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44% of Businesses Can’t Adequately Measure Social Media Impact, Report Says (INFOGRAPHIC)
More businesses are using social media in their marketing mix, and for some, it is the only platform they use. But how do you evaluate your return on investment or ROI when you decide to use social media marketing? An infographic from MDG Advertising titled, “The ROI...
Data Age Celebrates 30 Years of Innovation
Data Age Business Systems has reached an exciting milestone as the company celebrates 30 years of delivering innovative business management and point-of-sale software solutions to pawn shops, jewelry stores, gold, coin and second-hand dealers, and cell phone repair...
Beyond the Shop: Upsell
Once we have decided if it’s a buy or sell then we check the customer history in our store. Have they picked up their items, because this might give us an opportunity to upsell that loan and add 10, 20, 30 percent to the value of the loan. Remember the bigger the loan...
Thinking about Insurance your Small Business Needs? Here are 5 Types to Consider
As you might already know, there are several risks inherent in starting and running a small business. When you are building your enterprise, it’s easy to get lost in the “fun” activities. Selling, marketing, and hiring a team are some of the activities that...
Beyond the Shop: Qualify Your Loans
Let’s talk about somethings you can do to make more money. First-things-first, you need to qualify the load. When a customer brings in merchandise, one of two things is going to happen, its going to be a load or you’re going to buy it. What I want to hear from my...
What are Best Practices for Forfeiting Items?
My recommendation for pulling forfeits is, “be consistent”. I feel that this task should be done daily even if you only have one or two items on the forfeit list. One reason for this is if it's done frequently, it's a small task. But if allowed to build up, it can...
11 Types of Difficult Customers and Ideas for How to Handle Them (INFOGRAPHIC)
A critical part of running a successful business is managing customers. If customers are served properly and they leave your business premises happy and satisfied, your business can grow and continue to succeed. However, if customers leave upset, it can really hurt...
5 Tough Situations You’ll Eventually Face When Managing People
As a business owner, managing people is by far the toughest responsibility of all. Every person is different, unpredictable, and motivated by a unique set of factors. And while good hiring practices will mean smooth sailing most of the time, every business owner will...
Cracking the Code on Loyalty Programs: 5 Ways to Improve What You Offer Customers
How well is your retail store’s loyalty program working for you? What can you do to make your shoppers more loyal? Two recent studies have some valuable insights. Here’s what you need to know about trends in loyalty programs, why loyalty programs matter, and how to...
Beyond the Shop: The Manager’s Circle
If you’re an owner or even a manager of a pawn shop, the one thing I would advise you to do is get out from behind the counter and stand in what I call the manager circle, which is a three-foot imaginary circle in front of the counter. Because, who do you want meeting...
PRECIOUS-Gold steadies after worst fall since November 2016
The stronger dollar dampens demand for gold by making it costlier for buyers holding other currencies, while geopolitical uncertainty fuels interest in bullion as a safe investment. Spot gold was flat at $1,278.71 an ounce at 1434 GMT, while U.S. gold futures for...
Bad Boss Awards: 15 Signs You Might be the Winner and What You Can Do About It
You may not think there are that many bad bosses out there. But think again: Clearly, the idea of a horrible boss rings true with enough people that the movie Horrible Bosses was a hit, spawning Horrible Bosses 2. (Rumors of a Horrible Bosses 3 remain just rumors as...
eBay Gives Rural and Small Town Businesses a Global Presence, Report Shows
For rural small businesses, the ability to expand beyond their local market is extremely challenging and important. The impact eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) is making on this front just came to light as the company partnered with a team of economists from Sidley Austin LLC to...
Here’s How to Write Off Equipment and Capital Improvements Like a Pro
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act makes it easier than ever to write-off the cost of buying equipment or making certain improvements rather than depreciating the cost over a number of years. And small businesses are taking advantage of these new rules. The NFIB reported that...
You NEED A Facebook Business Page
You need a Facebook Business Page, especially if you don’t have a website. Facebook's more than two billion monthly active users make it an impossible platform for any business to ignore and let’s face it, if your customers can’t find you on line why should you think...
13 Ways to Onboard Employees Like the Pros
Getting a new employee integrated into your business takes time and plenty of resources. You may feel like you are spinning your wheels trying to remember everything they need to learn. You may not have a solid system for the onboarding process, leaving your new...
How I price a certified coin at my counter?
In this article, I will briefly run down for you how I price a coin that would come into my store if it were certified by PCGS or NGC. Most coin dealers believe that PCGS is the number one grading service followed closely by NGC. Two other grading services can be...
How to Spot a Phishing Email or Fake Landing Page and Save Your Business (INFOGRAPHIC)
Are you sure that email from FedEx is actually from FedEx? A major problem for small businesses is recognizing phishing emails. Oftentimes, hackers trick employees into clicking malware infected zip files and malicious links in emails that redirect to fake landing...