Ted Williams, owner of House to Home, is featured using Thrive in the September 2011 edition of Entrepreneur magazine.

In the two page article entitled “Retail Rebuild” (pg 56-57) Jenna Schnuer interviews Ted to learn about the difficulties in launching a home decor store. The article explains how Thrive helped Ted understand the problems he was having, while providing the insight and intelligence needed to overcome those challenges. Have a look at out our customers page to learn  more about Ted.

Click here to read the article on Entrepreneur.com!

Store owners have so much passion about what they sell, they should be rewarded rather than wasting time on customers who may not appreciate the value of their product. Instead, they should build relationships with the ones who do and Thrive can show them how to do this.

Thrive can help store owners save time and money by helping them identify their ideal brand customers. By monitoring your store’s traffic, sales and transactions, Thrive can measure your store’s conversion rate and traffic/transaction value. Based on this, it can provide you with recommendations on how to identify your ideal brand customers.

More customers does not equal more sales.

Instead of spending so much money on advertising to achieve more customers, you should save yourself the time and use Thrive to help you indentify your ideal customers. They are the ones who will be loyal and apprechiate your product.

“Business is not about growing revenue, but about growing profitable revenue with the right target customer.” Anthony K. Tjan

Next week, Thrive is leaving its perch way out in the Atlantic and flying to the Pacific.

Thrive is a finalist in the Intuit IPP Apps Showcase.

You can follow @angusw, @billjackman, @elliotyeo, and @thrivesoftware for the live play by play on the east coast invasion of San Francisco.

Here are some highlights of the trip:

Aug 9 – First day of Intuit Cloudjam

Aug 10 – Second day of Intuit Cloudjam and rehersal for our demo

Aug 11 – Apps Showcase!! Watch us demo Thrive live from Intuit App Center and be sure to vote for our team: Watch the Showcase Live

Stay tuned for tweets and pictures from the awards party!!

Aug 12-13 – Checking out the independent stores of San Francisco.

We’re anxious to connect with lots of developers, contestants, and business owners next week so if you’re in the area be sure to send us a tweet!

The look on their faces said it all.“We’re running out of steam. My wife and I have been working hard for the past two years. We usually spend 10-15 hours a day, seven days a week running our business and are struggling to survive.  It seems like most times we’re working for less than minimum wage. It’s crazy. If we had more customers things would be okay.” Faces really do tell stories. Especially the faces of exasperated entrepreneurs.

It’s amazing how many times I’ve seen and heard this same song and dance. It’s getting so predictable. The pattern is usually the same.

Generally, it starts with: “Gee, I’m quite good at doing this or that (like making something or providing some kind of service). Everyone tells me I should go for it. Maybe I should? I think I can make it. That’s it. I’m starting my own business”. Voila! You’ve made the first of many decisions that will inexorably transform your life, as you know it.

WHAT YOU DO FROM HERE ON IN will greatly impact your long-term chances for success. Now that you’ve decided to create an enterprise that conducts business, as I see it, you have to make decision #2 – the second most important executive decision you’ll ever make.

I believe this next decision accurately reflects your chances of creating and owning a successful business for as long as you desire.

In order to make decision #2, you must consider two options:

A. Invest everything in getting ready – computers, furniture, leases, lawyers, logos, business cards, letterheads, etc., and later (sometimes years later) realize that one essential element is missing: How to attract customers and how to keep them.

B. Invest everything in developing “your unique version” of the four essential “Systems” used by the top 10% of leading enterprises around the world.  The systems, in order of priority are:

1. Marketing
2. Management
3. Operational
4. Financial

Which option did you choose? Ultimately, this decision determines your long-term success.

If your enterprise cannot conduct business without you, chances are you originally chose option A. On the other hand, if you can leave your enterprise for up to a year and return to find it conducting business as profitably and efficiently (if not more so) as when you left, chances are you decided to exercise option B. Owning successful enterprise is all about making successful decisions. Is your enterprise running you or are you running your enterprise?

Blood Pressure, blood sugar, heart rate, cholesterol, and energy, tell you how your body is operating.

Customer inquiry rate, average transaction value, frequency, advertising performance, and profitability tell you how your store is operating.

What I’m about to say is very odd.  I know that, and you will too. However odd it may sound, I am still struck by the obvious idea it captures.

An entrepreneur’s health is a direct indicator of how successful their business is or will be.

I am compelled by the simplicity of the idea. It just makes sense.

I’ll even throw a challenge out for someone to prove it is not true.

When you balance your mind, body and spirit success is yours to enjoy.

Your mind is you – your attitudes, habits, skills, confidence, beliefs and control.

Your body is your physical health and physical environment.

Your spirit is your desire. Your desire for success as you envision it.

When you open a store you are simply expressing your desire to create something lasting that expresses your hopes, dreams and imagination.

Your business is a manifestation of your spirit. An extension of you.

Health gives you the ability to express your spirit, as you so desire. Without it, your chances of creating your vision and seeing it real are slim. Not impossible, but wafer thin.

Entrepreneurs need stamina, concentration and focus to accomplish their heart’s desires.

Hot tip: If you want to increase your business success, start with your physical health.

If you are serious about making your business successful, you’ll need all the energy and motivation you can muster. Manage your health effectively and you will manage your business effectively.

Success starts and ends with you.

Trust me on this one.

I came across an article about sleep, by Tony Schwartz (president and CEO of The Energy Project, which is a company that specializes in energizing people and companies).

It talks about the importance of sleep when it comes to productivity. The most interesting thing about it is the idea that you would be worse off if you didn’t sleep for a week, as opposed to if you didn’t eat for a week.

There is another article of the same sort of topic which Tony references called, “Sleep Deficit: The Performance Killer”, A Conversation with Charles A. Czeisler by Bronwyn Fryer.

Although I am usually skeptical on the accuracy of the research done in these types of situations, I fully agree with these articles and find them intriguing because most people (myself included) take sleep for granted.

“Last night, I was thinking about my business and I realized that I needed someone to help me with the marketing. To be honest, my sales are not where they used to be. To make matters worse, two new ‘box stores’ opened up last year. They are also carrying a lot of my product lines.

A lot of repeat business that we normally expect at certain times of the year, was just not there this year. I’ve got a pile of last season’s stock to get rid of. It’s all marked down now and I’ll be lucky to break even on it.

I’ve got invoices from suppliers who have kindly extended their credit terms but are now due for payment and my sales tax must be remitted this month. I have no idea where that money will come from.  We really need more customers. I also want you to know upfront that I don’t have a lot of money to work with, so, having said all of this, can you help me with my marketing?”

Does any of this sound familiar to you? For many store owners this is a shared reality. It seems that when times get tough as they sometimes do, the common knee-jerk reaction is to direct attention towards immediate short-term advertising activities. Many advertising sales reps will tell you that you must immediately increase the awareness of your business and get your name out there with as much exposure and impact as possible. Of course, exposure costs money and advertising sales reps are more than happy to lighten your already dwindling bank account.

If you are in this vulnerable situation, I want to suggest that advertising is NOT your biggest problem. As a matter of fact, increasing your exposure through short-term advertising will only serve to make matters worse. For example, let’s say you decide to run some ads in the paper or on cable. Nine chances out of ten, due to desperation, you’ll decide to advertise “Everything Is On Sale” or a “Store Wide Clearance”. If you get a poor response, which happens frequently in today’s chaotic market, you end up losing in at least six ways:

1. On every transaction due to deep discounting;
2. For advertising expenses that failed to get the expected results;
3. Your time spent putting the promotion together;
4. Staff time spent preparing and executing the ‘no profit’ sale;
5. Future profits from regular customers who hold off buying anticipating the next ‘Big Sale’;
6. Your brand equity, or the sum total of all perceptions of your business, erodes.

That’s a lot of additional risk to take when your situation is already brimming with risk.

Every day your business operates its future survival hinges on one key: Your ability to retain your past customers.

It is a proven fact that attracting new customers costs much more than retaining the customers you already have. Investing time and resources in regularly communicating with your past customers is the fastest and most profitable way to kick start your cash low when times get tough.

You can start this process by first creating a master contact list of all your past customers. If you do not already have one, start creating one today. This master customer list is one of the most valuable assets a business owns.  Start your new ‘customer appreciation’ program by sending them a personal letter (not a form letter) from you with an exclusive offer or gift for ‘valued customers’ like them. Make sure to follow up your direct mailing with a personal call about five days later to kindly confirm that your letter was received and to answer any questions they may have. Do this consistently every month, and I guarantee you will be surprised with the positive effects this has on your customer relationships, attitude, image and cashflow.

Every time I eat trail mix, I always avoid these tiny sunflower seeds because they don’t have much of a taste and there is such a large quantity of them for how little they are.

Plus, the M&M’s, raisons, peanuts, almonds and cranberries are SO much better. If you face this same dilemma; instead of throwing them out, take Angus’ advice and put them between 2 slices of bread with peanut butter on them! Yummm!

A key factor in any retail business is getting to know your customers personally in order to create strong relationships and loyalty. Access to an app that shows you where your strengths and weaknesses lay in order to achieve maximum goals such as sales, traffic and conversion rate is also something that every independent store owner deserves access to.

As our website says, Thrive takes the guesswork out of where to put your time and money. Plus, it is always there; it is not merely a snapshot of your current situation, it changes as your store changes, and is extremely easy to use.

As talented as independent store owners are, they are not robots. They cannot take care of all the complicated data which could be crucial to growth and success by themselves.

Before joining Thrive, I worked in an independent store, Twisted Sisters Boutik located downtown St. John’s on the oldest street in North America.

I have seen the struggles retailers can face first hand. The girls at the boutique offer exceptional customer service and have some of the best relationships with customers I have seen. Overall, they are very passionate and devoted to their business, customers and employees.  I love Independent retailers such as this because they have a genuine passion for their customers, truly care about their wants and needs and are not just trying to sell them something as a means to an end; profit.

When you walk into independent stores you won’t only get unique products, but memorable service as well; the kind of treatment you would not come across in the hectic box stores. This is one of the reasons why we do not want to see these stores fail. The endless effort independent retailers put into their business and the passion they have for building customer relationships should not go to waste, which is why they deserve to have access to an app as beneficial, affordable and easy to use as Thrive.

Thrive is extremely valuable to independent store owners not only because it takes the guesswork out of where to put your time and money, but because it shows you how to actually get those ideal customers inside your store so you can continue to build the relationships and loyalty – doing what you are so good at.

It is one thing to offer exceptional customer service to those who are in your store, but how many of your ideal customers are out there who do not even know your store exists? How do you get them into your store?

Thrive is the answer to these types of questions.

No more assuming the advertising that sales person x is offering you is a good investment. The end of not knowing your traffic counts, conversion rate, sales or what they should be compared to where they are, and how to get them there.

Thrive will teach you how to fix all of this. It gets to know your business on a personal level and stays with you as you grow.

Since I am the least tech savvy person I know, if I can use Thrive, anyone can use it. Its simplicity is one of the best things about it. Aside from the short, easy surveys it provides to get to know your business as well as the fact that it takes care of your complicated measurable data.

Independent store owners deserve to have the same advantage as big box stores, more than the box stores, because of their passion and loyalty to their customers, employees and business.

The employees and owners here at Thrive are also customers of these independent stores and we want to give back to the exceptional customer service we receive when we enter them.

This is the final post in the five part series on using Thrive’s application to improve your store.

Benefits of Thrive > Your Dashboard > Your Business > Your Progress > Our Recommendations

Why Our Recommendations will Improve Your Future

Thrive makes it fast and easy to get a new perspective on the numbers in your store. It is one thing to watch your numbers (the quantitative) , it is another to know how to master them (the qualitative).

How the Recommendations Work

When you told Thrive all about your store in the “Your Business” section, Thrive did a bunch of calculations behind the scenes to determine what will help your store’s numbers improve the fastest. This is what makes Thrive unique. Unlike books and other self-help resources, Thrive pinpoints what will help your store the most, and tells you exactly how to do that.

Books are great if you have the time, but they often cover topics broadly and don’t focus on actions. Your recommendations tell you everything you need to know to get things done to make a positive impact on your stores numbers. Nothing more, nothing less.

What You Need

The first step to getting your recommendation is completing the “Your Business” section.

Once you have all your tailored recommendations it is time to get to work. Your recommendations are ordered for a reason but some recommendations will take longer than others.