by Mark Schoepke, owner and general manager, Tree of Life Christian Outlets/Parable Christian Stores

Here are some of the ideas we have implemented that may help other stores:

• Pray with and for your staff
• Establish individual sales goals based on sales volume, average sale, number of items per transaction, and premium sales
• Always have premiums at point of sale; for example, $5 CDs or books
• Look for ways to bless your customers and staff: vendors will often help you if you ask
• Give away as much as you can; establish a public relations account to support local ministries like Young Life, Youth for Christ or whatever your area of concern is;
• Look for projects you can do with customers and staff to benefit Christian ministries. Our examples are the soccer ball and Bible drives for African outreaches
• Include your managers and employees in all major decisions and procedure changes you plan to make
• Use closeout, overstocks and special promotional buys to increase your gross profit
• Increase your gross profit through mark-ups, special purchases and buying from direct importers. Consider selling used music, used books and used DVDs. Look for products that increase gross profit margins
• Spend a reasonable percentage of your advertising money on acquiring new customers-don't spend it all on your existing customers. Use vendor co-op dollars to promote their special offers such as 40% off retail prices on Bibles, 50% off books, vendors' books of the month and other introductory offers
• Remain competitively priced in your market; shop and review what your competitors are doing-including mass marketers, big box stores and e-commerce sites. Subscribe to their mailing and email lists so that you know what they are selling, promoting and sale pricing
• Have some planned special events--tent sales, sidewalk sales, anniversary sales--but choose items you can sell profitably at discounted prices rather than discounting the entire store
• Make sure to take a complete inventory, including hand counts, and verify computerized numbers twice a year. We have seen three stores go out of business because they didn't know they were losing money. They all guessed at their gross profit margin for several years
• Make sure you know your conversion rate-the number of customers walking into the store versus the number of customers making a purchase. This number can change dramatically due to different staffing, too few associates on the sales floor and the time of year
• Where possible, involve talented people to help you direct your advertising dollars.