Remember to work on the business and not get "store blind." That's why a lot of businesses never grow past a certain point.
You seem to be having a lot of success on CL (which I think tends to cater to a lower demographic than what you are looking for). So, if you are looking for something new to do, why not do something close to what's working? That usually works.
If CL is bringing you this much sales, why not expand your online presence? Do you have a website? Is it professionally done? From there, you can advertise your site, and potentially grow sales exponentially from what CL is bringing. I'd have everything set up so that if anyone mentioned any of the specialty fish within 30 miles online, your website pops up.
I think Splorge said it best a few pages back. What is your plan to increase your hourly pay? It's great that you didn't start and not have customers. Really great! But what is next? I'd suggest that if CL can bring you $400 a day, other online venues might bring you double (or triple) that.
I think you're right and that it can be very easy to get store blind. I'm very focused on getting things in to sell etc right now. But I think this thread and talking it out can help with that. As for targeting new customers, I do need to devise a plan. Once they are in my store, they're mine forever.
Couple customer stories this week. A guy who had never been to my store obviously, and my biggest competitior that is 20 mins south of me. He drove 1 hour to get to us both. He went to the other store first and spent nothing. The other store is the "top dog" in the state. My store he spent $108 and would be back etc.
Another couple of customers are a couple of gay guys. Well to do, own resturants in seattle, put on production shows etc. They drive by the top dog store to shop at my store. Not only have they been in, but they've been in 3 times in the 8 days I've been open. Each time they each set their spending limit to $100. So far I've made $550 alone from those two guys. This is exactly the type of customer I want to draw in. Customers with a lot of money who just want excellence.
They love my store cause I can explain everything to them and will make recommendations etc. Will talk them out of a bad sale etc. I even ended up explaining it to them as my store is like a fine dining experience. Instead of a mcdonalds. It's not about turn and burn, it's about a nice experience with skilled people that'll cost you more.
Right now, one of the things I'm worried about is wait time. There are definitely times during the day, when people can have to wait 20-30 mins to get helped. I'm trying to avoid hiring someone so early incase this is just the new fish store buzz, and not sustainable traffic.
Another problem. Is my store is only about 1/3 done. I've only got 42 tanks setup and I'm turning these kinds of numbers. I've got probably another 100 to setup still. I just setup 2 more shelving units for dry goods on Thursday. I don't even have air pumps in stock yet etc. So there are more sales to be made, that are being left on the table at the moment.
Theres this other small problem... I don't have a single sign up. Not over my business, not at the road etc lol. My builder came down with the flu, he's better now and signs are a priority obviously. I'd just buy a banner, but it would totally cheapen my look.
Some other things on the horizon. I learned that the "top dog" store is moving. Which is a home run for me. It'll give me at least 2 months to steal market share from them.
I'm being flown out to California to work the pet expo for Hikari. This gives me perks of meeting vendors etc. Also Hikari gives me a lot of free stuff for doing it. LIke they got me 200 cloth totes to give away. Tons of samples. Anything I need, they just make it happen. This stems from having dinner with the president of Hikari last time they were in town.
Also pond season is almost here. I need to get setup for that soon and market to an entirely different clientele. Basically home owners.
My thoughts are kinda all over the place in this post. But something that seems to be working well for me advertising wise are my business cards that I hand out to petco and petsmart employees. The card has on the back of it, redeem for a free package of frozen food. And a place for initials. The employee puts their initials there. Every one that gets brought to me gets the customer a package of food and the employee from the other store $5 store credit. So I've been stopping in my local stores and meeting the fish staff. So far 1 card has been redeemed in store . Only started this about 4 days ago. Before that, people were coming in saying someone at a petco/petsmart told them about me.
