Markups & Mardowns

Is Your Initial Markup Enough? One question I am repeatedly asked by retailers is how to increase maintained margin. Several answers readily come to mind, the most obvious being to avoid overbuying, and therefore reduce the margin eroding markdowns that accompany such a practice. Another way of increasing maintained markup is to find ways to [...]

Study Finds Retailers Not Utilizing Social Media To Its Highest Potential

There seems to be a disconnect between what customers say they want out of social media and what businesses think they want.

New Report Finds Retailers Say Store Expansion High on Agenda for 2011

With confidence high and rising, store owners are looking forward to growing their businesses in the year ahead.

Illness Costs Employers

Employee absences inflict costs on businesses equal to 8.7 percent of payroll, according to a new study released recently. That’s the combined cost for both unplanned sick days and extended disability absences. On average, an employee takes 5.4 sick days per year. Workers paid by the hour rack up more sick days, on average, than [...]

Tips For Retail Success

What does it take to open a successful storefront? According to recent surveys and expert advice, it takes a business plan and the right attitude, and some help getting started, such as an incubator program. According to a survey reported on the Small Business Trends website, having a business plan makes a startup twice as [...]

10 Startup Tips

Here are 10 tips that the editors of Cover have gathered at recent business meetings for starting a new business: Outline your company’s mission statement, goals and define your corporate culture. Outline your business plan. It is critical to have a detailed business plan for the first 60 days, the first six months and the [...]

6 Tips to Increase Revenue

Cloud Marketing Labs, a Northfield, NJ firm that assists companies with their marketing efforts, offers six substantial tips to get your marketing program back on track in 2010. Measure everything. Wasteful marketing can be a real drain on a businesses’ budget. Before you start any type of marketing, set up a system in which you [...]

Selling Your Business

SELLING YOUR business and getting a good price for it seems an overwhelming task for a business owner, especially in today’s economy. However, the California Association of Business Brokers (CABB), a non profit trade organization, says that selling a business, and getting a reasonable price for it, can happen. The devil is in the details. [...]

Business Weary of Health Insurers

A PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Health Research Institute study has found that businesses of all sizes have become dissatisfied with their health insurers. The report titled, “What Employers Want from Health Insurers in 2010,” finds that: Overall satisfaction with health insurers by large employers has decreased to 59 percent, from 64 percent in 2008. Small employers continue to [...]