"The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken."

-- Samuel Johnson, Lexicographer

by Jami Petersen

I was truly inspired by the recent Olympic games. Seeing women and men from around the world fulfill lifelong dreams is wonderful! As a result, I've reflected on my professional and personal dreams, some of which I have kept and others I'm working to achieve. I hope the Olympic spirit inspires you to reach for the stars in 2010!

Speaking of stars, Lisa Acosta, an independent scrapbook store owner, shares her insights on how to hire, fire, and inspire yourself and your staff in order to achieve all of your financial dreams!  

Jami Petersen
newsletters@a-z.com

Sakura

Gelly Roll White is now available in 2 packs!


Consumers love the smooth, opaque ink of Gelly Roll white for writing on dark paper and adding accents to illustrations and crafts. Now this popular, proven seller from Sakura of America is available in a convenient two pack. Contact your local wholesaler for details.


www.sakuraofamerica.com

Press Releases

News you can use about the latest media coverage of hot trends, noteworthy events and dynamic industry leaders. Learn more about the current headlines in arts and crafts by clicking on the title of each article segment.
 

The Faber-Castell U. S. Headquarters is currently seeking the talents of an experienced Sales Representative possessing the passion, determination and enthusiasm to establish a new, sustainable Faber-Castell business segment within the U.S. Craft Market. For information about careers or to reach the Human Resources Department e-mail hr@awfcusa.com.

Majesco Entertainment Announces 'Crafting Mama' for Nintendo DS™. The extent of Mama's talents are limitless! She can hold her own in the kitchen and garden next to the world's best, but now Mama is poised to dominate arts & crafts too as Majesco Entertainment Company (NASDAQ: COOL), an innovative provider of video games for the mass market, announces Crafting Mama exclusively for Nintendo DS™. Developed by Cooking Mama Limited, this all-new crafting game lets players create their own unique crafts across a wide range of different projects.

High Quality Transfer Paper Used in Increasing Number of Printers. Sawgrass Technologies Consumer Division, a world leader in the development of solutions for digitally printing consumer products, announced today that it is expanding the range of printer platforms that use the ChromaBlast® matched system of ink and transfer paper. ChromaBlast is a unique patented ink and media combination driven by powerful print software that delivers the best cotton imaging system available. As heat and pressure is applied to the cotton, a chemical cross-link with cotton occurs. Brighter, softer images result from this technology.

Tombow

At the Winter CHA show Tombow released a new line of Dual Brush Pens for the Craft market.

These six new color assortments – in both 6 and 10 pack sets – are great color combinations for a variety of projects with the same quality you’ve come to expect from Tombow Dual Brush Pens. For more information about each set,

check out our website.

The Memory Tradeshow

The Memory Tradeshow is the premiere market for scrapbooking and related products, family history and digital imaging.

It is the most important gathering of this industry regionally, and it’s attracting executives from all sectors: manufacturers, retailers, distributors, suppliers, sales reps, designers and press. The show’s goal is to provide the highest ROI show within the industry with a greater focus on the business of the memory industry, education and best business practices.

Learn more and save >>

by Lisa Acosta, Scrapbooks & Stuff storeowner

TDo you remember the good old days? You could put almost any product on the shelf, at a premium price, and it would sell out in days with little or no help from a salesperson. Samples on the wall were your best “salespeople” because your clerks could not get out from behind the buzzing register. Fast forward a few years and things have changed a bit. The scrapbookers are savvier, the supplies are pricier, and the hobby as well as the economy has cooled. All retailers are all in cost control mode right now, and one of the best ways to cut costs is to cut staff and hours. The staffers that remain are asked to work harder for the same or less pay. They are unhappy, the sales floor is neglected, customers are on their own, and sales are slumping. What’s the answer? It’s a multi-faceted problem that comes down to one solution; we need our customers to spend more money. Hiring the right people, firing the wrong ones, and inspiring them to sell are the keys to that solution.

As storeowners, our job is to stock, staff, and market the store. Yes, we all have to wear the clerk, teacher, plumber, and accounting hats too, but in a perfect world our job description is entrepreneur. Hiring the right staff is just as important as stocking the right products. What makes someone right for the job, and how do you find that person? I’ve come up with a profile that always seems to fit my needs as an employer: avid scrapbooker, friendly personality, and family oriented. When you see those attributes in a person, offer them a position! You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. They will either say yes, or they’ll decline but be flattered. Always be on the look out for your next staffer, don’t wait until you’re so desperate for help that you hire the first warm body that applies. When a good person applies, but you don’t have a position, star that application and keep it on file.

My best staffers are avid scrapbookers first and foremost, and they are usually customers too. Hiring a customer means that you won’t need to orient them to the sales floor or teach them how to scrapbook. This will save you months of painful training and embarrassing misinformation on the sales floor. Don’t you love it when your staffer sells a Versamark pad to someone looking for black ink, or has to check to see if you carry Bazzill cardstock, or Herma adhesives? I’ll go so far as to say these are “stupid questions” when it comes to training a new hire.

A friendly personality is the next attribute I look for in staff. A happy and upbeat person has a smile on their face and in their voice. They make conversation, they offer help without saying “can I help you”, they like customers’ kids, and they look at albums with interest. You can’t train a person to be friendly, so steer clear of the drama queens. A family-oriented person is another desirable attribute, but is not the easiest to gauge during an interview. Try asking on the application what matters most to them. Answers usually center on family, faith, friends, and school. Moody teenagers or party-hardy types are not a good fit for a scrapbook store. Most of my staff tends to be college students, living at home, working for spending money, and they just want to be in the creative culture of scrapbooking.

Letting a staffer go is never a pleasant chore, but don’t make the mistake of keeping a slacker. You should have a list of fire-able offenses that you communicate to your staffer at hiring, and that you stick to when needed. Not showing up to work, excessive schedule change requests, rudeness, and stealing are things that cannot be tolerated. Tolerate it once, and your other staffers will make a mental note of how easy you are. Of course occasional sick calls will happen, and you should look at a staffer’s track record before terminating over a she said-she said incident.

Staffers who are not sales-oriented cannot be kept on either. A salesperson’s job is to find out what the customer needs, and to guide them to a purchase. Just because an item is out of stock or is not carried does not mean that there is not an alternative. Sales techniques are teachable, so make sure that your staff is getting the training they need. Have monthly meetings, weekly email memos, daily sales pep talks - whatever fits your style. When a new product comes in make sure everyone gets an FYI. Make sure all your staffers are getting your newsletter too, they should always know at least as much as the customers!

Inspiring your sales team to sell, sell, sell is not that hard if you have an employee incentive program in place. Employees work for us in order to make money, why not reward them for a job well done with extra pay on top of a more than fair wage? Paying commission can be a hard thing to track depending on your POS system and how your cashiers and clerks are staffed and set up in your system. Setting daily and weekly goals is a much easier and track-able system. The system I am getting ready to use is based on the program “Build a Better Bonus Program” by Bob and Susan Negen of Whiz Bang Training that a good friend and fellow LSS owner shared with me recently.

Decide on a weekly sales goal, measure it daily, and at the end of the week, pay bonuses based on how well the goal was met or exceeded. If the goal is met, everyone gets an extra .50 per hour. Exceed the goal by 10% and everyone makes an extra 1.00 per hour. Exceed the goal by 20% (wow!) and everyone makes an extra 2.00 per hour. Seems like a lot to pay out, but do the math and you’ll see that the increased sales are well worth it. Let’s say you have a goal of $8,000 in sales and an average 60 payroll hours a week. If the goal was exceeded by 20% and you paid and extra 2.00 per hour, for $120 in bonuses you’ll have had a $9,600 week!

The fact that it’s a weekly goal ensures that all of the staffers need to work together to achieve it. Slackers will be quickly identified, and their peers will see to it that they strive harder. As employers, we want our employees to make that bonus because it means that goals are being met, bills are being paid, and we the owners are drawing a paycheck, yeah! Hiring, firing, and inspiring the best team makes it all possible.

Lisa Acosta is the co-owner of Scrapbooks & Stuff, an independent local scrapbook store in Miami, Florida, founded in 2001. Please visit us at: 8811 SW 132 Street, Miami, FL 33176, 305-253-0030 or online at www.scrapbooksnstuff.com.

Wooky Entertainment

Target New Consumers:

Teenagers with the Paris Hilton Creativity Collection. This new line is for teens from 10 years old and older who are interested by scrapbooking. Following the latest trends and fashion, the Paris Hilton Creativity Collection is adapted for teen girls of 2010!

Visit us online: http://pariscreativity.com/
For more information : info@wookyentertainment.com

Dynamic New Campaign "Crafter 500" to Build Sales Team

Club Scrap®, the innovative leader in the scrapbooking industry, has recently launched a dynamic new “Crafter 500” campaign, announcing their goal of increasing the ranks of their sales team to 500 in 2010. Committed to the belief that a hands-on presentation is the most effective way for people to truly understand the value, quality and inspiration that Club Scrap® offers, the company developed the campaign to increase that opportunity and “make an impact on the papercrafting world in 2010,” as stated by co-owner, Dinah Mueller.

Now in its tenth year of designing and manufacturing the most unique, high-quality papercrafting materials available, Club Scrap® was conceptualized and established by Tricia Morris, a remarkably talented scrapbooker and Dinah Mueller, a long-standing professional in the graphic design and marketing industry. Each month, the Design Team at Club Scrap® begins with a blank slate, developing new color palettes, textures, and designs as they produce and manufacture a complete new product line that includes papers, stamps, embellishments, stencils, stickers, greeting card packs, and projects.

The company has grown from small town beginnings, to an expanded 16,000 square foot design and distribution center in Greenville, Wisconsin, shipping to more than 35 countries. In recent years, the grass roots effort to “share the extraordinary Club Scrap® experience” resulted in the development of a direct sales division, offering both hobbyists and business builders a platform to receive discounts, take advantage of an exceptional compensation and bonus plan, and cultivate their passion for papercrafting. At its current ground floor level, the unique workshop-based presentation of this program provides entrepreneurial Crafter Representatives with unlimited growth potential.

Despite the recent changes in the scrapbooking industry and the economic uncertainty that has plagued the U.S., Club Scrap® has forged ahead and continues to hold fast to their core principles of providing exclusive, superior quality materials, unparalleled value, education, and exceptional customer service. For more information about becoming a Club Scrap® sales representative, call (888) 634-9100, or email info@clubscrap.com.