Jan. 29-Feb. 3
ONLINE Call a friend and tell them to go to your website and see how quickly they can find your business hours. Less than 10 seconds? Awesome. 20 seconds? OK, not bad, but could be better. 30 seconds or more? You should definitely make a change in your design to ensure this important information (and your contact details) are super-easy to find.
DISPLAY “Valentine cards are an easy prop option for your cases. Find some unique ones on eBay and set your store’s trim apart from the drugstore-card variety.”
OUTREACH Ask everyone — repair customers, browsers, friends — what his or her plans are for the Day of Love. Maybe there’s something happening you can be a part of.
Feb. 5-10
SALES FLOOR If you hand out roses to customers, buy them this week. Roses bought from a florist won’t start to wilt for at least five to seven days if they’re properly cared for (a night in water helps). Prices for roses, however, will most definitely spike — often by as much as double — as Valentine’s Day nears.
STRATEGY Feb. 14 falls on a Wednesday in 2018. Prepare a shortlist of popular items at different price points for male customers. Review your “last-minute panic-buying” strategy and stock levels.
Feb. 12-17
MARKETING Buying season is on the way: it’s time to take a hard look at your inventory. Drill down into your data (GPM, brand performance, price points, markdowns) to weed out underperformers and identify any new category trends. Set targets and support plans for your emerging inventory stars.
MERCHANDISING Schedule a meeting with staff to discuss merchandising based on what you discovered with your data mining. Brainstorm buying strategies that will enable you to achieve your 2018 goals (do you want to attract more female self-purchasers? Expand bridal offerings? Should you be pushing custom?).
Feb. 19-24
EDUCATION This is a good time to broaden your business and gemological skills. Check out what courses GIA and JA are offering. Can you send your jeweler somewhere to sharpen his skills?
STORE Bring in a lighting consultant for a day. With his help, you may be able to replace tungsten halogen bulbs with LEDs and make other changes to add sparkle to your showroom. The savings will soon pay back the fee, says Ruth Mellergaard of interior design firm GRID/3.
Feb 26-Mar. 3
SALES TRAINING Learn how to create “repair moments.” Are you simply handing repaired items to customers, or are you presenting them — perhaps in a beautiful case, or with an accessory?
FINANCES Do a manual backup of all your customer and financial records and store it offsite. Your system should be doing this automatically — it’s always good to check occasionally — but just in case of some catastrophe, it’s vital you have some sort of record to start rebuilding.