MINI
SWAP GROUPS
What
is a Mini SWAP Group?
SWAP stands for Share With A Peer.
It is a group of similar retailers from non-competing areas
that either all go to the same market or to a retail organization meeting and
want an opportunity to meet to share data and information to become better
retailers. They also do not want the
expense of traveling to different retailers around the country so are willing to
forego the 2-day meeting with it’s critique of the host retailer’s store.
What
is the Purpose of the SWAP Group?
The purpose of the SWAP
Group is to help yourself, and the others in the group, do a better job of being
improved, more profitable retailers.
Those who are not willing
to be open and communicative would not fit in.
Also, those who do not think they can learn something valuable from
other similar, but non-competing retailers would not fit in.
The
retailer who is a good candidate for membership is one who wants to do better,
who knows that no retailer can be great at everything and who is willing and
eager to learn from his or her peers.
To sign up, click
here.
There are NO PERFECT retailers !
The great thing about
independent retailers is that they are independent.
The bad thing about independent retailers is that they are independent.
They think that no one else can run their business as well as they can -
- and they are right - - each store is as individual as it’s owner. However,
there are always different and even better ways to do things.
It really does help to get some outside perspective to the
challenges you face as an independent retailer.
This is what a SWAP Group is all about.
No One Knows Everything !
Individually,
we all have strengths... and undeniable weaknesses. Everyone has their own
"blind spots" -- it's just a fact of life. But together, we can
harness the power of collective thinking and combine our strengths, so you can
learn how to exceed your goals... and more. Leveraging the support and fresh
perspectives of the group, you will thrive in an environment of challenge and
growth. You'll acquire the
experience, skills, and confidence needed to achieve real progress in your
business. And, with an instant and highly valuable support network, you can rest
assured that the answers are always there for you.
However, to get the most
benefit from you membership, you need to be prepared to be completely open and
frank with your Swap Group members, sharing both your hopes and your fears. They
won't be able to advise you properly or well if you hold back.
This can be difficult for a retailer who is the owner of a business.
You are used to making all the decisions about your store.
Being part of a group like this means you must be willing to listen to
the input of the other members as well as to give your input to other’s
problems and issues.
Independent retailers
operate in isolation without anyone around who can give their honest, unbiased
opinion about a problem, issue, challenge, possible advertising program, etc.
It is OK to ask employees but do you really think they will give you an
honest answer when you are the one signing their paycheck?
You are most likely to get positive feedback from them even if they do
not think it is a good idea. After
all “you are the boss”. This
will not happen at a SWAP meeting! The
other members do not have a private agenda with your store and will be open and
honest with their opinions. They may
have had the same issue and can give you valuable feedback about what works, and
just as importantly, about what does not work so you do not waste valuable
resources.
To sign up, click
here.
Your membership in the
SWAP Group will be personally and financially rewarding.
Some benefits are listed below:
Reduce Costs: You do not have
the deep financial pockets of big business to "re-invent the wheel".
By learning what other similar companies have successfully done, you can
save money without testing new ideas.
Avoid Mistakes: Solving
business problems on your own can result in costly errors. Learning what others
have done can keep your business in business. Learn from other members mistakes and successes.
Their role is to share with you lessons from their experience in the
hopes that you can learn them a bit more quickly and easily.
Find New Ideas: Learn to
borrow the best from beyond your company.
Handle Personal Issues: Small business owners are limited in
sharing personal issues. With a SWAP Group your peers are in the same situation
and have a high degree of empathy.
Sounding Board: A SWAP Group acts as an informal board of
directors and an opportunity for real-world experience sharing.
Overcome Isolation: It can be a very lonely being the owner of a
small business. Your friends and family do not understand the issues you face.
You cannot confide in your employees. However, every business owner in your SWAP
Group has the same sense of isolation and can offer support.
Improve Performance: When your
business looks for best practices outside your business, a wonderful thing
happens. You raise the bar of performance and set new standards of excellence to
propel your company forward.
Improve Odds of Success:
Business success takes vision and insight. Your SWAP Group can help you turn
your focus away from the day-to-day issues and look at the bigger picture that
can have a major impact on your company.
Where else are you going to turn?
There's no boss to turn to for advice or direction. You're flying solo. But you
don't have to. Everybody needs a good reliable sounding board, second opinions,
and sometimes just emotional support.
A trusted, long-term relationship.
Your mentors have no ulterior motive—no service or product to sell you. That
combined with their experience creates a good foundation for trust. And as the
relationships develop over time, that trust can grow even stronger.
As you can see, the rewards are many, and the risk is non-existent. You have
nothing to lose and everything to gain by finding a good group of mentors. Every
retailer should have one.
To sign up, click
here.
What
happens at a SWAP meeting?
At a SWAP meeting we go
over all the comparisons to see how you do when compared to the others in the
group and to yourself a year ago. At
the class level we look at sales, initial markup, markdowns, and gross margin.
At year end we also look at stock turn rate.
We will also discuss advertising. At
the financial level we look at various individual expenses with the same type of
analysis looking at this year compared to last year and to each other.
Since expenses will be reported as a percentage of sales we can easily
compare ourselves to the other member retailers without having to worry about
the different sales volumes each member may have.
Each member will be
assigned their own unique number. All
data will be presented and ranked identified only by numbers so even if the
reports should ever get into anyone else’s hands there would be no way to
identify who the data belongs to.
A sample class level report
is shown below:
Sales:
Since each member has different sales levels we look only at the variance
when compared to last year.
Questions for the member
with the highest sales increase could be: What
have you done differently this year than last year to get that large increase?
New vendors? New salespeople?
Better salesperson training? Advertising?
Etc.
Questions for the member
with the largest decline in sales could be:
When did you see that sales were doing poorly?
At that point, what did you do to try to turn the situation around?
What were the results of each of your attempts?
Does anyone here have anything they would like to say to this member to
help her? Perhaps you have tried
something that worked very well and she could try it.
We would continue to go
through the report for this classification and then for all the other
classifications with the same type of questioning and sharing of information.
A sample report showing
financial data it shown below.
On this report, we can
comment on the one the following:
#9 had the largest
improvement: Questions could be
about what was done to achieve this improvement.
Were sales contests used? Did
they bring in a sales trainer or motivator?
Did they hire a new, terrific, salesperson?
#4 had the largest decline:
Questions could be about the reasons.
Did they lose one of their top salespeople?
Was the local economy very bad this year?
Aren’t You Curious?
Retailers who have joined
these types of groups are glad they did. At
first you may find it difficult to open up your numbers and operation to outside
scrutiny but it will be more than worth it for you and your store.
Following is a quote from a
retailer who is a member of a group similar to this:
From
Mike G who has a Men’s Big and Tall Store:
“We have been involved with our “Retail Community” for the last 5
years. It is a great way to learn
and improve our business. We all
review how each vendor did in each major classification of merchandise and the
store that did the best job gets to explain what he did and why.
That includes sales, markdowns, stock turn rate, gross margin and which
vendors performed the best for each classification.
We do go over our financial information once a year to see how everybody
is doing compared to each other. We
all share our advertising for the previous season in a round table discussion
and we usually come away with lots of great ideas.
We are usually the star performer on stock turn rate.
Below
is another quote from a member of the Forum Group, a group of preeminent
menswear retailers from around the country that has been in existence since the
1940’s:
Tom
M. said “he couldn’t estimate the financial impact of the Forum Group
because it covers so many functions. The
stores share numbers and strategize about issues like marketing, advertising,
inventory and staffing policies.
To sign up, click
here.
The Purpose Is To Help You Improve
The main thing to
remember is that the purpose of the SWAP Group is for every member to do better.
If that means an 8% loss instead of the 10% loss that you had last year,
you are improving. That is the
important thing - - to improve. The
goal is for everyone in the group to improve.
If everyone starts out with a loss, then next year we want everyone to
show less of a loss, and the next year less of a loss, and so on, until everyone
is showing a profit. On the other
hand, if you are operating at a profit, being part of the group can give you the
knowledge and support you need to do even better.
We Will Make Sure You Are in A Compatible Group
You will not be put into
a group with someone you do not want to be with.
There will be a lot of communication between myself and the prospective
members before the group is set. We
will try to schedule one or more conference calls if needed just to be sure.
It is extremely important that the group be made up of compatible members
so you can build your trust and rapport with each other.
It Will Take Some
Courage
It can be very difficult
to admit to others that you are not doing great and making a nice profit every
year.
It is easy when you are at market to reply “fine” or “OK” if
someone asks how your business is doing. It
is another thing to show your actual numbers to the other group members and let
them see how you are really doing.
While that may be difficult you need to keep in mind that the purpose of
the group is to help each other do better. You
do not want to wait until you are really
struggling as it may be too late to turn it around.
The retail business is always tough.
So, if you are not doing well, you are probably not the only one.
Remember, the purpose of the SWAP Group is to come together and help each
other.
Confidentiality Is
Always Important
You may be concerned
that others may gain access to your numbers. Many retailers are concerned with the confidentiality issue.
No one wants their numbers leaked out to others.
There is a confidentiality clause in the agreement to cover this.
It states:
4.1 Confidentiality. Participant agrees that confidentiality is of
the utmost importance to the achievement of the purpose as stated in Article 2.
In executing this Agreement with TRMA, Participant agrees to accurately
share its own merchandising and financial data and experience, and to keep
confidential from non-participants the data exchanged between Group members,
both in the reports generated by TRMA and through direct communications of any
kind between Group members. If more
than one person from your store attends a meeting they must also keep all
information confidential. Participant further agrees, in this regards to hold
TRMA harmless from and indemnify TRMA completely against any breach of this
promise by Participant. (Note: This of course means that you can bring a
suit against any member that is known to have leaked your numbers.)
4.2 Removal From Group If
there is a breach of confidentiality by a member, that member will be
immediately removed from The Group and will not be allowed to join any existing
or future SWAP Groups.
Another
thing that will be done to protect the confidentiality of each member’s data
is that none of the reports will have names on them.
Each member will be assigned a number and all data will be shown on the
reports identified only by number. That
way, even though I know you will all be careful not to leave these reports lying
around where others can see them, if something like that accidentally happens,
no one would have any way of knowing whose numbers they are.
To sign up, click
here.
There
is No Need To Change The Way You Do Business
What
if I do not report my merchandise information and expenses in the same manner as
shown on the participation agreement? Will
I have to change the way I do business?
It will be important to report all our numbers in a consistent manner.
To that end the participation agreement details what will be reviewed.
However, you do not have to change all your records.
You may describe an expense differently or have your expenses in a
different sequence than shown. That
is OK. For example, everyone has
payroll. Some may call it Salaries.
Some may have just one expense account for all Payroll.
Some may break it out by Selling Payroll and Other Payroll, or Owner’s
Salary and Other Employee Salaries. That
is alright. I will review
everyone’s General Ledger Chart of Accounts so we can determine exactly what
to review during the meetings.
In the same way, you all
have Pants but some may have just one classification for Pants and others may
have separated Pants into Casual Pants and Dress Pants.
Again, I will review everyone’s classification list so we can all
report the numbers the same.
What
will happen at a meeting?
SAMPLE
Swap Meeting Agenda
¼ merchandising, ¼
financial , ¼ discuss advertising, ¼ open forum questions
To sign up, click
here.
How Much Will It Cost
To Be A Member?
SWAP Group
Fees
1.
One-time set-up fee. This is
due when the store joins a group.
$200 for Charter members
(a member is a store, not a person so if there is more than one person coming
from your store it is still the same fee)
$500 for members joining
after the Charter group has been set
2.
Meeting fee for consultant to prepare all data tables and lead meeting.
This is to be paid when data is sent in to TRMA for analysis and
preparation of reports.
$400 per member for each
of the two semi-annual one-day meetings
3.
Share of direct expenses. This
will be billed after the meeting with payment due in 10 days.
Travel cost of consultant
(airfare, hotel, parking, etc.)
Printing & postage
for books (to be shared on a prorated basis instead of by store to make it
equitable if a store has several people participating.)
Shared meals (to be
shared on a prorated basis instead of by store to make
it equitable if a store has several people participating.)
Meeting Room
All audio / visual
equipment for meeting
4. Your personal expense
for travel and room
TOTAL ESTIMATED ANNUAL COST
The estimated annual cost
is approximately $1,000 per member. This
is a bargain when compared to the $3,000 to $4,000 it would cost to have a
management consultant come to your store for 2, one-day visits a year.
NEW MEMBERS: New members
can join only upon a positive majority vote of the existing members.
So, those who do not join at the beginning will have to request to be
allowed to join and the existing members will vote on their admission.
To sign up, click
here.
I Want To Join – Now
What?
If you want to improve your
store and make more money, fill out the application form and send it in.
I will then match up the retailers based on location, and similarities.
After that I will contact you with the details and mail you a
participation agreement to sign and return along with your payment.
Completing and sending back
the Application/Information form in no way obligates you to actually join a
group. It is a way to let us know
you are interested. That way we can
keep in touch with you as the SWAP Group formation progresses.
This is a wonderful
opportunity for you to have your own set of personal mentors to help you be more
successful.
Do not wait another day.
Complete the form and send it back so we can keep you informed of the
progress of the groups.
Don't miss out on this
great OPPORTUNITY.
Complete the form and send
in today along with the other requested information.
You will be sent a Participation Agreement to sign to formally join a
group once I have the minimum number of 6 retailers interested.
To sign up, click
here.
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