VIEWPOINT
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by Joanne North, senior vice president, franchise support, Decorating Den Interiors
o you ever wonder how you could have better tools to evaluate the profitability of your business and put more money in your pocket? The answer is three-dimensional: having the right tools is one aspect; knowing how to use them is another; and having regular encouragement to use them is the third.
ing, implementing and monitoring business plans. If you don’t already have someone who supports you in your business planning, I advise remedying that. As a business coach for our franchise system, when I review an owner’s business plan, I focus on four key questions: Does the plan have a solid advertising component? How can we work together to improve your closure rate? Does the average sale need to increase, and if so, how can we work together to make that happen? And, lastly, what are the profit margins for each product category sold?
One of our highly successful Decorating Den Interiors franchise owners is Barbara Elliott of Stone Mountain, GA. She’s a CPA who worked several years in the accounting field and has owned her design business for 17 years. As a featured Leads are a function speaker at our last of marketing. Closure national conference, rate is about selling Barbara shared her skills and having the successful business right products. Imphilosophy. “Start proving your average with the bottom line sale is about evaluprofit you want to ating your client’s have for yourself needs and wants in at the end of the order to have a good year,” she advises. understanding of “Don’t just look at the full potential of your revenue and every project so you then calculate what can up-sell. That, is yours to keep. too, involves product Rather, focus on assortment and selldeveloping a coming skills. Improving prehensive business your margins is a plan that highlights function of getting a marketing plan the best wholesale The one-stop web-based business, customer relationship and marketing management tool designed to generate used by Decorating Den Interiors franchisees optimizes their time and profitability so they pricing and keeping can spend more time with clients. enough appointments your fixed costs under to ultimately lead you control. to more business sales revenue and ultimately profit.” Using Technology Business plans are something all business owners talk Fixed costs, of course, are really not fixed. They are about, but not all do well. A Decorating Den Interiors choices. However, if you are not monitoring them well, franchise owner receives considerable assistance preparyou cannot make good choices. 14
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Barbara Elliott advises: “Focus on developing a comprehensive business plan that highlights a marketing plan designed to generate enough appointments to lead to more sales and profits.”
Advertising is one very important choice. You may follow some rule of thumb, such as spending a certain percentage of your revenue goal on marketing. Those expenditures are probably distributed over several media and activities. But, do you know the return on investment (ROI) of your various advertising? As part of our franchise owners’ web-based communication and business management system, we enable our designers to both track their advertising expenses and match them with leads, appointments and sales so they can measure the ROI for each lead-generation activity they do during the year.
ORION
ORNAMENTAL IRON, INC.
Bohemia on Italian There is nothing more lovely than the sparkle of beautiful Bohemia Crystal finials to complete any décor. The line includes 22 crystal finials, offered in a variety of shapes: round, oblong, oval, circular, square… some even have delicate bubbles inside the crystal. They look especially stunning when combined with our Italian Collection, but are also available with our Iron Art and Wood Art Collections.
That same technology is used for ad preparation, direct mail, email campaigns and client communications so that they can fully automate and monitor their prospecting, lead nurturing and client management. There are other fixed costs to monitor. As Barbara put it: “Be smarter about what you spend.” Are you tracking the gross profit on every job? Overall, do you have the technology for looking at your business at any given time and determining the answers to those questions and others that impact profits? Maximizing profitability should be your goal regardless of the size of your business. It may take aligning yourself with others for support and help in identifying the right tools. At DDI, we have launched a “To The Trade” program to allow industry professionals to tap into our resources if they are having difficulty finding and managing these tools on their own. V Editor’s Note: Decorating Den Interiors (decoratingden.com), founded in 1969, began as a shop-at-home drapery business. Today it is North America’s largest home furnishings and interior design franchise company with independent design professionals throughout the U.S. and Canada.
sales@ironartbyorion.com | www.ironartbyorion.com | 877.476.6278
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