The easiest way, in retail to get more business is to sell more to an existing client. So to help you our pos software has in the event's section in the Customer relationship management (CRM) section, a whole area for the welcome letters for new accounts where it can be set up to send out welcome emails automatically. The idea is to build on existing business relationships.

It is particularly used by our clients that we have in bike shops and dry cleaning. Say, for example, a new customer comes into a dry cleaner and asks for his curtains to be cleaned. Great that person will also have a continuous need for dry cleaning, why not try to get some of that too. So all this can go into the welcome letter/email of what your business can do. Some include a concession voucher to get this business.

I cannot see why almost all of our clients could not use this idea with modification to their business.

It is quite easy to write a standard letter in our point of sale software and when a new customer comes, it sends off the welcome letter automatically.

I would suggest that this letter includes.

1) An introduction to your business, what exactly you do.

2) Hours you are open.

3) Gives them a channel to go to if something goes wrong. There is no more dangerous time to lose a customer then at the start, and if you do something incorrectly you need a chance to fix it. Say something like "If I can help my direct line as director of XYZ business ...."

4) Tells them the truth that their business is important in our business. My first boss put this quote in front of me, and it has been on my desk ever since.

There are many excellent ideas I noticed on the web on this topic.

For any organisation, an end of day procedures is a must-have if you handle cash and if you’re looking for a quick but detailed account of how well did on any given day, look no further.

What it does is help prevent mishandling of monies in your shop. It also promotes operational efficiency and ensures accurate reporting. This balancing {link was removed} should ideally take place at the end of each cashier's shift and a total at the end of each trading day.

What we suggest is that every cashier has their cash drawer. At the start of each shift, they count the float. At the end of the shift, you should print an X-Off and balance that with what is in the drawer. The closer it is done to the actual end of the shift the better.

To run an X-off go to the End of Day section in the cash register.

With this summary of sales what will get is the net sales, voids, paid ins/outs, taxes, your methods of payment and more.

Select on the end of day page choose the X-off option that is below the EOD option marked in green. Select the time the staff member assigned to the register started and the current time. You now run the report and then balance it.

How many times have we heard the comment "We know what we are doing and its perfectly okay," just before it happens? I am sure of the people over a 1000 kilometres south of the cyclone in Northern New South Wales said that too before the floods came down.

Well, Cyclone Debbie has been an education. Just before the Cyclone hit, we rang up every client we had in Northern Queensland from Townsville to Rockhampton to make sure that they had an offsite backup. To our horror, we discovered that almost none of these sites had an emergency backup, and practically all of these people had no idea how to make such a backup. We had to talk them through it.

Then the floods started and the telephone cut out, and we could not warn people and of those, a few went down with no backup. One told me, he is a country newsagency, has over a $100,000 of debts and no records as to who owes what. The odds are that those that do owe them do not have much of a record either now.

How this for a heading "BUSINESS LOSS DUE TO NO BACKUP." There will be many such stories, I am sure.

There is any number of disasters that can happen with computers, flood, theft, fire, ransomware, etc. The only solution is to have a backup off-site.

This was totally unnecessary, as we have a cloud backup solution that is completely free for our clients.

A supplier representative for the goods marked above with a red arrow is coming to see you soon; well, how much of their stuff do you actually move now? The problem here is that these products may come through several of your suppliers

Well, it's simple to find out; we use the manufacturer.

Go to reports; look here

Look at the Manufacturer Stock Sale report pointed out by the red arrow, call up a supplier for the exercise, put in the last 12 months and follow my example below.

Now click the item marked with the red arrow.

Now select a supplier. I picked WAY, but you can select anyone more relevant to you, and you will see what you have sold for them in the last 12 months.