Good Neighbors, Good Business

Q: I just opened a flower shop in a small southern city. While I didn't expect a Welcome Wagon basket, I admit to being a little hurt that none of my neighboring merchants stopped in to wish us well. I'm new to retail, so I'm wondering: do storeowners usually consider other businesses just a source of competition, and therefore keep to themselves?

A: There are shopkeepers who don't reach out because they are guarding their own turf, but I suspect your business colleagues are probably just too busy with the day-to-day details of running a store to be neighborly. Perhaps there isn't an organization among the businesses in your area to foster communication. If that's the case, you might want to take the initiative to get one going — because working together will benefit all.

Although the main goal of most merchants' groups is joint promotion, one of the benefits is that they help business owners make connections and feel less isolated. As a newcomer to retail, you need to be able to ask for advice about the most effective advertising for your area, and local sources for service and supplies.

Most cities and small towns have a Chamber of Commerce to oversee the area's commercial interests, so you might start by joining that group. However, I encourage setting up a merchants' association in your neighborhood, strip center, or mall to target the needs of your particular area. If your community is large enough to have many separate business areas, the Chamber of Commerce could form an umbrella organization to encourage different merchants' associations to get together periodically and share common concerns.

A merchants' association is an effective way to lobby for beneficial programs, such as façade improvement grants, and an effective way to disseminate information about existing programs. You might want to set up a phone tree to alert each other of suspicious activity in your area, or hold seminars on topics of mutual interest, such as shoplifting prevention and health insurance. The organization can also take an active roll in future planning for the area, like recruiting new businesses that will be particularly good additions to the merchant mix.

There are many opportunities for joint advertising within your business association. For example, you might:

• Establish an identity and logo for the area, and use banners or signage to promote the identity.
• Create a shared website.
• Produce and distribute brochures, maps or shopping guides.
• Sponsor special events, such as sidewalk sales, art fairs, or festivals.
• Contact tourist offices to bring visitors to the area.
• Share advertising under a single banner.
• Create gift certificates redeemable at all participating businesses.
• Encourage residential associations to support area businesses

Some neighboring businesses cooperate by offering discounts to each other's employees; you might even work out a barter arrangement, trading gift certificates as staff holiday gifts. Be sure to check into the tax implications of bartering goods for services or merchandise.

And don't forget to look for cooperative promotions that you can do individually. We recently visited a Chicago restaurant that had a neighboring toy store's sale promoted on the back of the children's coloring placemats — a low cost, effective way to reach families.

The national program Main Street has been very effective in bringing businesses together to improve their shopping areas, especially in smaller communities. Search their website, www.mainstreet.org, to see if your area could become a Main Street participant. Unless you have promised your customers not to do so, you might eventually trade your mailing (or e-mail) lists with a non-competing business with a similar customer base, bringing you both new customers.

You need not limit your cooperation to the shops next door. For example, River Bend Stitchery, a counted-cross stitch store in Ohio, recently did a promotion with a knitting shop and a stained glass store in their area, capitalizing on customers who enjoy many crafts.

Q: I recently received a mailing encouraging me to provide my staff with corporate apparel as part of image branding to make them "walking billboards" for the business in their free time. Is this worth the expense?

A: It's asking a lot of employees to expect them to advertise the shop in their off hours, don't you think? However, the question of uniforms at work is worth considering. There are two distinct advantages: uniform apparel creates a consistent, professional image, and it allows customers to identify employees more easily when looking for assistance.

Since the corporate apparel would indeed be part of your image branding, you need to ask yourself whether an apron, polo shirt or other type of standardized clothing fits with the ambience of your shop. Some sporting goods stores, for example, dress employees in striped referee's shirts, whereas upscale craft shops might want to give their staff license to wear whatever they feel is appropriately artistic.

If you do decide to require uniform clothing, keep in mind that you must find something that works well with different body types and complexions. Ask your staff for their input, and make it clear that you'll buy each employee two pieces of any customized garment, so they should always have a clean one available for work. You can ask that they provide a solid-colored shirt and pants to be worn under the apron, for example, and that they purchase replacements for any garments that are lost or ruined. But the main financial burden for the uniforms should fall on your business, since the decision to require them is yours.

In your employee handbook, be specific that uniforms must be worn by all employees who work directly with customers. In order to create the branded image that is your goal, you need to be consistent in your expectations, and in the enforcement of this rule.