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Ten Greatest Ideas for Building the Retail Business of Your Dreams • 115

told me 'Spend ten per cent of each year's revenues on marketing, at least to begin
with.'

Your stationery and your logo are important. Spend time and, if necessary,
money on them. Your business name should have the echo of a branding or a posi-
tioning. It should suggest almost that new customers have heard of you before. This
is not 'passing off, which is illegal, but making sure that the associations that people
have with the name are positive and relevant.

You are always looking for repeat business and references to new prospects. If
you can sell your product off the Internet, do it. This means that customers, who
were in your locale once, can buy from you from wherever in the world they find
themselves. Advertise in places where potential customers might come from. Re-
member, people with an interest in your speciality will travel to meet with and deal
with someone who knows what they are talking about. So don't limit your advertis-
ing to your local paper. If your real pleasure comes from the buying of the products,
don't let that diminish the amount of time you spend on promoting the business and
finding new customers.

Once you have found them, keep a detailed record of who they are and what
their interests are as well as what they bought. You will be surprised how quickly
you build a database of information that makes your next mailshot extremely well
focused - 'One of those tiny Georgian teapots has come into my possession, shall I
keep it for the next time you drop in?' This database is a major asset of the business,
and if you are eventually going to sell the business as a going concern it will be a
huge contributor to the value of the goodwill you have built up.

Talking about goodwill, it is hard to win but terribly easy to throw away. A
good reputation pays huge dividends in terms of repeat business and new customers
attracted by word of mouth. Set your quality sights very high. If a customer has a
problem with a product, or even if they just don't like it, take it back or fix the
problem, literally without question. Try, obviously, to get them to take something in
exchange, but if they insist just give them their money back. It is quality and service
you are selling, not the product itself. Use the best materials for display and packag-