Week 1 / JULY 4-9

Marketing It’s not just the nation’s birthday this week; July along with August make this the No. 1 period for birthdays for all Americans (almost one in five are born in these two months.) Hit your mailing list with a birthday reminder. Somebody knows somebody who is having a big day.

Planning Fine-tune strategy: Work out a schedule to assess your goals, find new ways to automate operations, grow your network, and improve inventory turn.

Marketing If you are in Vegas, try
something different on the last day:
Spend some time with the software
manufacturers to get up to speed on
what’s new on the technology front.

Marketing Check client files to see who needs to have an appraisal updated in terms of current value, and send out a postcard reminder.

Week 2 / JULY 11-16

Self-DevelopmentSeek out novelty this summer: Your brain loves new experiences and sensations, which help it continue to build neural connections for work and life.

Staff Spend time tightening job descriptions. Standardization ensures every employee performs the same procedure and provides the same excellent service for every client. That predictability and consistency helps secure a customer for life.

Sales Floor Pick three things you want every customer to experience in the store, and talk to staff about how to expose clients to these areas.

Week 3 / JULY 18-23

Family Get your kids in the store this month so they can see how things are done and why it’s so important to your customers that you do a good job.

Management Peter Drucker believed that in order to grow, a business must have a systematic policy to get rid of “the outgrown, the obsolete, the unproductive.” Start that process today: Make a list of a project, a policy, or a product that you should consider killing (solicit nominations from staff). Commit to killing one part of your existing business by Aug. 15.

Customer RelationsIn order to have your ducks in a row for a wrapping/packaging roll-out that doesn’t drown in a sea of cliché’d red and green, you need to start thinking snowmen even while you’re still soaking up the summer sun. Consider forms, materials and visuals that can evoke the tone and spirit of the season all winter long and won’t expire with Christmas.

Week 4 / July 25-30

Tech Clean up your POS mailing system, find addresses that are missing and check why some emails may be bouncing back. More than one-third of consumers changed at least one of their email addresses in 2015 — due to job changes or other economic factors

Internet Assign a different competitor’s website to every member of staff with a mission to find something great there, and then bring it back to share with the team. The onus should be on positive features.

Bench Go green out back. Install a sink trap, capture dust in floor mats or carpets and vacuum frequently with a dedicated vacuum. Use a bucket instead of letting the water run when washing items and switch to environmentally friendly alternatives such as cadmium-free solders, fluoride-free fluxes and maybe citric pickle solution. There’s money to be made or saved.

This article originally appeared in the July 2016 edition of INSTORE.