JIMMYCAST EPISODE 13: DAVE AND SPENCER MINK ON COUNTING YOUR TRAFFIC (24:29 MINUTES)

IN THIS MONTH’S EPISODE of JimmyCast, host Jimmy DeGroot talks customer data with Dave and Spencer Mink of TraxSales.

Launched in 1996 as one of the earliest customer tracking companies, TraxSales uses an infrared camera system to track a store’s door traffic (with the ability to discount visits from your staff and other non-customers — i.e. the mailman). The statistics generated can then be integrated with retailers’ CRM programs, offering the ability to create up to 30 different reports, including closing ratio and revenue per guest.

Hear more about how Dave’s big “epiphany” led to the creation of the company in 1996, as well as how the average jeweler can use customer-tracking data in order to make better management decisions and dramatically improve the performance of their sales teams.

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JIMMYCAST EPISODE 12: KIM GORDON ON LIVING THE DREAM (48:53 MINUTES)

KIM GORDON is living the dream — it’s the dream of owning her own store, the aptly named Dream Jewelers in Oshkosh, WI.

Gordon has spent most of her career in jewelry sales, having spent more than a decade as an assistant manager at a Kay Jewelers and, after that, another decade as sales manager at Jim Kryshak Jewelers in Wausau, WI. But in 2014, she finally made the leap into jewelry-store ownership, using her life savings to purchase a Wisconsin business called Thimke Jewelers, which she later rebranded as Dream Jewelers.

Gordon shares the story of her journey, and tells you how she’s launched her business in a challenging competitive environment and on an ultra-tight budget. “I had $20,000 in the bank,” she says. “And $20,000 seems like a lot of money … until you open a jewelry store.”

Hear Kim’s full story on the latest edition of JimmyCast, with host Jimmy DeGroot and co-host Doug Meadows.

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JIMMYCAST EPISODE 10: KATHERINE COTTERILL OF EAT GALLERY (32:35 MINUTES)

IN THIS MONTH’S episode of JimmyCast, hosts Jimmy DeGroot and Doug Meadows chat with the manager of the winning store in the “Small Cool” division of INSTORE’s America’s Coolest Stores”, EAT Gallery of Maysville, KY.

Katherine Cotterill, manager at EAT Gallery, has had an eclectic past, including more than three years spent in New Zealand and Samoa (2:30). She talks about how she was hired to run the store in 2016 (5:30) by Simon and Laurie Watt, who had opened EAT Gallery in the early 2000s as a side project to their main business, colored gemstone dealers Mayer & Watt.

The discussion continues to cover EAT’s attention-getting (and occasionally confusing to visitors) neon “EAT” sign (9:15), which had previously identified a diner that was a town fixture for 50 years. “We are definitely not a restaurant,” says Cotterill. “But we do say that we’ll feed your soul.”

As for the big question of how many visitors per week come in, thinking it’s a restaurant? “At least a couple a week,” says Cotterill.

Hear more of the conversation — including tips on how to make a tiny business stand out with marketing and product selection (16:00) — in this month’s JimmyCast.

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