Point of Sale software is useless for any small business retailer unless it provides outcome focused reports which help drive good business decisions.

Good reports assemble data in a logical and accessible way – so they may be read by and of use to non financially trained business operators. They provide multiple views of a business so a complete picture may be determined and opportunities uncovered.

Reporting is a strong point for us. Small business retailers, their accountants, their bank managers and their business advisors tell us they like the range of reports we offer, the flexibility available in these and the decisions which can be made as a result.

We see reports as driving business goals for they are the measuring stick of success (or otherwise) and the roadmap to future opportunities. We think of these as goals when enhancing existing reports and developing new reports for users of our retail software.

Click here to download a print ready copy of the poster the Tower Systems creating team has developed for our retail partners to use to promote consideration of spending the federal government’s stimulus package locally.  Click on the image for a larger copy on your screen.

If there is other material our creative team can develop to help connect your business connection with the stimulus package please let us know.

We are grateful to have the resources and creative capacity to help our customer community in this way.  As retailers ourselves, we understand and appreciate the value some suppliers bring to a relationship by going the extra mile.

Feel free to share the poster around. 

Independent retailers are important to Australia for several reasons:

• Community. Small independent retailers are more likely to support local traditions and tell stories which need to be passed on.
• Creativity. They make creative decisions locally.
• Diversity. No two small independent retailers in the same channel are the same.
• Entrepreneurship. These businesses are where entrepreneurs are born.
• The local economy. They are more likely to hire locally, shop locally, live locally and invest locally.
• Leadership. Small independent retailers nurture the development of leadership skills since decisions are made locally.
• Humanity. You are more likely to observe humanity at work because there is no corporate manual rules.

My list is as incomplete as it is unscientific. Faults aside, it lists what I like about independent retail businesses.

We have made a written submission to the Federal Government on the Investment Allowance, pitching the case for the inclusion of busivess software.  The current Tax Laws Amendment (Small Business and General Business Tax Break) Bill 2009 on page 12 lists computer software as not eligible.

Our argument is that business software is as valuable and important an asset to a business as a piece of machinery is to a miner.

Following successful use in several locations and good data to support efficiency and other benefits, we are actively promoting the Tyro integrated broadband based eftpos link with our retail management software. We use this in our own retail businesses and therefore have first-hand knowledge of the benefits.

Tyro is a terrific help for retailers because eftpos processing is faster, more accurate and time saving at the back end (end of day and back office).  We have put together a cost comparison for ourusers who express interest.

Now that the Federal Government stimulus package has passed, we are proud to announce our own small business bonus package. This, in addition to the excellent 30% investment allowance available for the next four and half months, makes partnering with Tower Systems tremendously valuable.

The Tower Systems BONUS PACKAGE includes:

• An additional six months of software support - making eighteen months in total included in the package price.
• Hardware and software packages at 2008 low prices - we are insulating you against the dollar fall.
• Free additional follow up training – after you have installed the system, to help answer questions which are bound to arise once you get further into the software.
• Help in navigating the investment allowance benefit.

There is more to our package but we will leave that for our sales team to explain.

I will be travelling around the country next week with several of our team presenting our 5 WAYS TO KICK START YOUR NEWSAGENCY workshop.  This is a free workshop designed to provide attendees with practical ideas for more successful retailing this year.  It picks up on themes from recent conferences at which I have spoken, research into what successful retailers are doing and feedback from the large Tower software retailer community.

The details are:

• Melbourne. Monday Feb. 9 at 2pm. Crest on Barkly. Barkly St St Kilda. Some parking on site.
• Brisbane. Tuesday Feb. 10 at 10am. Brisbane Riverview Hotel. Cnr Kingsford Smith Dr & Hunt St Hamilton. Parking Available.
• Sydney. Wednesday Feb. 11 at 11am. Rydges Camperdown. 9 Missenden Road Camperdown. Basement Level Parking Available.
• Canberra. Wednesday Feb. 11 at 6pm. Rydges Capital Hill. Cnr Canberra Ave & National Cct Forrest. Undercover Parking Available.
• Adelaide. Thursday Feb. 12 at 10am. Rydges Southpark. 1 South Terrace Adelaide. Parking Available.
• Perth.  Friday Feb. 13 at 10am.  venue to be confirmed.
  

We would be thrilled to catch up with newsagents and other retailers who wish to drop by who have not booked.  Even though we have excellent bookings in each city I am sure we can make room for more if you would like to join us.

I, like many business owners I am sure, made a submission to the Federal Government about the importance support for small business as they crafted the second economic stimulus package which was ultimately announced yesterday. What I like is the ability to at least be heard. The process of contributing itself if done in such a way that there is a sense that someone is listening. This is different to past experiences with government where I have not even had a sense that my opinion mattered.

On the parts of the package which relate to small business, I like the Investment Allowance.  I am certain it will build confidence in the short term and that is good for small business.

Lay By used to be a big business point of difference. While small retailers offered the service, it was labour intensive and considered too financially risky by most. Now, thanks to facilities such as the Lay By tools in our retail management software, small retailers are able to proudly display the Lay By now for Christmas offer.

In our own retail businesses we use our Lay By facilities with tremendous success. This personal experience and the helpful feedback from our user community has led to some enhancement of the Lay By tools this year. These enhancements have been delivered as part of an update, free of charge.

Six weeks ago we announced our Spring User Meeting Tour and that each session would start with a 45 minute workshop of how to use our software to better manage the business in tough times. The content for our workshop has become more timely over the last two weeks. Now, it looks as if we are trading off the doom and gloom of the last two weeks.

We saw tough times coming and felt it was important we remind our users that their Tower Systems point of sale software has tools which can help them navigate tough economic circumstances. Our workshop will provide free strategies which can be implemented right away using the software - without spending an extra cent.

We take our role of continuous education and motivation of our small business user community very seriously.

In addition to providing free training in the face to face meetings which start in just over a week we will have an opportunity, we will get to hear direct from the business owners how business is. I am looking forward to this feedback because I am certain we will come away with enhancements we can make to extend the benefit our technology delivers.

As I blogged at my Newsagency Blog, the stimulus package announced by the federal Government today misses an excellent opportunity to stimulate business spending. While it is important to support pensioners and carers, it is equally important to support business, especially small business.

I wish that Kevin Rudd had announced an Investment Allowance, accelerated depreciation and delayed GST payments. This would get business owners spending on their businesses. The flow on for employment, productivity and competition would have been tremendously beneficial to the economy.

I am concerned that too much of what was announced today will end down the drain.

We have completed the year on year same store sales benchmark study for newsagents. This has been the most comprehensive study we have undertaken as we analysed data from the 2007/08 financial year and compared that with the 2006/07 financial year for over 60 newsagencies. The analysis was at the department and category levels.

The report outlining the results of this study and suggested actions will be released to our customers later this week and the broader community shortly thereafter. We are supporting this release with an offer of help for newsagents who want to change their businesses based on the findings.

Benchmark studies are important in our small business markets as they provide practical guidance fo how your business is going and often can unlock growth opportunities.

Our transparency, beyond our own user community, helps the broader newsagency community by providing the only current sales data benchmark against which they can compare their businesses It also drives feedback which helps us further refine our processes.

Out of the doom and gloom stories about the Australian and worldwide economies, we are encountering strong business people with plans for the future.  Typically, they are investing as if it is business as usual, on greater efficiency and infrastructure which will drive growth.

It is great to see so many small business owners getting in the job rather than being paralysed by negative headlines.  What is especially exciting is that some of the most innovative ideas are coming from long term owners, the group I’d have expected to be the least up for embracing the opportunities of change.

I have just finished reading The Working Poor by David K. Shipler.  It’s a rough book to read because of the stories of hardship workers face in jobs which pay too little.  I am glad I read it.  It reminded me of Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickle and Dimed in many ways.  It portrays the daily struggle of those living in or on the edge of poverty in America while working a job.  I especially enjoyed the epilogue, a catch up of people in the book and their journey since the author’s initial contact.

Reading The Working Poor I was reminded of some small business owners in similar day to day struggles to live.  I know of a husband and wife working sixty to eighty hours a week each to run a business from which they collectively make $50,000 a year or less.  While they have some responsibly for their situation, much of the revenue of the business is determined by others as is the ability of the business to pass on increased operational costs.  While the $50,000 a year does not make them poor under the definition, the $7.50 an hour they earn makes them among the poorest paid in Australia.

You have to love software companies which try and lock users into sticking with them by soring data in such a way as to make it just about impossible to access from any other system.

The harder it is to extract data from a system is a measure of how confident a software company is in their software. 

Small business owners are the losers - they either stick with software they hate or they have to let go of the old data when they start with new software.

Following my involvement with the Productivity Commission Inquiry into retail tenancies last week I have been approached by several people with data across a range of businesses in capital city shopping centres.  If the data I have been shown is accurate, small business is treated appallingly.  No surprise there I guess - landlords have efficiencies in dealing with a national tenant compared to a small business with one lease in one centre.  However, does that justify a rent difference of six and ten times the per square metre rate?

Even comparing like size and location within the centre for like, the difference is more than six times the rent for the independent retailer.  Six times!  And that is in comparison with a chain with not even 100 stores.

For newsagents, 1,450 of whom are customers of my software company, this rent penalty by shopping centre landlords is debilitating.  Newsagents control the price of less than half of what they sell.  This denies them the flexibility of other retailers.  The margin on their fixed price product is slim, 25% or less.  This makes them economically vulnerable to the annual rent rises of 5% and more.  So, for newsagents, the Productivity Commission Inquiry is timely and important.

I have encouraged those privately sharing this data with me to make a submission.  I hope they do.  The more we focus on the disparity in rent and other commercial terms for small businesses compared to national tenants the better.

In our work here we are privileged to have access to a relationship beyond IT.  This insight helps us better serve our customers and the community more widely.  We are resolutely committed to helping small business retailers be strong.

I have spent time this morning completing a Business Characteristics Survey for the Australian Bureau of Statistics.  I do, on average, ten surveys a year for the Bureau of Stats.  Most are frustrating and leave me wondering if I will ever see the value of providing the data they request.

The Business Characteristics Survey is interesting and more enjoyable than others because to complete it one needs to look outside the business.  Given the much talked about possible US recession, rising interest rates and other factors in the news, it would be easy to slip into a depressed state.

Despite the gloom and doom out there, I’m upbeat about 2008 in here.  Anyone regularly reading this blog would know that because of our investment in new software development and support positions.  I’m from the school of making one’s own success.  We are doing this by further improving customer service, knowing that will drive even more business.

So, my survey response was upbeat. 

I have been contacted by the folks at the Productivity Commission Retail Tenancy Inquiry about a submission I wrote on behalf of newsXpress. I’m to present to the Commission when they hold public hearings in Melbourne. It’s an honour to speak for small business retailers and take the relationship we have with them a step further.

I am glad that the new Federal Government has asked the ACCC to inquire into grocery prices. I am especially pleased that the inquiry will consider the competitive position of small and independent retailers.

Coles and Woolworths dominate supermarket and related retail in Australia. Their dominance is unhealthy for farmers, other suppliers and consumers. They do little to genuinely support local communities and care less about genuine development of their people.

While I am not looking for any protection for small business, I am keen to see fairness imposed in these massive supermarket chains in their dealings. In my work with some of our small business customers I have seen first hand the impact of major supermarket behaviour. Hopefully a formal inquiry by the ACCC will pull some of the more questionable behaviour back.

We have installed our fifth multi store client this week. This new software is gaining a good reputation as being robust and capable. The key we have found is a business grade internet connection to the business. This delivers the speed and stability necessary for the facility to work. The experience of the last five sites has enabled us to bring more structure and certainty to the installation process – important for any new software.

Since we are using multi-store ourselves in two and soon to be three locations we are usually discovering challenges ahead of others and this helps us be more proactive.

The multi store project is important beyond retail since it delivers a framework to facilitate access to any module of the software from multiple locations. In the newsagency marketplace this will be important since more newsagents are retreating to distribution businesses yet want bills paid in multiple outlets.

We have 90 people coming to our Christmas party this year and not every employee is able to make it. Some are bringing partners and others not. It’s a big affair - or will be if the restaurant we have booked with gets back to me!

Working through plans for the party makes me realise what a big year 2008 has been for us in terms of team expansion. It’s a lot to digest for the new team members and for the existing team members. The Christmas party takes on the added role of introducing team members who are yet to meet each other.

Looking down the full list of employees, I realise this is not a small business any more. We probably are by usual government measures but it does not feel like it when I see list or consider the weekly payroll.

The most important thing through this expansion, on our software and retail fronts, is to maintain what we call the Tower Advantage, the community spirit of our mission to help small businesses. To do this, we need to make sure that we’re not a biscuit factory where every contact is the same and where we automate.

So, we’re taking time to ensure new team members connect with these values, add some of their own, and become part of the community. We’re not writing it in an employee manual or building it into boring corporate training - that would be too impersonal.

The Christmas party and associated events provide an excellent opportunity to share some Tower stories and help people connect, even if we’re not that small a business any more.

Firewalls are problematic for users, software providers and others supporting the systems. Everyone wants settings their way. A change here and impact a connection from somewhere else. When you;re dealing with small business owners who do what they are told in this area, you can quickly find yourself with operational problems because one supplier connecting to the system has demanded firewall changes which cause another to be compromised in their access.

The cost of managing secure access to a small business system is growing as more suppliers connect directly with the business. We have small business customers with regular direct online access with an many as eight companies and all it takes is for one of those to demand a change and the others may have a problem. We have produced a standards document to try and navigate this but some suppliers don;t care - it’s their way or no way.

Some days, twenty percent or even more of support calls we take are firewall related - not to do with our software as such. The calls come to us because the supplier involved usually does not want to help, the supplier of the firewall can’t help with industry knowledge and the industry itself has no central approach to managing these things.

Security is important. I wonder if economists have costed everything associated with data security for a small business.

Several of us were privileged to share in the wedding of our Software Development Manager, Gavin Williams to the love of his life and best friend, Amy McNamara.

The wedding was special on many levels beyond Gavin and Amy’s commitment to each other. It was wonderful to see so many work colleagues enjoying the occasion and the dance floor.

The experience reinforced to me the importance of the community within a small business. Beyond working with each other, friendships develop, enduring friendships from which everyone benefits. That’s what I saw at the wedding on Saturday among our team, friends celebrating.

The employee sales tracking tools in our software are being put to excellent use by one client who uses them to reward successful employees. While all employees earn award wages, many are earning up to 33% more in weekly bonuses thanks to our tracking of sales.

This retail business never paid such bonuses until the owner started using our software. Now, a year on, the business is having one of its best years ever thanks, in part, to the bonus payments and employees chasing their share of the spoils of success.

While we have tacked sales by employees for years, it was mid through last year that we delivered some enhancements suggested by users which made these tools even more valuable.

Many small businesses have trouble attracting and keeping employees - using these tools to track above average employee sales success - where they contribute to winning business which might otherwise pass by - businesses can show real respect.

Broadband is not an option for retail businesses any more. With so many products and services sold over the counter and pulled from suppliers on an as needed basis, retail businesses cannot afford to be out of the game. From a support perspective, Broadband has come into its own - we connect daily with clients as if we are in their shop. Problems are fixed sooner and faster. Broadband is clearly essential to business.

If it were up to me and I were a product supplier to retailers, I’d make having broadband (where it is available) mandatory - otherwise business is too slow.