To be successful at retail, business owners must wear many hats. Their responsibilities span many disciplines, including management, business planning, marketing, social media, public relations, advertising, customer relations, operations, accounting, systems, technology, merchandising and product expertise. To be truly successful business owners must be competent in all or hire staff that can fill each of those roles. That is a luxury that few small retail businesses can afford. But, as Janette Press of Retail Rescue says, “Some hats fit better than others.”
It’s because retailers have many cross-functional responsibilities that Retail Rescue was formed – To assist and support retailers in specific areas of need. We are a group of three experts in our respective fields, but with cross-functional competencies that encompass four key aspects of a retailer’s responsibilities: Management and Sales, Marketing, In-Store Experiences and Operations and Accounting. Together we can fill gaps in your business and provide advice, training, consultation and support. We can wear one or more of those hats that don’t fit you as well as others.
Meet the Retail Rescue Team
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Pamela Danziger, Marketing and In-Store Experience
Speaker, author, and market researcher Pamela N. Danziger is internationally recognized for her expertise on the world’s most influential consumers: the American Affluent, the heavy-lifters in the consumer economy and the kind of shoppers that specialty independent retailers need to attract to their stores.
As founder of Unity Marketing in 1992, Pam leads with research to provide retailers with actionable insights into the minds of their most profitable customers.
A prolific writer and blogger, including contributing to Forbes.com in the retail space, Pam is author of eight books, including Shops that POP! 7 Steps to Extraordinary Retail Success, written about and for specialty independent retailers. Shops that POP! explains 7 easy-to-implement and profoundly effective strategies to engage customers and get them to spend more.
Pam can help you find new customers, communicate effectively through marketing and on social media, brand your store for the customers you need to attract and enhance the shopping experience in your store.
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Janette Press, Operations and Accounting
Janette Press, founder and principal of Cirrus Accounting, LLC, a ‘cloud-based accounting practice, helps retailers harness accounting technologies to scale and grow their businesses more efficiently and effectively. Specifically she helps retailers establish a financial dashboard and Key Performance Indicators (KPI) that will keep you on track, budget and planning guidance, and purchasing and inventory controls.
Jan holds an MBA from Alvernia University and was an early adopter of Intuit accounting technologies. Based on personal experience supporting her husband’s small business, she learned the power of Quickbooks as a business tool, and became a QuickBooks Intuit Certified ProAdvisor in 2009. She followed that up by earning her CMA (• Certified Management Accountant ) to share her expertise more widely.
Like many small business owners, she embraced the Intuit marketing message that QuickBooks does the accounting for you. She quickly learned, however, that for many business owners understanding QuickBooks, let alone accounting, are daunting tasks needing more guidance and support than a tutorial or in-product help menu.
With Retail Rescue she provides QuickBooks training and support, out-sourced CFO services, bookkeeping, payroll and tax preparation to retail businesses.
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Christopher P. Ramey, Management and Marketing
Chris Ramey’s affinity for retail began early in his life. He met his future wife in high school when they worked together at Kaufmann’s department store in Pittsburgh. After college, Ramey was hired by Macy’s for their highly regarded ‘Executive Management Training Program.’ Ramey was placed in the floor coverings department as an assistant buyer.
Ramey opened his first retail store when he was 28. He grew it to a multimillion dollar enterprise and sold it by the time he turned 40. He accepted a buying position with a large retail cooperative, where he was quickly promoted to President, International Design Guild, a cooperative marketing and buying group for independent retailers. Within a few years he had grown the organization from 15 showrooms to 95 showrooms. Ramey was also founder and president of Savvi Formalwear, a group of independent retailers that Ramey grew to over 400 retail stores.
Ramey’s passion was, and has always been, working closely with independent retailers who desire to grow and become more profitable.
Ramey is a member of National Speakers Association, a columnist for Hearst Business Publications’ Floor Covering Weekly, sits on Retail Wire’s BrainTrust Panel, and has earned the ‘Leadership Top 5%’ appellation from Gerson Lehrman for working with private equity firms investing in retail industries. He is also president and founder of The Home Trust International, an organization of the finest resources for luxury homes.
Retail Rescue’s mission and services
Retail Rescue’s mission is to provide business owners with the tools necessary to increase sales, loyalty and profits. To achieve that mission, Retail Rescue offers focused and effective consultation, training and mentorship in retail management, marketing and operations, all within the budgets of small businesses.
Through onsite visits and engagement, Retail Rescue will look objectively at your store, just like your customers do, to leverage strengths and opportunities while mitigating weaknesses and challenges. Our broad experience will help you play up your pluses and fix your minuses to build sales, increase profits and attract new customers.
Retail Rescue works with retail clients across all categories and market positions. Our unique experiences and expertise will provide you with tools to market and manage your retail firm more effectively.
And Retail Rescue offers training and hands-on support for handling your finances on Quickbooks, the most widely used small business accounting platform.
Retail Rescue’s mission is to provide proven strategies, tactics and support to help retail businesses reach their greatest potential and profit.
Connect and receive a free white paper:
Crash Course in Cash Flow Management
In survey after survey among specialty retailers conducted by Unity Marketing two concerns rise to the top of retailer’s greatest need that is limiting their growth:
- How to find new customers (i.e. marketing)
- Rising costs of doing business (i.e. accounting)
These concerns are intertwined, as the rising cost of doing business severely limits the amount of money a retailer can use to reach out and market to a wider audience. Fix the cost of business problem and you can fix the other by making strategic investments in marketing.
In her work with small businesses and her accounting training, Janette Press knows that the starting point for businesses to control their costs is by implementing a rigorous program of cash flow management.
To help you understand the principles of cash flow management and how to implement them effectively in your retail business, she has written a white paper entitled Crash Course in Cash Flow Management. Complete the form below to download your copy and get started managing the costs of doing business so you can free up money to invest in your other priority: finding and attracting new customers. Let’s get started today.
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