Auntie Kate The Resale Expert

(If you’re just arriving here at Auntie Kate’s Blog, we’re in the midst of a mini-series. Read our beginning message.)

The consequences of your actions. Sounds like something your mother would say to you, doesn’t it.

But it is a real problem for some folks. They forge ahead with a policy or procedure in their resale or consignment shop without projecting forward and examining what they have just set in motion. If you plant pole beans, the saying goes, you’d better plan on gettin’ yourself some poles, fast.*

• Action: Deciding to be closed on Mondays. Consequence: All those folks who spent the weekend culling out underloved possessions? You’re not open; they take them elsewhere.
• Setting item limits. If a potential consignor is told you only accept 15 items, she’ll select her 15. In almost every case, those 15 are NOT the items you would have chosen from her batch. Consequences: you receive what she wants to get rid of, not what you can sell best. Consequence Part 2: She doesn’t make as much as she might have, so she’s less than happy with your relationship. (I wrote about an additional strange consequence of this action earlier. )
• Leasing a less-than-desirable location because the rent was more affordable. The consequence of this is that you’ll have to spend more money advertising. (In fact, it’s a retail rule of thumb that the sum of leasehold costs & advertising costs are basically the SAME no matter what: Cheap rent means you have to spend more advertising, expensive good location means you’ll be able to operate with a smaller ad budget.) And the consequence of having to spend more money advertising? Chances are, you won’t. Ads are an easy thing to forgo when times are tough. So there you are, in an overlooked location with cheap rent and no plans to attract customers.

There are also consequences of inaction, and these, sometimes, are more worrisome than the consequences of action.

Missed opportunities, bypassed bonuses, unconsummated alliances are inactions which can lead to dire consequences. You decide not to belong and participate in your community’s merchants association. Therefore, you miss getting first dibs on that great location that will be up for rent in four months. You never introduce yourself to your bank’s branch manager, so when you need a quick emergency loan of $2000, the manager says “Who? Never heard of that place.”

• Inaction: Starting to plan for your shop’s anniversary promotional event 2 weeks before it occurs. You could have gotten those adorable little imprinted advertising specialties if you’d planned ahead. And your best customer would have been tickled to be asked if she’d make some of those little caramel cookies as refreshments. And you missed the ad deadline for the radio station, the newspaper, and darn it all, you always meant to start collecting a mailing list.
• Inaction: Speaking of “always meant to”: you never run a customer opinion survey, so you eliminate the kidswear department and see an immediate drop of 35% in traffic. Who knew the real reason people came in was for kids’ clothes? Always meant to get a listing on HowToConsign.com …and you’ve missed the tens of thousands of visitors to that site so far this year? (Which one, do you think, would have become your pot-of-gold supplier or shopper?) Always meant to make your display windows look good? What are you waiting for…and more importantly, what are the consequences of inaction?But isn’t that part of why you’re at Conference?