Here’s how to save thousands

I hope readers of this article who do what I say will save so much money that I will be swamped with dinner offers, cruises on yachts and a new Jaguar, just to name a few Thank yous.

Naturally, I can’t come right out and tell you how to save all this cash; there must be a story first.

In the past three months I have moved one store to a major strip center, going from a free-standing, 7,500 square feet to 15,000 square feet next to a Staples and a grocery store.

Two months later, we moved from a lousy location to a much better and bigger — yes, bigger — store.

At this point I must plea with all of you to buy the building you are in or find a better building to buy.

As a matter of fact, tonight is our first day open. I am drained, but this is really on my mind:

As you are painfully aware, the telemarketing calls we get in our stores can be really annoying. But there is one call that I will take every time — the credit card processing company that promises to save us money.

If ever there was a tidbit of advice you have gleaned from my columns, this should be it: take those calls and let them tell you how much they can save you.

I don’t have to tell you how your expenses are going through the roof. Business is flat, and your margins are flat to down.

I also don’t have to tell you that an amazing amount of your business is on credit cards.

Have you stopped to look at the fees you are paying those guys?

Well, we are not shy about going back to our processor if we get a better offer and giving them the chance to match it. Just to torture my crew, we also got a new point-of-sale system that went online the day we moved the second store, which also houses our office. Yes, we have a new World Corporate Headquarters.

Anyway, our POS guys convinced us to go online and use the credit card-processing company that they swear by. I told my staff to get quote; if it was close, I wasn’t going to switch unless my current company wouldn’t match the offer.

I didn’t know that processing credit cards over the Internet leads to much faster transactions than traditional telephone verifications. Customers love speed.

We got the quote. It wasn’t just a little less than my current — I mean previous — processor; it was unbelievable. I am talking thousands of dollars a year. And I just switched to those guys seven to eight months ago.

I showed my processing company the quote; representatives said if there were no extra charges I should go for it. They couldn’t match it.

I literally paid for my new point-of-sale system in four years of credit card-processing savings.

Now the question is how on earth do you figure out who has the best rate? There is only one way, period. Give the competing company a couple of months of statements from your current processing firm and let them estimate how much they would have charged you.

Don’t let them tell you about lower this or that, just give them the statements and let them come back to you with a figure.

The firm I ultimately chose was so much cheaper that I made three separate phone calls to verify that there were no hidden charges.

Do the same thing with the utility companies. Call your chamber of commerce and get a list of alternate energy suppliers that also can save you big bucks. Or should I say you will get smaller increases?

Advertising Dilemma

On a related matter of saving money and getting a bump in sales, I will share with you my store relocation and grand opening strategies.

I used our database to pull a list of folks who shopped in the store in the last year and spent more than a certain amount of money.

We sent them a postcard offering 10 percent off everything in the new store. We had an amazing response, and the new location is off and running.

I did not spend a fortune on grand opening ads or give away the store to a bunch of cherry pickers.

We distributed a Valpak ad and spent a few bucks on the radio announcing the new store with its better location. But really the money was spent getting our regulars into the new store.

My promise to you is this: Do it once, track your response rate and you will from that point forward think twice about running any other mass ads.

In this not-so-booming economy, should you cut back on marketing? Absolutely not.

If ever the time is right to offer a value, a reason to come to your store, this is it. It is the best time to scrutinize expenses and market your store as smartly as can be.