management Get Some Perspective
When times get busy and the tasks pile up, it’s easy for your staff — and for you — to focus on the stress or drudgery. Try instead to encourage a mindset fixed on the big picture and the help you’re providing, writes Dan Ariely in Payoff: The Hidden Logic That Shapes Our Motivations. These streams of people coming in the store with their endless demands are trying to find a way (through jewelry) to show someone important in their life that they love them. And your store is the catalyst that allows it to happen. “When we reframe experience so that we focus on the meaning, so that we see how it helps others, dull activities can give us purpose and even be inspiring,” writes Ariely. To be sure, the work won’t change, but your perspective can. Keep reminding your people that during your morning meetings
TECHNOLOGY Ensure Web Accessibility
Is your website serving the sizable percentage of the population with low vision? How about those who are colorblind? Seventy percent of websites don’t. To ensure your website still offers accessibility, Peggy Gartin, marketing expert in the vision industry, suggests taking this simple test: Turn off color and look at your website. Does it still make sense? If not, it has color cues that 7 percent of Americans can’t see because they’re colorblind. Second, head over to colororacle.org and unplug your mouse. “Can you still navigate the site with your keyboard? If not, then someone using a screen reader would be stuck, too,” Gartin says. “Work with your developer to make things better for people with disabilities.”
SELF-IMPROVEMENT One Tomato, Two
Sports channels have been showing old games, movie channels old classics. We thought it might be time to re-look at old productivity strategies. This month, we experimented with the Pomodoro Technique, which had its moment of fame about 15 years ago. Basically, it’s a kitchen timer (although there are now apps for your phone) that helps you break your day into 25-minute sessions. Simply, choose a task, and when the timer rings, stop for five minutes. Repeat three more times, then take a longer break. That’s just about it. Yet it works. Really well. Give it a go!
MARKETING Wish List twist
It’s not uncommon for jewelers to send wish lists featuring photos of the desired item, but Elegant Jewelers in Sugar Land, TX, elevates the practice by including photos of the piece modeled by the wife or girlfriend that are taken during its “Ladies Secret Santa Night.” Explains owner Patty Wedemeier: “We have a special night that ladies pick out what they like. Then we send postcards to the men with pictures of the ladies wearing the jewelry.”
SALES Ready, Set, Snow!
Want to know when the holiday shoppers will show up? Be on the lookout for those first flakes of snow, advises Hank Haan of Haan Jewelers in Byron Center, MI. “As soon as we have our first snowfall, no matter if it’s just a dusting, people all of a sudden need to go Christmas shopping!”
CAUSE MARKETING Personalize Charitable Items
Giving and doing right by your community are big themes right now. Such involvement can also be good for business. “Many charitable organizations sell jewelry with their logo or representing their charity in some way to raise funds,” notes Megan Crabtree, president of Crabtree Consulting. “Contact these charities to see if you can assist in producing this for them.”