For the economy to start moving again, we need more jobs. The economic stimulus plan earlier this year was supposed to spur job growth, but in all areas it has failed.  Congressional action on issues like government run heal care that mandate employers pay health care or be fined and card check legislation would keep American businesses from creating new jobs we need to get the economy moving again.

The best thing for Congress to do is get out of the way and let small business do what it does best: create jobs for hard-working Americans. America relies on the small business community as the standard bearer for employment in this country.  The recovery is fragile and to avoid regressing, Congress should stay out of the way, support small business and let them create the jobs necessary to fully recover from the recession.  Before Congress tries passing any new legislation, maybe they should go through all the poorly designed legislation from the past and clean them up.  They say they can pay for all of this new health care by eliminating fraud and waste.  If they can do that, eliminate the fraud and waste first and then use that new found saved money to add additional benefits to the health plan.
 

There are methods for preparing an Open-To-Buy plan based on each of three elements: units, cost, or retail; or on a combination of two of these three elements, such as units and cost or units and retail or cost and retail.  We have incorporated into ProphetLine POS Software only retail method because it best utilizes the markdowns and discounts to give you a more accurate number.

We believe an Open-To-Buy should be prepared at retail and only retail. We also allow you to do your inventory by average, FIFO or retail.  If your store’s sales are made at retail and inventory is needed to meet sales plans; therefore, it makes sense that inventory should be managed at retail and buying plans to meet sales goals should be made at retail. Once it has been planned at retail it is a simple task to convert the retail dollars to either cost or units.  When you go to market, this is the best way to properly plan for that buying season.
 

If your customers see the perfect holiday gift this season and you are stocked correctly, they will need to purchase it and not procrastinate.  That is the scenario that should happen if you have lowered your inventory and purchased only hot selling items. Most retailers are trying to keep inventories lean to handle the projected lower consumer spending. To be able to accomplish this, the most important tool you need is a comprehensive POS Software System that gives you quick and concise information to base informed purchasing decisions.

Last year most retailers had to deeply discount excess merchandise, leading to disappointing results. The opinion this year is less is better and you might miss some sales opportunities, but you want get burdened with inventory that has to be marked down.  If a customer can’t find what they are looking for in the store, give them a coupon for a future purchase or let them make a special order with incentives. 
 

Most software companies try to sell what they want to offer the customer, rather than what the customer wants to buy. The customer must feel comfortable with the people that will be supporting them, the software has the functionality that they are looking for and the price is in their budget range. We must build software that the customer wants to buy rather than having a sales staff that pushes software they must sell. Small software companies understand this philosophy and always keep the customers wishes in mind. Understanding the customer’s needs, why these needs are essential and how can we best address them is our primary function.

To best serve the customer, we must offer good value, affordable costs and limited risks. You as the buyer must avoid the mistake of buying software from Microsoft, QuickBooks and other large companies, just because they are big. If you are try to have an “I care about you” relationship with the big boys. I don’t believe it’s going to happen!

Michael Moore is a polarizing figure and says things that most of America does not agree with. One thing he did say I agree with was that we need to stop looking at the Dow Jones Index and focus on the “Doug Jones Index”, a measure of how ordinary hard working folks are doing. With small business supplying a majority of the GDP and supporting most of the employment figures, why can’t the powers in control of our economy come up with a better barometer to judge Main Street? Everything is judged on Fortune 500 companies, mergers, acquisitions, big banking and all their out of reason bonus payments.

The new Index should take figures from before the recession and run them through current. Those figures would include number of small businesses, number of employees, availability of credit, unemployment figures and productivity to name a few. Everyone has a different definition of small business, but it should be below 50 employees and each employee should be accountable for “X” amount of dollars in revenue. Maybe then, we can get an accurate view of how the average American is really doing.

Here are a couple of quotes from Commerce Secretary, Gary Locke. If only they would do what they say and let small business people know how to get the help they say is available.

“The focus of the Department of Commerce and what I want to do as secretary is really help businesses grow and expand. I want to help them sell their goods, be more competitive and, ultimately, create new jobs at good family wages.”

“We have a lot of incredible programs to help businesses, but not enough businesses know about them. So we're on a mission to help the president create more jobs by improving our services for small-business owners and entrepreneurs. We also have to make it easier for businesses to access these services and communicate what new things we are doing for small-business owners.”

Small business needs more that just lip service.