete numbers. But the pet trade is dominated by dogs and cat info, trying to find specific numbers. Typically my best customers were families in the 30-45yr old range...

Yeah I have a website, I'm currently waiting for a friend to finish designing a logo and color pallet for my business etc. He does it for a living, so it is saving me a ton of money. But yeah, I do plan to utilize a website. I hadn't considered keywording it to heavily for local, but you're...

I thought of some other things I was doing. I setup the mail chimp account to start accepting and building a newsletter. 10 subscribers so far and the doors haven't opened. I also got a point of sale system that will let me take email addresses at the time of purchase etc. I think a email...

To be honest I haven't mapped out all of the marketing as it's a new concept for me to learn. The business I managed didn't do any advertising at all really. In the 5 years I worked there, 0 dollars were spent. Some things were donated for schools etc, but that's it. My plan thus far for...

Well it's more than just shelves. Shelves for dry goods need to be build. Also racks to hold aquariums. All the aquariums need a hole drilled in the glass, painted black on 3 sides, bulkhead installed. Also need to run the entire drain system. Also need to run the fill drip system. Also need to...

BTW, my builder is thinking if we really bust ass we can have a soft open ready by Feb 1st.

That seems insanely cool. Less than $2 a mention. For anyone who listens to that station at work etc, you'll be ingrained in their brain.

Wow, been busy searching the depths of the internet and calling in favors in the industry. Didn't realize this got this much attention! I chose option #1. I got the keys today and negotiated, first contract hit my email a few hours ago, needs revisions as I want the door fixed and there is a...

Yeah, that's been my decision so far. #2 is just luring me with the potential. #1 is more of a sure thing.

So I've been retail location hunting for probably 6 months. I've got it narrowed down to 2 that I could sign on this week. They are vastly different but both seem viable? The locations are for a fish only retail store as in aquarium fish. Location one: Dog Mecca This place has 6 Dog/Cat...

For me, I chose not to have insurance through my 20s. I'm 29 now. Hadn't been to a dentist in a long time because I wasn't having problems. Here I am 29, and I've dropped about 3k on my mouth in the last few months. Getting wisdom teeth out(had a toothe ache that started all of this) Then had a...

The people I know who are actually on pace to retiring at 40 treat it as a soft retiring. Basically at age 40 you can work any job you want. Basically you have a hobby that you love. You then go work there for min wage basically and can work 3-4 days a week and just live a fulfilling life...

You need peer pressure. A boy she likes in class etc, Magically that class she gets an A etc. Where are the outside of school activities? It doesn't have to be a sport or cheerleading etc. What it needs to be is something she does, that someone else is jealous about. Obviously no one is jealous...

How was he caught? Neighbor called in to ask questions? Co-worker saw him etc? For only a 500-1k job. Would be sweet to award the whistle blower if it was a co-worker. Not only does a guy get fired, but the guy who blows the whistle gets paid. That stuff should resonate with the crew for a long...

So You'd think sending out a newsletter for a retail business wouldn't be that hard. But from my dealings in the past. You get shut down by hotmail, yahoo, gmail etc. Then start jumping through hoops to get your emails off the banned list etc again. I've got a list of about 300 active emails...

It"s the only place you can come see world firsts for..... Oh wait this isn"t a gaming forum anymore.

Got a question about billboards. I saw in my area I can rent one for $500 a month. Where do you have the giant poster made to be put up? What kind of cost is that? Was considering having a billboard for like 6 months to try it out when I open my business. But then realized maybe the signage...

I haven"t bought a house yet. But when I do I"ll have an inspector. The $350 to shut up my wife and her mother will be worth it. So that if anything is missed I wont have to hear about it for the next 50 years.

I hate yelp, they"re scamming hardcore. Once you get a few reviews going on your business. You get called to invest in a groupon type deal. If you don"t take it, magically most of your good reviews get filtered. I"ve seen it happen within days. I"ve had my legit reviews of another business...