Bookshelf
A complete gift bookshelf, offering capsule summaries and reviews of business books to better your store, plus gift titles and cookbooks to stock.
Small Business Management Skills
Learning on the job? Protecting Profits in Any Economy is for you. Small business consultant Don Crist directs his lessons at entrepreneurs without formal business training. Says Crist, "I have been in many businesses where basic financial and organizational concepts are replaced by seat-of-the-pants management styles. The owners are skilled at the tasks but not at managing the business." A Mana... Read More
Comments (0)Encouragement for Employees
Get motivated every day — Literally. 365 Ways to Motivate and Reward Your Employees Every Day: With Little or No Money, published by Atlantic Publishing, includes advice from real-life companies about how to retain your best workers and keep morale and productivity high even when raises, bonuses and other monetary incentives are limited or totally off the table. Quint Studer’s Results That Last:... Read More
Comments (0)Feeling a Little Unsettled?
You’re not alone. But now there’s help. No, it’s not a pill or a psychic friend, it’s Chaotics: The Business of Managing and Marketing in the Age of Turbulence, by Philip Kotler and John A Caslione. The authors present a system for insuring against risk, taking advantage of uncertainty and nagivating through turbulence without being caught up in it. This includes early warning systems, worst case,... Read More
Comments (0)Heads or Tails?
Yes, there really is a chapter on flipping a coin. (It’s number 16). But there is a lot more to it. Michael E. McGrath, the author of Business Decisions! Making Winning Management Decisions in Today’s Economy covers hot topics such as managing risk, wishful thinking and other reasons people ignore important choices, focusing on the short-term and forgetting long-term consequences, throwing good mo... Read More
Comments (0)Romancing the Product
Maestro of Crystal by Brian F. Havel, tells the story of Miroslav Havel and his role in Waterford Crystal. For a Waterford retailer, selling the book could vary a display and produce an add-on sale at an affordable price point that complements, without competing with, crystal offerings. Making it required reading for sales associates could also deepen their ability to "sell a story". While most... Read More
Comments (0)Everybody Has A Price
"The economy doesn’t matter," according Pricing for Profit: How to Command Higher Prices for Your Products and Services. Author Dale Furtwengler, takes the contrarian view that small businesses can raise thair prices despite the economic climate, provided they learn how to quantify and communicate value. Business owners will learn to attach hard numbers to such "soft" considerations as image, in... Read More
Comments (0)Glad Customer Service
Who’s Your Gladys?: How to Turn Even the Most Difficult Customer Into Your Biggest Fan, by Marilyn Suttle and Lori Jo Vest, profiles 10 companies in a different industries that offer exceptional customer service, something that in these challenging times can make the difference between profit and loss. The Gladys of the title was a real customer (names have been changed to protect the innocent),... Read More
Comments (0)What Were They Thinking?
If you’ve ever asked that about a customer, Inside The Mind of the Shopper: The Science of Retailing by Herb Sorensen offers the next best thing to telepathy: a scientific look at all the unconscious and habitual patterns that make up the contemporary shopping experience, together with practical advice on how to use that knowledge to maximize both retailer profit and customer satisfaction. Don’t... Read More
Comments (0)Gift Cookbooks: Get Cookin'
For the gourmet, the backyard grill master, the party-planner, the time-pressed mom or the budding baker, cookbooks are always welcome gift suggestions. Merchandise them along with food products, housewares and home entertaining accessories. For the busy mom, Homemade Meals in Minutes offers a variety of easy-to-prepare recipes from appetizers to pasta dishes to desserts and more. These are time-... Read More
Comments (0)Gift Books: Reading for the Mom-to-Be
For baby shower wishing wells, add-on gifts or "just because," gift books offering practical advice, inspiration and/or a humorous look at motherhood should be a part of any gift retailer’s baby gift merchandise mix. The Babysitter’s Handbook helps take the worry out of leaving baby in the hands of someone else. Although this book is written as a guideline for the sitter herself, it makes a perfe... Read More
Comments (0)Gift Books: Friends and Friendship
Friendships are among the most special and treasured of relationships and t; friends have a very special bond that can be stronger can any other. There’s a lot more to the sentiment of BFF than just hype. Why not set up a friendship corner with gift books and other gift items honoring friends and friendship. Here are a few gift book suggestions to get you started: Friends on a Rotten Day by Hazel... Read More
Comments (0)Need to Know
Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping, by Paco Underhill, should be required reading for retailers, and maybe consumers too. As much as why, Underhill covers the "how" of shopping: why consumers move through stores the way they do, why they notice what they notice and pick up what they pick up, and how retailers can minimize roadblocks and maximize ease to improve the customer’s shopping experience,... Read More
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