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In the Retail
& Hospitality News: Leaving Number
Crunching to Others is a Sweet Deal Regular Retail Management: Integrating Credit Card Processing Retail Marketing: Tips & Tricks, Using Sale Pricing in CREST and
CRE Software |
CPA leaves number crunching to others to start ice
cream shop
That's certainly part of
Michael Duguay's business story, an adventure that
started five years ago when he left a predictable life in Taking big chances was
never a part of Duguay's life on His destiny was altered by
three factors : a life-long love affair with ice cream,
a passion for country music and the lure of what Duguay
calls a "perfect untapped opportunity." He got the idea for Mike's
Ice Cream Fountain when he visited CMA's FanFare
festival at the Tennessee Titan's stadium several years ago. "I'd never seen a
tourist city that didn't have an ice cream shop," Duguay
says. Surprising his family and
friends - even himself - Duguay started jumping the
hurdles to open his first business 700 miles from the forests and rivers of Before he knew it he had
signed a commercial lease for space at 208 Broadway, tapped into life savings
and chalked up some credit card debt. Not exactly normal
behavior for a cautious accountant. "I'm pretty risk
adverse," Duguay says. "But you don't
know when your opportunities are going to come. You can't always be
conservative." Reaching break-even and
making a profit happened quickly. The first year of business
at Mike's Ice Cream Fountain yielded about $239,000 in gross revenues.
Business has increased at a rate of about 25 percent a year since, Duguay says. Having a strong background
as a level-headed accountant has helped the business stay in the black. "I had already explored the best and the worst
accounting and point-of-sale systems," Duguay
says. "I'm sure it's helped me." Link to information on Accounting and Point-of-Sale Systems
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Credit & Debit Card Processing with Point
of Sale System: Why “Integration” makes good dollars and sense. As a method of making
retail purchases, credit and debit cards are most popular with consumers. As
a retail store owner you probably have a stand alone terminal which you use
to swipe the customer’s credit card, input the total sales amount from your
existing old fashion cash register, press the “enter” button and the terminal
then dials out through a phone line, connecting with a transaction
processor’s computer which verifies the customer account status. If OK, the
sale is approved and the terminal prints a receipt and the cash register
prints a receipt, which are both given to the customer. If you are just starting
your store it makes no sense to go through the process just outlined and if
you have that existing system it still makes good sense to upgrade to a
point-of-sale system with integrated credit / debit card processing. What is Integration? Generally speaking, in the
world of Point-of-Sale there are two types of software developers: those that
create software for keeping tract of inventory and making sales, and those
that create software for transaction processing of credit and debit cards. So “integration” simply
means that the process utilizes two software programs running simultaneously
and at the point of tendering the sale, if credit/debit card is the method of
choice for the consumer, the point-of-sale system will seamlessly integrate with
the transaction processing software to quickly process the sale. Benefits of Integration: Accuracy. Transactions are much more
accurate because the amount of the sales does not have to be remembered by a
busy clerk from the sales terminal and correctly typed into the card
processing terminal. The process of retyping is an action “fraught with
peril.” All sorts of things can happen between the moment the total appears
on the sales terminal and it is input manually to the card processing
terminal. Was the sale $19.69 or
19.96? “Oops!” accidentally hit that key too many times (so that the
transaction for $22.22, became $222.22).
The cost of what is
probably the most popular credit card transaction processing software, PC
Charge, for a single user is $599.00. If you want a Magnetic Card Reader, a
good deal is a ID Tech “Mini Wedge” for $120.00.
Compare that to the cost of the Verifone systems
and the price is the same or less and you get a better product. If you already have
purchased dial-up processing equipment, consider the vast improvement in
customer service plus the availability of a multitude of full size reports
that will make your back office and end-of-the-day balancing out procedures
so much easier. The little more than $600, is for most retail businesses, worth
it. And keep that old dial-up processor as a backup for emergencies,
temporary special needs or off site use at special functions were the high
speed access is not available. Remember that
our Payment Processing Integrator Packages with includes software and
hardware are guaranteed to save you processing costs. We promise to pay you
$500.00 if we can not lower your processing fees after you submit to us for
review 3 months of your current processors statements. Click here for details (Next Month we journey
deeper into the world of credit card processing to visit all the players that
are in the game, from VISA and Mastercard, to the
processors to Merchant Services Providers and more.) |
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Tips & Tricks: Using Last month our Retail
Marketing Department article featured the suggestion for increasing foot
traffic and profits as, "Having a For example, if you
maintain a database of customers, contact them via an e-mail newsletter to
let them know of upcoming sales events and other promotions. To further boost
foot traffic, urge them to pass along your e-mail to others. That's not only
effective but exceedingly cost efficient, as you're not dropping money on
mass mailings that only saturates the uninterested. And as we observed last
month, offers that come with a sense of urgency are always effective to get
customers to come to stores.
Both time based methods
have a specific start date and time with which the sale pricing is in effect.
When the sale ends of the time pricing is not in effect the item price
reverts to the regular price Sale Pricing By Day, The
simplest sale the select item is offered at a reduced price for a set period.
• Select the [Add]
Button Sale Pricing By Quantity ,
while termed bulk pricing use this method for “2 for 1” or “5 for $10.00”
sales Sale Pricing by Hourly
Period, Happy Hour Pricing , the price charges for
the item is for a specific day of the week and time period, to have the
reduced price every day at the same time, create a sale for each day. • Select day of the
week by number code, [OK] Click here
for a complete Adobe Acrobat version of the article. Next month we'll look at
how to get special pricing for specific customers or groups of customers,
making for a great "members only" pricing scheme
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NOTE FROM THE
EDITOR: We would like very much to hear from retail store/hospitality
owners and managers. We want to use this section of the newsletter to
have your real world experiences shared with others and to be a
kind of clearing house for great ideas in both the retail and hospitality
industries. So please send
us your comments, suggestions, thoughts and ideas to: info@point-of-salesystems.com
or jas@charcola.com,
you also call us at 310.379.3739 or mail us at: Point-of-Sale
Systems.Com To act as an
inducement, if we use any of your input we will give you a $25, $50 or $100
gift certificate (depending on the amount of material you supply) from your
choice of either Point-of-Sale Systems.Com or Charles Carroll
Associates. You can use the gift certificates to purchase POS supplies
or get a discount from any accounting, tax or consulting services! |
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I thought I'd
spend some time this month bringing you up to date on some of the latest
Point-of-Sale Systems we are working on and some we have completed. Over the past
few months we have done a number of restaurants and have found this
particular type of retail business a lot of fun to work with! Starting with
Club 55 just outside of I'm happy to
report that we met the deadline and the opening was a huge success! A smaller While the
configuration and testing was just completed they are so excited about adding
Point-of-sale to their operation that they are expanding to a second facility
in Pasadena and a Point-of-sale system is in the works there as well. Finally, on the
retail, retail side we are excited to be going to Reno, Nevada for Seymour's
Fine Wine and Spirits, a newly constructed 2 POS terminal and 1 back office
store. Until next
month... Cheers! |
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