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50 of the Greatest Pet Business Marketing Tips You'll Find Anywhere
Ainal Haque
Crush the Competition
50 of the Greatest Marketing Tips You'll Find Anywhere
We were going to start our "Best Promotions" feature with a quote from P.T. Barnum of Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus fame. Barnum, one of the world's greatest marketing geniuses, said "Without promotion something terrible happens … Nothing!" Guess what, though? In January, The Greatest Show on Earth announced it would close after 146 years.
Even P.T Barnum himself might have had trouble promoting his show in today's world of fragmented media spread over radio waves, printed page, LCD screen, Duratrans sign, and — sure, why not? — painted bigtop canvas.
Fact is, today, there is no one best marketing and promotion solution, says Vicki Lynne Morgan of Animal Brands. "The old tried-and-true are not working." Instead, she says, "there's strength in numbers of what you have working for you simultaneously." Which means you need a multifaceted, multimedia approach to marketing where your business is popping into the minds of potential customers in different places at the same time.
In that spirit — and to keep "nothing!" from ever happening to you — the team at Pets+ has assembled a list of 50 ideas for events, sales, smart practices in promotion and direct marketing techniques. The goal? To bring more people into your store and, once there, get them to buy more.
CHANGE IS GOOD. Change a design element on the front page monthly, whether it's a special or an upcoming activity or something else.
MOVING PICTURES.Use video when it offers a better experience than text and images can. That could include video testimonials, a nicely produced short on the history of your business, or perhaps an instructional guide on how to train your dog to sit. Should you need a video producer, start your search at SmartShoot.com, a network of thousands of pros who'll bid for the job.
FILM RAVES. The next time a customer pays you a compliment, pull out your phone and ask the person if he could repeat it so you can film it. Upload it to YouTube, and the places you can use it are endless — from your website to an in-store video display. — Rick Segel, retail consultant and speaker
GRADUAL GROWTH. Let's face it. You're never going to have the time to create that giant website with all your inventory like you've been planning. But why not start by simply putting new items online every month or two? That's a good way to keep people coming to your site to check out the fresh stuff. And after a year or two, you'll realize that hey, almost all of your key products are now online.
STAY POSITIVE. Always use positive language, even for the simplest statements. "Orders received by 2 p.m. will be shipped out today!" is much better than "Orders received after 2 p.m. will not be shipped until the next business day." Use "Join Now" or "Sign Up," rather than "Submit," to register for an email bulletin.
SECRET CODE.Google Analytics offers a free piece of code that your web designer can place on your site that gives you a wide range of information on how consumers are using your website as well as how they are finding out about you. It also provides you with Web-based software to consolidate this data.
BLOG ON. Write a regular company blog to create fresh and keyword-relevant content on your website. Once you've created this content, tease the information across your social networks with direct links to your website.
SITE INVITE. You've spent a lot of time developing your website, and you want to get people to visit it. So, offer a special coupon that's only available online. Tell customers who have made a purchase that they can go get an additional $10 credit on their next purchase by visiting your website and printing out the coupon.
UPDATE OFTEN. To keep conversation going on Facebook, update your page at least two or three times a week.
GET A BOOST. On your Facebook business page, you may have received messages saying this or that post is one of your most popular and asking if you want to boost it. Most people ignore those notices, thinking Facebook just wants more of your money. (Which, admittedly, is true.) But boosting already-proven posts can often provide excellent bang for the buck. Give it a try!
MEET PEOPLE. Using search.twitter.com is a great way to find people in your local area that share similar hobbies and interests. Click the "Advanced" link on the search page, type in something you're interested in, add location search parameters, and click search. You will find people talking about what you are interested in.
CUSTOMER-MADE COMMERCIALS. Retail consultant and author Rick Segel suggests creating a contest video promotion for YouTube, encouraging customers to make a video promoting your business for a prize. The only requirement is that it's clean and relates in some positive way to your business.
MAKE A SANDWICH. For nice sandwich boards, check out sidewalksigns2go.com and buildasign.com. Be sure they're water-resistant, which requires a protective lip at the top of the board to deflect rain.
DEAL CARDS. Have each staff member hand out just two business cards every day outside the store. The grocery store, dry cleaner, beauty parlor — anywhere. After all, you are their customer, so it's only logical that they become your customer.
SWEET SURPRISE. Want a friendly freebie? Offer customers coupons for a free cone at the nearest ice-cream shop while their pet is being groomed.
GET A HANDLE. For customers to remember you, the name of your business may not be enough. Sure, it means a lot to you, but a name like "Smithville Pets" tends, over time, to seep out of the cerebrums of your customers. To make your business identity stick, find yourself a moniker, says Ron Geilgun, author of 222 Ways to Promote Your Business. Make yourself known as "The Mobile Groomer," "Home of the World's Longest Biscuit Buffet" (thanks, Woofers Grooming & Goodies in Spanaway, WA), or "The Fin Folks." Use this tag line, in addition to your real company name, in all your advertisements.
STICK IN MINDS. The lowly refrigerator magnet can be your version of Amazon's Dash. Mary Oquendo of Pawsitively Pretty Mobile grooming salon in Danbury, CT, can attest to their long-term effectiveness: "I was just at a new client's house that had my magnet on their fridge for 10 years before calling me." Check out zazzle.com for something a bit more unique than a business card with magnetic backing.
PURPLE HIPPO.. If a handle's not your thing, how about being the store with the purple hippo out front? Similar to Seth Godin's purple cow, everyone's first question will be, "What's up with the purple hippo?" but they'll also say, "You can't miss it; it's the place with the purple hippo out front."
HOT STUFF. Great service for a store, especially in summer? Cold washcloths. People come in hot, dirty and irritated. They leave fresh, happy, and likely to remember you forever. Ahhh.
SING A SONG. A great way to be remembered by your customers came from an accountant we heard of. Like many businessmen, he sends his customers birthday cards every year. But then he calls each client and actually sings "Happy Birthday" to them on their big day. No wonder his clients absolutely love him and he has more business than he can handle.
BREAK THE RULES. When it comes to rules, says Paco Underhill, author of Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping, "You have to either follow them. Or break them with gusto." For instance, you'd think that a store would need to have a pronounceable name to be successful. But Underhill tells of a friend who named his store after a character in Superman comic books. The name? Mxyplyzyk. (The store is now closed, but had a solidly successful run.)
GRANT ACCESS. Never run an offer that tells customers to sign up three friends for your newsletter in order to receive a discount or gift card. This makes customers feel like they're selling out their shopping buddies. Instead, change the offer to "You and every one of your friends who signs up will get a 15 percent discount." Now your customer has special access to a discount that she can pass along to friends.
GIVE A TREAT. "Pay" your customers for providing you with information. Let them know that by giving you personal data such as their birthdays and the birthdays of their pets, they'll gain access to special sales, programs, invitations and other benefits. Then keep your promise and provide them with the reward.
CAPTURE FRIENDS OF FRIENDS. Every email you send can have a ripple effect if you encourage the people who are already on your list to pass your emails along to their friends, says Wendy Lowe of Campaigner. Incentivize with a gift if the friend signs up and mentions them.
ACTIVATE CUSTOMERS. To reach inactive customers in your database, contact them with a special offer, information about something that would be of interest to them, or educational information that would benefit them, suggests Steve Robinson of Constant Contact. No response after two or three attempts? Consider those addresses inactive and either remove them from your list or move them to a list you contact only once or twice a year so as not to lose contact completely.
TESTIMONIAL GATHERING. Create an event around gathering testimonials, says John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing. Promote it as a chance to gather with other pet lovers, swap stories and star in the creation of new marketing materials for your store. Hire a videographer and photographer and let your customers cycle through the video seat to tell their stories of success at your store. Keep it light and fun (wine and treats help). Once you capture the video, audio and still photos from the event, you've got a testimonial and success story library that could infuse your marketing materials, broadcast and print ads for years.
CREATIVE INSTINCTS. Hold a pet art contest. Work with a local school for this. Have the kids paint or draw their pal. Volunteer to help judge, donate a gift card for pet food and supplies, and display the winners in your store at an award-night gala.
PAINT A PET. It's now a thing for people paint their pets' portraits over the course of an evening, plied by a bit of wine and hors d'ouevres. (Google "paint your pet party.") Participants send a photo of their pet, an outline of which is then prepared on canvas, and artists help even the most unartistic oaf paint a keepsake portrait — all while having a memorable time in your store. Eric Mack of Purrrfect Bark Market in Columbus, NC, uses the occasion as a fundraiser for a local animal shelter.
PET ELECTION. We're either a bit late or a bit early with this one, depending on how much planning you want to put into this: Host an event where attendees can vote on their favorite animal — dog or cat?
PET ELECTION. POINT AND SHOOT. Take photos and videos of all events. Photos can be sent to local and regional publications (or trade pubs like Pets+), while videos can go on your website and social networking sites.
CAMERA-READY. Invest in a digital SLR (single lens reflex) camera to bring your photos to a new level. Combine with an 18-55mm lens for the best shots of people and their pets.
POSTABLE PICS. Want to draw a younger crowd to your next event? Set up a photo studio where a professional will photograph your customers and their pets, and then post the pictures to their Facebook pages.
Advertising Theory
THE PRICE OF FAME. What should you be spending on advertising? According to Jay Levinson, author of Guerrilla Marketing, most businesses invest 4 percent of gross revenue in marketing, most of this going to advertising. But to really capture mind-share in your community, Levinson suggests spending 10 percent on marketing, with about half of that going to mass media advertising. The other five percent should go to direct mail, telemarketing, brochures, sales videos, a catalog, a newsletter, infomercials, and research. In the early days, your advertising expenditure might be higher so you can start obtaining the mind-share you need. You might even spend twice as much the first year as you would the second. Once you are established, you will have the benefit of repeat and referral business and can make do with smaller ads.
MIX IT UP. When it comes to media planning, Levinson suggests mixing one fixed media (e.g. newspapers) and one active media (e.g. radio or television). Then use one to support the other. For example, on your radio ads, say "Look for our advertisement in Saturday's Beacon."
IN THE KNOW. Make sure your employees know what you're advertising, says Michael Corbett, author of The 33 Ruthless Rules of Local Advertising. When clients come in asking for the special they saw in your latest banner advertisement, too many times an employee scratches his or her head and says, "What special offer was that?"
JUST THE FACTS. In promotional copy, don't use fancy phrases, use fancy facts, says Levinson. Here's an example of a fancy phrase: "Our pet store offers the best selection of food and supplies in the entire community." And here's a fancy fact: "Our pet store has more than 50,000 items in stock and can get you any of 500,000 other items within a week." Which is more powerful?
FOR THE AGES. If you are looking for buyers under the age of 40, says Corbett, you will find fewer of them by advertising in the newspaper than in other media.
NO MAN'S LAND. Looking for advertising space that's cheap? Buy something that's never been bought before, suggests Levinson. Let's say you're driving around and see no advertising on the fences at the local little league field. Go to the league organizers and tell them what you'll pay for an advertisement on the outfield fence. Since it's never been bought before, you'll have no competition and the price should be low.
GET PRESS. Not many pet businesses send press releases. But local news services really eat them up. Send a news release telling about your new store to every media outlet (print and online) in your area. And then, every time you get some kind of recognition, send another news release. Cultivate the right reporters, and you'll become the go-to expert on all matters pet-related.
THE LATE SHOW. What hours are your competitors open? Same as you? Then change your hours. If your competitors are all open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., keep your store open until 8 or 9 p.m. Or if that sounds like too much work, have normal hours all week and then choose one day to stay open until 10 p.m. (Promote this fact in all your advertisements.) This will give those folks who have to work late a chance to see what you've got.
CALL AROUND. If you're thinking about an advertising vehicle and want to find out how well it works, don't just take the word of the ad rep. Instead, call other businesses whose ads appear there. You'll get a good idea of what results you can expect — direct from the mouths of the people who know best.
BOTTOMS UP. If you purchase a mailing list, work from the bottom of the list. Most people work from the top. Give old Archie Anderson a break. Call Zeke Zoolander instead.
E ME. Include an email address on all direct mail materials, especially if it's an invitation to a special event. Many customers prefer to respond via computer.
ALL NEW. Don't like to hold sales? Instead, let your best customers know a shipment of "new merchandise" has arrived. Tell your customers to come look at the best stuff before it disappears.
THE WRITTEN WORD. When doing mailings, don't take the easy way out and computer-print envelopes, or even worse, use printed labels. Instead, hand-address every envelope. Case studies show that handwritten envelopes are five times more likely to be opened.
TIMING IS EVERYTHING. Be careful when you mail, says direct marketing expert Ruth King. Don't send direct-mail pieces so that they'll be received on a weekend if you're not open on Saturdays. (By Monday, the customer will probably have forgotten all about you.) Instead, mail on Mondays and follow up on Wednesdays.
Cross-Promotion
LISTICLE. If you don't have a list of every dog trainer, boarding kennel, groomer, vet, pet bereavement counselor, pet cemetery — any service you don't offer — that you recommend in your area, start compiling one today. And be flattered that your customers assume you know of and about all these other services.
BAGGING IT. If you're cross-promoting with other stores in your mall or Main Street area (and you should be), try printing special offers for all the stores involved in the promotion on one side of your shopping bag. The other side should have your logo on it. You'll get extra mileage from being located outside the bag, as opposed to having your brochure or coupon simply dropped into the depths of the bag, where it will most likely remain unnoticed. And each person who walks around with a purchase from one of your allies provides additional exposure for your company.
THINK DIFFERENT. Think a promotional partner has to be related to pets? Think again. "We're partnering with our local brewery to do events and use their spent grains in a new treat we developed," says Kim Loper of Harbor Pet in Greenport, NY. "Partnering with a local business that is so different helps us both gain new customers that might not have enter our stores otherwise."
REPRESENTATIVE HELP. Cross-promotions don't have to be limited to other types of retail businesses. Talk with your manufacturers' reps about how they can help with their own resources. "My hardworking brand reps have been one of the best things I accidentally discovered," says Karen Dilbert of The French Dog in Rockwood, PA. "We share on Instagram and reach a combined network of well over 100,000 followers. For a company in business one year, I have been very pleased with the results of this advertising."
Related Topics:advertisingBig Storydirect mailMarketingPets+ March-April '17social mediastore events
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Close the Gap Between Knowing & Doing
Chris Burslem
There's a chance you've stood here before: pledging to yourself that this year things will be different. You'll implement those best practices you've read in business books or heard at trade show seminars. You'll get your inventory into shape, bring your marketing up to date and fire up your staff. Come the end of 2020, you'll be sitting atop a thriving business that will not only ensure your financial future but showcase your business acumen. Only, the odds suggest it's not going to happen. Research suggests you've got about a 30 percent chance of succeeding in implementing such change. It's more likely that in 365 days you'll find yourself about where you are now, doing things much the same way as you always have. Let's change that, shall we?
The inability of most businesses to implement change effectively — even when they know what needs to be done — is one of the more curious and frustrating aspects of business management. Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton, two Stanford Graduate School of Business professors, famously coined the term "the knowing-doing gap" to encapsulate the divergence between what managers do and what corporate best practices and management science say they should do.
The knowing-doing gap afflicts businesses of all sizes and in all sectors. And despite increasing awareness of the issue, companies are getting no better at closing it.
Behind the seductive lure of "New Year, New You, New Business" often lies a misunderstanding: the idea that what we require, in order finally to change, is one last push of effort or willpower.
The assumption is that your business is like a heavy rock poised on a hill above the Valley of Productivity, Profitability and Success. All you need is a concerted push to get the thing rolling. But the real reason that transformation is hard — as Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey make clear in their book Immunity to Change — is that people and organizations have powerful "competing commitments" or reasons not to change.
To blame lack of effort to explain why your staff is unwilling to implement your new sales practices, to chase new markets, or embrace new technology, is to neglect the fact that those habits are what underpin their feelings of competence or distract them from issues they'd rather not address. As with the rock, there are countervailing forces that keep it stuck, beyond the mere absence of an impetus to move.
To be sure, change is hard. It's difficult to get other people, meaning your staff, to do what you want. It's often as tough to get yourself to follow through on a commitment you've made on Dec. 31. But that doesn't mean it's impossible.
Hollywood movies are often about change and redemption, and often the trigger is a rousing speech by a dying uncle, wounded comrade, aging sports star.
In the real world, influencing people's behaviors requires a lot more than words.
You need to make what is often perceived as undesirable desirable; you need to harness team spirit; you need to offer rewards and make it structurally easy for the person to carry out the changes through routines and skills training.
You need to hold people accountable to the new ways on a day-to-day basis, and you need to be prepared to pivot and change approaches when something is not working.
Finally, you need to be ready to communicate your message over and over again.
In the pages that follow, we will provide a few tips and ideas to set you in motion on your year of change. There's a good chance you will know many of them. That's the thing about the knowing-doing gap. The secret is to invest in as many as possible, celebrate any progress that you make and keep moving forward.
18 tips on closing the knowing-doing gap
1. Get Buy-In
To succeed, a change strategy must at least in part be shaped by the people who will execute it. They are the ones doing the work, implementing the rules, so they need to be involved from the beginning. Moreover, they are best positioned to codify experience into usable rules, which they can phrase in a language that resonates for them. (Creating such in-house terminology is often one of the first steps in building a successful company culture.) And besides, they may actually have some good ideas to share. "Often the best strategies don't come from the top of the organization. The frontline can be a well of ideas. New ideas pop up from the pressure of trying to solve a problem for the customer," says Robert Simons, author of Seven Strategy Questions: A Simple Approach for Better Execution.
2. Play Planning Poker
One of the main drivers of resistance to a change program is when staff don't feel they have been heard or the amount of additional work they may be asked to do is not acknowledged. A fun way to show you're interested in your employees' perspectives is Planning Poker. It goes like this: Each staff member gets a set of numbered cards, and the manager describes the new task or role they will be asked to do under Program Revamp. The employees then choose the numbered card that represents the amount of effort that they believe will be required to achieve the outcome. As the cards are revealed — some with high values, others with lower values — it quickly becomes apparent who's not on the same page. "Planning Poker sparks productive discussion and speeds up clarification of what's expected," says Dave Bailey, a business coach and tech entrepreneur.
3. Be a Little Less Positive
Positive thinking has its place, especially when it comes to conceiving goals, but when it comes to achieving them, it can actually be a hindrance, says Gabriele Oettigen, a New York University psychology professor who has been studying the effects of positive thinking for over 20 years. "When people only think about a positive future, they've already attained this future in their minds, so they have little motivation to actually act on it," Oettigen recently told The Atlantic. In her book, Rethinking Positive Thinking, she recommends a procedure called mental contrasting — that is, examine the barriers that stand in the way of us actually attaining that goal and map out detailed strategies to deal with them. "Visualizing the desired future and then imagining the obstacles can actually help us be more successful than positive thinking alone," she says.
4. Be Outright Negative
Postmortems are useful, but even better is if you can take action before the "patient" — your dear project dies. Hence the increasing popularity of pre-mortems. The process is simple: "Unlike a typical critiquing session, in which project team members are asked what might go wrong, the premortem operates on the assumption that it's already over. You're screwed. Everything went as badly as you could have feared. Now: Why? Asking the question this way, explains the psychologist Gary Klein, who came up with the concept, has an almost magical effect. It removes the pressure from those who are worried about seeming disloyal by voicing concerns; indeed, it turns things into a competition to find ever more convincing reasons for failure. "It's a sneaky way to get people to do contrarian, devil's-advocate thinking without encountering resistance," Klein says. According to Klein, suggesting that using prospective hindsight can improve people's ability to predict the reasons for future outcomes by 30 percent. At the very least it should help you come up with a good contingency plan.
5. Try a Brainwriting Session
Traditional brainstorming sessions have a rather spotty record. This is because only one person can speak at any one time, and it is easy for some personalities — and their ideas — to dominate, so few good ideas are actually generated. A new study suggests something called "asynchronous brainwriting," whereby participants rotate between eight-minute individual writing sessions and three-minute group sessions to read over each other's ideas. The researchers from the University of Texas found that participants thought of an idea every two minutes on average, a much higher rate than more traditional brainstorming sessions.
6. Skin in the Game
There's another reason you want to involve your staff: When people feel the ideas were partly theirs, they have skin in the game and feel accountable for the plan's success. It wasn't just the boss's idea. "People do not change their minds through being told, however open and inclusive the communication may be. It is an oft-forgotten feature of human nature that if you want to influence someone, a good start is to show they have influenced you. If you are open to others, others tend to be open to you. Influence comes through interaction," write Alison Reynolds and David Lewis in What Philosophy Can Teach You About Being a Better Leader.
7. Aim, Fire, Do
The traditional top-down approach to business strategy has been "Plan-then-Do": The organization would invest heavily in creating a detailed plan that specified roles for all employees based on how the market was expected to react. Should the plan falter, employees would invariably be faulted for failing to execute, leading to demands the plan be followed even more closely with ever greater micromanaging. The results were rarely pretty. The problem, of course, is that no Gantt chart survives contact with reality. An alternative approach popularized by Tom Peters and Bob Waterman in their bestseller In Search of Excellence was a "ready-fire-aim" go-to-market strategy. This agile, test-and-learn approach, which has become the standard in Silicon Valley, is better suited to today's volatile environment. Instead of thinking of strategy as a linear process, consider it as inherently iterative — a loop instead of a line in which the situation is constantly reassessed: Plan do, assess, replan-redo. "Success requires identifying the next few steps along a broadly defined strategic path and then learning and refining as you go. This approach makes execution easier and increases the odds of delivering great results," says Michael Mankins a Bain & Co. partner and coauthor of Time, Talent, Energy: Unleash Your Team's Productive Power.
8. Identify your WIGs
To win any war, you need to pick the right battles. In their book The 4 Disciplines of Execution, Chris McChesney, Jim Huling and Sean Covey call these targets "WIGs," short for Wildly Important Goals. A WIG can make all the difference, but will require you to commit a disproportionate amount of energy to it. "In determining your WIG, don't ask 'What's most important?' Instead, begin by asking 'If every other area of our operation remained at its current level of performance, what is the one area where change would have the greatest impact?'" they write.
The truth is that it is hard to do more than two or three big things at a time, no matter how large your organization. "Saying no to things that you really want to do is the telltale sign of a good planning process. Saying yes to too many things is the telltale sign of a poor planning process," the investor Fred Wilson recently told a recent INC founder conference.
The final benefit of a WIG is clarity. According to some studies, only 15 percent of employees at corporations actually know their organization's most important goals — either because there are no goals or they have too many goals. A WIG will ensure everyone is clear on what critical activities provide the greatest leverage to achieving that goal.
9. A WIG is not a BHAG
One of the standard invocations of business planning is to set "big hairy audacious goals," also known as BHAGs, that will be achieved sometime in your lifetime. But there's probably no easier way to sabotage your efforts to get something done than to think of it as a "long-term" goal, which implies it's going to be tricky and time-consuming. Yes, set big, ambitious goals. Just be sure to add deadlines for the small concrete steps that will get you there. In his book One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way, Robert Maurer suggests taking almost absurdly tiny steps, day after day. It enables you, in Maurer's words, to "tiptoe past fear": Our brain, it seems, is fooled when we tell it we're embarking only on something minuscule, and it stops putting up resistance. By making your steps too small to fail, you and your staff can make those initial, small changes on which to build a new way of working and doing business.
10. Be Clear about Everyone's Role and Place
Gary Neilson, a consultant with Strategy&, which over the last decade has surveyed more than 1,000 companies for a strategy study, says failures can almost always be fixed by ensuring that employees fully understand what they are responsible for and who makes which decisions — and then giving them the information they need to fulfill their responsibilities. With these two building blocks in place, structural and motivational elements will follow.
11. Don't Substitute Talk for Action
Many corporate teams spend so much time creating strategies and setting goals, they don't actually implement anything. Systems can help. One popular system goes by the name "No Zero Days": The idea is simply not to let a single day pass without doing something, however tiny, toward some important project.
12. Keep a Compelling Scoreboard
People play differently when keeping score. "Great teams know, at every moment, whether or not they're winning. They must know, otherwise, they don't know what they have to do to win the game, say McChesney, Huling and Covey in 4 Disciplines. The four characteristics of a well-designed scoreboard are that it be simple, easily visible by everyone, show lead and lag measures, and allow employees to tell within five seconds whether they're winning or losing, they say.
13. Six-Week Sprints
This "agile planning" should be viewed as a series of box sprints with the objective of moving forward, testing the waters, learning, and refining the strategy based on the results, says Bailey, who recommends six-week stretches. Business consultants Brian Moran and Michael Lennington, authors of the 12-Week Year, recommend a longer period, as the title of their book suggests. The exact number isn't important just so long as the stretch is long enough to allow your team to make significant progress on a key front, yet short enough to stay focused. The problem with thinking of life in annualized 365-day units is that a year's too big to get your head around, Moran and Lennington argue, and there's too much unpredictability involved in planning for 10 or 11 months in the future.
14. Praise More
Many managers act as if praise is a finite resource. It's not, and lack of recognition is usually the No. 1 complaint among staff.
15. Use Fear Judiciously
Few industries are being "disrupted" as drastically as the retail industry. Andy Grove, the former Intel chairman, liked to say that fear — fear of the competitor, fear of failure — was essential to fueling a desire to win in the marketplace. But fear is often counterproductive. Stanford's Pfeffer and Sutton suggest that managers who try to lead through fear cause paralysis more often than action. And trying to motivate yourself with fear is like screaming at a child, "Do something, dammit!" You'll either freeze up or act in an impetuous way that makes things worse.
16. Take Care of the High and the Low
Humans typically don't like change. And the two groups most resistant tend to be the lower performers and — surprisingly — high performers, says Neilson. The low performers because they fear they will struggle and the high performers because they have found a way to succeed in the existing system, so they tend to see the problem as other people needing to get it together and be effective. As a result, change seems like unnecessary overhead that is liable to get in the way of their actual work.
"Before you try to introduce any kind of performance management to a team, the first step is to bring in standards, support, and accountability. Once you have that, you can clearly communicate where people need to develop, give low performers the help they need, set them up to be successful, and if it still doesn't work out … let them go. This is not an easy process, but it is a relatively straightforward," Neilson writes in Results: Keep What's Good, Fix What's Wrong, and Unlock Great Performance.
For high performers, it will be hard, but it will be extremely effective, so take the time, he counsels. Hone your explanations on them, hear them out and work to earn their trust. They usually wield outsize influence in the workplace. Once you have their support, other employees will quickly get on board.
17. Deal with Dissent
5 It's possible, and even likely, that some of your frontline employees will voice objections to your strategy. They may think the leaders have chosen the wrong approach or have decided to play in the wrong space. If this happens, listen carefully and sincerely. "Every failed strategy had people on the frontline who expressed concerns," says Simons. It's a manager's job to allow bad news to bubble up to the top of the organization. Simons urges, though, that once those concerns have been heard and dealt with, then people need to fall in line with the agreed strategy regardless of their opinion. For those who seem determined to play the game of "Yes, but" (offer a solution, and they'll find a reason to reject it), the right response is to refuse to play along, because their real motive is to prove the situation is irresolvable. Break the cycle by agreeing sympathetically. Or ask: "What do you plan to do about it?" says the entrepreneur Trevor Blake in his book Three Simple Steps.
18. There Is No Finish Line
Lurking behind most schemes for transformation is the unspoken notion that change is something you achieve, once and for all. But it doesn't work that way because a day when everything is "sorted out" never arrives. If you continuously stare at the gap between where you are and where you think we should be, you'll exist in a space of debilitating discouragement. Instead, observe and appreciate how far you've come. Sure, you aren't where you want to be, but you aren't where you were, either. "Treat strategy as evergreen. The best companies see strategy less as a plan and more as a direction and agenda of decisions, says Michael Mankins in a paper titled "5 Ways the Best Companies Close the Strategy-Execution Gap" in the Harvard Business Review. Focus on getting better, rather than being good. and before too long, you might find that you're actually pretty great. Not only does this encourage you to focus on developing and acquiring new skills, it allows you to take difficulties in your stride and appreciate the journey as much as the destination.
The Customer Is Not Always Right
Pamela Mitchell
Bottom line: The customer is not always right. And in addition to being wrong, customers also can be unreasonable, unethical or outright offensive — with some checking multiple boxes. We asked you to share stories of when a customer was wrong at your pet business. In some cases, you offered a refund or return even when not warranted to save your sanity and time. In others, you held fast to protect your profits and team. No matter the outcome, you all made it clear that a blanket "The customer is always right" policy does not apply to indies and certainly not in 2019. Take that, coiner of the phrase, Harry Gordon Selfridge!
LIKE THE PUP. THE PET PARENT? NOT SO MUCH
We had a client with a dog who was fearful and extremely matted for grooming. We used every technique to get out the mats and not hurt the dog or stress her further. Didn't work. We had to shave her short but fluffy. We did ask Mom first. However, Mom saw the dog on camera playing in the yard and came in pre-angry. In short, I explained it was a case of humanity over vanity, but she was still angry. Said she would never groom with us again. My response: "Please feel free to do whatever you feel is best for you and your pup. My main concern is the happiness of your dog." She has brought her dog back three times, but I will only let her board or day care. It would be nice if she never came back, but we do like the pup. — Hope Garlick, Little Paws of Hope, Westbury, NY
A customer returned half a bottle of flea spray, saying it made his dog throw up after he sprayed him in the face. — Ron Keller, Captivating Canines, Westerville, OH
NO SHAME IN THIS CUSTOMER'S GAME
Years ago, we had a customer who bought a small bag of dog food and brought back the bag about two-thirds empty within 10 days or so, saying the dog wouldn't eat the food. After the fourth or fifth time, we refused to accept the bag. She claimed the manufacturer stated on the bag: "If not satisfied, return bag to store where purchased for a refund or another bag of food." She said she was going to call the company. And she did.
About a week later, she came into the store with a coupon for a free bag of food from the manufacturer. I honored the coupon and called the manufacturer. I found out the customer told the company I flat out refused to take back the bag of food, but never said anything about the numerous other returned bags. I did have a very nice conversation with the manufacturer to set things straight.
Wouldn't you know, that customer came back trying to return the bag of food again. I had a talk with her and told her it appeared there was no way we could satisfy her or her dog and it was best if she didn't shop in the store anymore. As she was leaving, she said she was going to tell all her friends not to shop at the store. I said, "Thank you." We've since changed return policies. — Nancy Okun, Cats N Dogs, Port Charlotte, FL
OR THIS ONE'S
Just recently, a customer received a free bag and argued with my staff because she wanted a bag that was not the one redeemed. She called us names and made a scene, even left and returned to yell at us again. I called the police. I can't fix crazy! — Jennifer Flanagan, Nature's Pet Market Sherwood, Sherwood, OR
IT CAME FROM A PET BOUTIQUE
A client recently ordered a dog birthday cake. After the weekend was over, she called complaining that she ordered this cake for her pet and human guests, and the human guests did not appreciate it. It was shaped like a dog bone. After repeatedly trying to reason with her as to why a dog cake is not the same as a human cake, I just refunded her money. Sometimes the refund is worth the valuable time I would have to spend on stupidity. Leel Michelle, Bow Wow Beauty Shoppe, San Diego, CA
TAKE YOUR RACISM ELSEWHERE
It amazes me over the years that people are still racist and very unkind. One pet owner was picking up her Poodle at our grooming salon from one of our fantastic groomers, who was both Hispanic and African American. She said she wasn't comfortable with that particular staff member working on her dog … even though the fur of the dog was similar to the groomer's hair (!) so she should be familiar with how to groom it. Needless to say, I was floored. Her Standard Poodle was black. I asked her if she thought it would be fair, reasonable or kind if I told her and all owners of black dogs that they were not allowed in my building or that we weren't comfortable working on them, just because of their fur color. She threw money at me and walked out. So, I guess I made my point. — Krista Lofquist, Wagging Tails, Wolcott, CT
WHAT DOES DCM STAND FOR AGAIN?
This didn't happen to me, but a vendor rep told me he was in a store shortly after the FDA's list of foods [named in reported dilated cardiomyopathy cases] was released. A customer came in to return the dog food she bought. She was angry that the store would sell her a food with DCM in it. (Eyes roll.) — Keefer Dickerson, Nashville Pet Products, Nashville, TN
FLEAS COST EXTRA
We had a client who had two Westies. The first time she came in to get them groomed, we called her within 15 minutes to let her know that her dogs had fleas and would be getting a flea bath. About a month later, she came in again, same thing. This time she did not believe us and wanted proof, to send her photos. She said we must put fleas on dogs to get the extra fee, and she was not paying. We told her that is our policy, and when she came to pick up, she paid and pushed everything off our counter onto the floor and told us we were scamming her, and she would never be back. Bye! — Jessica Cooke, Yuppy Puppy, O'Fallon, MO
CHECK YOUR CALL LOG BEFORE YELPING
I scored a negative Yelp review from a customer who said we don't answer our phones. She called at noon on a Sunday of a three-day holiday weekend. We were closed the entire weekend. The last time she called, we returned her voicemail eight minutes later. I looked at her other Yelp reviews and saw she had left a similar complaint at another dog day care and at an animal shelter on the same day! So I replied publicly to her Yelp review, pointing this out. She deleted the Yelp reviews on all three businesses and sheepishly apologized to the other dog day-care owner (never to me). Will I see her again? I doubt it! — Katherine Ostiguy, Crossbones, Providence, RI
HE WOULD NEVER!
We had a customer return a Kong, saying it was defective because it had "fallen apart at the seams." Upon inspection, it was clear that it had been chewed up. When I pointed this out, she was adamant that her 4-month-old puppy was a good boy and would never destroy anything because he knew it would hurt her feelings. Normally, we have a very liberal return policy, but this was one time I could not bring myself to accept the product back. Did it cost me a customer? No doubt. But is she someone I wanted to keep as a customer? Not really because I knew she would be an ongoing issue. Unlike her perfect puppy, I was willing to risk hurting her feelings. — Wendy Megyese, Muttigans, Emerald Isle, NC
STALKING? REALLY?
We had a customer come in right at closing time. My person in charge and clerk both asked if she needed help with anything as we were closing up, and she said no and kept shopping. She ended up angry that she felt rushed and claimed they were stalking her. The customer ended up yelling at our staff member and threatening a lawsuit. We politely disagreed with how it went down, and it never went anywhere. Just quietly went away. We were shocked it never went to a bad review, or anything, but we were glad. — Jennifer Larsen, Firehouse Pet Shop, Wenatchee, WA
MAYBE DON'T LEAVE THE HARNESS ON?
I had a customer who purchased a 2 Hounds Design Freedom Harness. His son left the harness on the dog, and the dog chewed it. The customer came back to my store with the chewed harness and asked what I could do for him. I told him about their repair warranty. He said he needed it right away, so I agreed to give him a courtesy discount on another harness, with the thought he would send the other one back to 2 Hounds Design for repairs. Or at least take it to the local shoemaker for repairs.
The customer came back a month or so later with another chewed harness. This time, he wanted me to take the harness back and give him a new one for free. When I told him no and offered him another courtesy discount, he flipped out, cussing and fussing as loud as he could. I didn't have to say anything else because several customers came to my rescue and put the guy in his place. I'm not sorry to lose that guy's business! — Sue Hepner, Cool Dog Gear, Roslyn, PA
We had a customer tell us that we told them a toy was guaranteed when it was not. They, of course, came in at the busiest time of day and made a stink, raising their voice and trying to make us look bad. Even when the customer is wrong, you still have to think that maybe, just maybe, something was interpreted incorrectly or misunderstood. I ended up taking the toy and replacing it with a toy by the same maker that wasn't a big mover, and she walked out satisfied. The lesson learned from this was that my staff and I need to be very clear with our words and to make certain customers understand what we are saying. So we have used this situation to practice how we speak about various products. — Johnna Devereaux, Fetch RI, Richmond, RI
Big-Box Busters
PetSmart. Petco. Target. Sam's Club. Walmart. Costco. Heck, let's even throw Bed Bath & Beyond, Marshalls, HomeGoods, TJ Maxx and grocery store chains into the mix of big-box stores that compete for pet parents' dollars.
But as you prove on a daily basis, bigger does not always mean better. As small-business owners, you offer more personalized customer service, including a deeper knowledge of the pet products and services you sell. You are invested in your communities. And you quickly adapt in an ever-changing industry.
All of this allows you to stay competitive.
But if you are having trouble in this area, or you want to find different ways to beat big-box stores, we invite you to find inspiration from your fellow indies.
EMBRACE BEING SMALL
1 Bark on Mulford in Rockford, IL, measures just under 1,000 square feet, and that suits Kaye Busse-Kleber just fine. The size of the store keeps customers where she can see them — and they can see her.
With that in mind, Busse-Kleber shares the story a pet parent told her about shopping at a big-box store.
"She was at [a big-box pet retailer] looking for a collar, had to track down an employee to ask the price. He had no idea and asked what section it came from. She had to show him, and then he told her the price, but said it looked used. She put it back and came to see us."
Customers never have to search for Busse-Kleber or a member of her team. Nor do they feel like they are not valued.
"We have a smaller selection of collars, but she came in telling me about the lack of customer service and that her experience with them 'not caring if they sold something' would keep her from going back."
Limiting staff to just herself and two part-timers allows for a personal connection also not found at big-box stores.
"I can guarantee, that employee didn't ask about her dogs. The customer has only been in my store twice, and I already know she has two dogs: a Rat Terrier named Theodore and a Jack Russell Terrier named Angel."
Another way Busse-Kleber touts the benefits of shopping small are by bragging about unique items on social media with the hashtag #YouCantFindThisAtTarget.
Toni Shelaske of Healthy Pet Products in Pittsburgh, PA, also uses her store's small size as a selling point.
"We convey it in as much of our advertising and social media as possible. Small Business Saturday is our second-highest volume day of the year. We ask our vendors for support and offer a basket raffle, and we debut new holiday items and discounts on most of our products. Food and beverages for humans — our customers really enjoy the day!"
Support other small businesses
2Woof Woof Pet Boutique & Biscuit Bar in New Bedford, MA, and Bristol, RI, gives shelf space to several local small businesses. Among them, Dylan Giampaolo says, are "Quincy & Co. We have a seamstress that handmakes all of our bandanas and bowties for different seasons and sports teams. She also makes leashes and collars. Matisse Jeans is a cat toy handmade from recycled jeans that have a custom catnip blend from Cape Cod, and 100 percent of the proceeds ben- efit Bristol Animal Shelter.
"We truly are a small business trying to carve out a place for ourselves, and we believe in supporting other small businesses!"
Tout locally owned & operated
3 Toni Shelaske of Healthy Pet Products in Pittsburgh, PA, spends as much time as she possibly can on the sales floor working with customers.
"I want people to know that I am the owner and that I greatly appreciate their business," she says. "So the funny thing that has happened because of that is that customers come in asking for me and say 'I know Toni.' When it was time for me to have my own personal Instagram page, my employees decided @IKnowToni had to be my handle."
EARn IN (EXCLAMATION) POINTS WITH IN-depth knOWLEDGE
4Shane Somerville of Paddywack in Mill Creek, WA, was more than prepared when a customer emailed her about canine dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM)."I sent her a fairly long response with some info, attached the document I wrote for our customers (including an FAQ and links to resources from vets) and talked about the different options she could check out. She wrote back very quickly and said, 'Shane, This is why we love you!!!!! Thank you so much!!!!'"
SURPRISE WITH PERSONAL SHOPPING
5 Annabell Bivens orders for The Dog Store in Alexandria, VA, with specific customers in mind.
"We have an all-black Basset Labrador (Bassador), and he rocks his clothes, but his parents wanted something super visible since they spend a lot of time in the mountains at their cabin. So, in addition to the regular colors of the new line of RC Pets Polaris sweater, we ordered him the red sweater in his size and showed them the photos of the reflective stitching. They were so excited! (His color is red). I mentioned it to them when I ordered it, and it came in about four months later. They even asked when they saw winter stuff coming out because they remembered our conversation."
Such personal shopping does not happen when big boxes do their ordering.
TAKE PRICE-MATCHING TO THE NEXT LEVEL
6How does Fetch RI compete on price with the big-box stores? Johnna Devereaux does not advertise price-matching, but she does it when possible and sees the practice as an opportunity on multiple fronts. She shares what happens when a regular customer alerts her to lower prices elsewhere:
"First, it allows me to look at the specific item and provide a lower price to this customer, who is clearly showing loyalty by bringing this to our attention. Second, it allows me to reach out to my brand rep and discuss how I can buy better at a discount, which then allows me to reduce the price of those items for all of my customers. I do advertise that to my customers, letting them know that we pass on the savings to them from our purchase bargaining, and so they now have a lower price! Win-win!"
The Store at Paws 'N Effect in Hamden, CT, also price-matches, but Sandy House simply makes the adjustment.
"We price-compare about every six to eight weeks by both physically going into the stores and then checking online, if they sell that way as well. If I find a local brick-and-mortar store is selling something for less than us, I check what our wholesale price is, and then I make the adjustment before a customer asks."
DIVERSIFY COMMUNITY SUPPORT
7 The national pet stores in Delavan, WI, donate to local animal-welfare organizations, but Karen Conell of The Bark Market in Delvan, WI, sees the importance of investing in her community as a whole.
"We support many local not-for-profits, such as a therapeutic riding program, school for the handicapped, vocational school for adults with disabilities, wildlife rehab center, child advocacy center, playground for children with disabilities, and multiple animal rescues and shelters. We are local, and our customers are involved and reach out to us often."
While altruistic, these efforts create positive word of mouth, giving her an advantage against big-box competitors.
"We don't do it for recognition, but it happens and we are grateful!"
PROVIDE FREEBIES
8 When converting customers to frozen raw — still an excellent way to compete with big-box stores — Conell of The Bark Market makes it hard to resist.
"We have manufacturers who encourage us to give away a free small bag to get them started," she says. "Let's just say folks are stunned by the free offerings and the gentle shove in a new direction."
Freebies can also be fun activities to draw in customers. Sue Hepner hosts a variety of events at Cool Dog Gear in Roslyn, PA.
"We just had a Winter Fashion Show: Dogs on the Cat Walk. We used customers' dogs as our models. These awesome dogs strutted their stuff in front of the crowds, highlighting all of our winter fashions while their people modeled our human line of gifts and clothing. We also offer free pet and family picture-taking opportunities with our fall and winter backdrops. And for the first time we will be having storytime for kids. Our first story will be all about teaching children about dog safety and, of course, we'll have a special visit from our mascot Cool Dog — always a crowd favorite!"
And Southern Barker in Lexington and Louisville, KY, has begun hosting breed meetups in its stores.
"We do get a sales boost during our meetups," says Leslie Stewart. "They are socializing, but also shopping because they are right in the middle of the store, so they can't help but look around! We also offer 10 percent off during the meetup. Our first meetup was for Doodles, and we had over 30 dogs!"
Finally, be sure to take advantage of manufacturer loyalty programs not available to big-box stores.
HUMBLE BRAG ON SOCIAL MEDIA
9 Big-box stores don't share customer pet pics on social media, at least not on a regular basis or from a local store's page. Independents do, and Bubbly Paws stores in the Minneapolis, MN, area takes it a step further.
Keith Miller says, "We regram posts from many of our customers on Instagram. Social media is the best way to brag without looking like we are bragging. We just post happy customer pictures or quotes from reviews."
OPT FOR THIRD-PARTY SAFETY TRAINING
10 Big-box stores have in-house training programs for their groomers. Third-party training and testing can provide a competitive advantage for independent salons. Knotty Dog in Chelsea, AL, staff go through PetTech First Aid and CPR training. BowMeow Regency in Sheffield, MA, is an American Kennel Club S.A.F.E. (Safety, Assurance, Fundamentals, Education) Certified Salon, and grooming staff are AKC S.A.F.E.-certified groomers. Both salons tout their status.
pARTNER WITH VETERINARIANS
11 With more and more big box locations offering veterinary services, it only makes sense to consider doing the same. Mike Murray has created multiple partnerships for Bonnie's Barkery in Phoenix, AZ.
"We partner with a holistic vet to do a monthly anesthesia-free teeth-cleaning clinic, in conjunction with dental hygienists," he says, sharing that the store gets a percentage of fees. "We also created an office in our last remodel that our vet partners utilize to see patients."
And after the Food and Drug Administration released its report on canine dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) and related foods, Murray invited a holistic vet to give a seminar on the topic.
"It went very well!" Murray says. "We had 30-plus customers attend. It was very interactive, with lots of questions asked and answered.
"Most who attended had a much better understanding of the potential risks of their dog getting DCM and learned ways to mitigate that potential risk."
Some customers did ask about changing foods, Murray says, "but a lot of the discussion was around using toppers that can provide additional nutrients and taurine to the pet's diet," resulting in new regular sales of the products.
Mark Vitt has also created such partnerships for his six Mutts & Co. stores in Ohio.
"We have a mobile vaccination clinic, coordinated by a local vet office, at our stores every other Friday to provide low cost vaccination and wellness checks."
TAKE A RISK ON UNIQUE, HIGH-END PRODUCTS
12 "You find unique products in our store," says Connie Roller of The Feed Bag Pet Supply in Grafton, WI. "Department stores and big-box pet stores all have the same old, same old."
Roller says her staff works hard at trade shows, looking for unique, fun or even quirky products.
"We are willing to gamble with slightly more high-end products because although our customers can squeeze a nickel to death, they won't hesitate on a $195 ortho dog bed that matches their décor perfectly," she says.
"We also have some handcrafted wood products like pet steps and diners, along with handcrafted cat trees that we drive a few hours to pick up. These are definitely on the higher-end of retail, but they actually look and feel more like furniture than what you can get at [big-box stores]."
The store carries most of these higher-end products year-round, but, Roller says, "we sell more during the holidays because people can justify splurging when they can call it a gift."
The Hermitage, TN, location of Nashville Pet Products is a former convenience store and doesn't try to hide it.
DON'T DO COOKIE-CUTTER WHEN DESIGNING YOUR STORE(S)
13 Nashville Pet Products has six stores. While signage provides brand consistency, each location has a different look and layout — partly because of commercial space availability, but also by design. Perhaps the most unusual is the Hermitage, TN, location, which is a former convenience store.
"We keep each store unique to avoid a cookie-cutter, big-box feel," Keefer Dickerson says.
This advice also applies to stores with one location: Don't try to look like a mini-big box.
Danielle Wilson of Bath & Biscuits in Granville, OH, explains.
"I had a vision in my head of how I wanted my store and salon to look. I didn't want to look cookie-cutter. I wanted to decorate with vintage items and displays, to have real hardwood floors and inviting rooms to explore. I had been watching for my building to become available for a while and jumped on it as soon as I saw the 'for rent' sign."
TREAT YOUR CUSTOMERS LIKE EXTENDED FAMILY
14 Customers at The Wagging Tail in Las Vegas, NV, get asked about their pets, but Kimberly Gatto also asks about the people.
"With our loyal repeat customers, we get to know them and their family. When their two-legged kids come in with them, we engage the kids (How was school? What did you learn? How's the team going? etc.). If customers have brought up issues, we try our best to remember and ask how it is going (How's your mom doing after her surgery? How's the job hunt going? How was the Stones concert you saw last week?).
Gatto is not afraid to tell folks that she doesn't think of them as customers, but as an extension of her family.
"We care about their entire family (human and animal). We mourn when they mourn. We feel joy when they feel joy. It's all about community. Being a part of a community and being totally vested in it."
Nancy Okun of Cats n Dogs in Port Charlotte, FL, shares that sentiment.
"One customer shared that she doesn't have the best home situation, so when she comes into the store, we give her a big hug and let her know how great it is to see her. She talks. We listen. She leaves feeling better. It's not about selling dog food."
Nor is it all about selling with Charlsye Lewis of Metro Animals in Fort Worth, TX. Among the many practices at her store are "introducing them and their kids to our shop macaws, Baby and Blueberry; genuinely complimenting something about their dogs; and offering the Southern hospitality of greeting them when they come in, and as they leave."
And Jack Carey of Food for Pets in Manchester, NH, has gone so far as to loan his car and money, in a sense, to customers.
"A few years ago, a customer locked her keys in her car. She had a second set at home, so I let her borrow my vehicle to go home and get the spare set. We've had a few cases of customers forgetting their credit card at work or home, and we tell them to take the product with them and call us with the credit card info. We appreciate our customers' trust and want to return the favor."
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text:
Woodson Is Hall Of Fame's Featured Player Of The Week
Packers defensive back Charles Woodson has been chosen as the Packers Hall of Fame Featured Player of the Week in recognition of his performance against the Detroit Lions. The exhibit contains memorabilia from the win over the Lions, including a game ball autographed by Woodson.
Woodson, who previously earned the Hall's recognition in Weeks 2 and 10, intercepted two passes, forced and recovered a fumble, and recorded a sack. He returned his second pick 38 yards for a touchdown that provided the game's final points in the 34-12 Thanksgiving Day victory.
The Hall of Fame's weekly exhibit, The Hall of Fame Featured Player of the Week, contains memorabilia from each week's game, including a game ball autographed by a featured player of the week.
Each Monday (or in the case of a Monday night game, Tuesday), new items from the previous game will be placed in the display to be viewed by visitors to the Hall. Included among the items will be the autographed game ball, which at the end of the week will be awarded randomly to a Hall of Fame visitor who signed up for the free drawing.
The winners of game balls thus far have been Janice Pettengil, Lansing, Mich. (Week 1, Johnny Jolly), Ron Meier, Menomonee Falls, Wis. (Week 2, Charles Woodson), Mary McCourt, Oshkosh, Wis. (Week 3, John Kuhn), Wendy Wolman, Elkhorn, Wis. (Week 4, Jermichael Finley), Richard Kolehmainen, White Lake, Mich. (Week 6, Donald Driver) and Allison Mahlstedt, Norfolk, Va. (Week 7, Ryan Grant); Bill Kuss, Kenosha, Wis. (Week 8, Spencer Havner); Norm Penney, St. Mary's, Ontario, Canada (Week 9, Ahman Green); Bryan Hopper, Riley, Kan. (Week 10, Charles Woodson); and Hannah Campbell, Green Bay (Week 11, Ryan Grant).
Also in the exhibit will be the featured player's jersey, as well as potentially other items such as a face mask, shoes, gloves and other equipment.
The exhibit opened Sept. 14 and will continue through the season. Hall of Fame admission is required to see the exhibit, and visitors are able to fill out a raffle form for a chance to win the ball. One raffle ticket will be distributed per each paid admission. Raffle winners will be selected at close of business Saturday and be notified on or before the following Monday.
The featured player will be selected after each game and will be indicated in game coverage on the team's Web site, Packers.com. Packers.com also will feature a photo of the display at the beginning of each week.
*The Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame is open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays. Hours may vary on gamedays and holidays. Cost is $10 for adults; $8 for seniors (62 and older), military (with valid military ID), student (with college student ID) and youth (12-17); $5 for children (6-11); and children 5 and under are free. Group pricing is available for schools and other groups; for more information, contact the Hall of Fame at 920/569-7512. Information also is available online by clicking here.
For fans desiring to visit the Hall and take a Stadium Tour, combination pricing for an adult is $19, a savings of $2. Combination pricing only is available where Stadium Tours are sold.*

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


There can be various reasons for which you may find the need for solid plaster. If you want to a wall outside of your building or a resurfacing of a ceiling. In both the cases, you will find the need of contacting a plasterer. They are the service provider in any sort of work relating to plaster. They can not only restore your walls but also floors and ceilings. It is a broad term which covers a wide range. They specialize in certain areas thus you must know why you will be needing them. They can even be needed for fixing decorations. There is quite a short presentation of skilled and good solid plasterers in New Zealand. There are many questions which boggle various minds of people in New Zealand regarding solid plasterers. This article aims to remove any sort of confusion concerning the solid plasterer in Auckland, Click here.
What Are The Types Of Plastering?
Starting with categories of plastering, there are mainly two which are fibrous and solid plastering. Solid plastering involves the application of plaster mainly for finishes that smoothens out wall and floor surfaces. Even if pebbles are used instead of plaster then the work is said to be of solid plastering. This protective layer can be of anything. The fibrous plastering on other hand involves a more creative approach like a designing a ceiling of roses which is more ornamental. Now when to decide you actually should go for the plastered? Well if you need anything to do with flooring, ceiling or decorative finishes then you can always go for hiring a plasterer in Auckland. The dry lining deals with building walls insider of the house and creating partitions of flooring. Such work also falls under the category of the job of a plasterer.
Benefits Of A Professional Help?
If your work is as small as apply a plaster to any small area then you should better do it yourself. As for such a small work you will not need an expert. The other complex task such as solid plastering will force you to call a plasterer. In these sorts of task don't try to get your hands in as it will cause you a damage rather than a repair. The plasterer is working in their field for years thus they own expertise unlike you.
Where To Get Good Plasterer From?
Get socially active and ask from your friends and neighbors. There is a great database available online which can surely help you find a few good solid plasterers in New Zealand It can be difficult but your circle can help you largely.
If you don't want anyone to mess around with your house then you need someone who owns a certification which indicates they had a proper training. Various will be trained via apprentice scheme which offers a certification in the end in Auckland.
There is no standard rate in Auckland, thus the cost solely depends on the experience of plasterer and the materials used. The rate may very according to the place of your residence.
1.How to plaster an existing painted wall? If the paint is in very good condition in terms of quality, strength and adhesion etc, it may be possible to wire brush the surface using a suitable detergent and apply Thistle Bond-it prior to the application of Thistle MultiFinish. We suggest carrying out this procedure on a trial area to ascertain the suitability.
2.Where would you use Thistle GypPrime? Thistle GypPrime is a suction control primer used to reduce suction on very dry backgrounds. It is normally diluted (up to 5 parts water to 1 part Thistle GypPrime) or undiluted if severe suction control is required. Plaster is applied after Thistle GypPrime has soaked into the background.
3.How can plaster assist in reducing air leakage of a building? Using Thistle plasters to plug gaps and cracks is a quick and easy way of maintaining airtightness. Gyproc Soundcoat Plus is used as a parge coat when using a dot and dab method with plasterboard.


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Abdul Salis
Abdul Salis (born 6 July 1979) is a British actor. He played paramedic Curtis Cooper on Casualty, the longest-running medical drama broadcast in the UK. He is a son of Ghanaian parents who moved to London in 1976. His real name is Abdul Wahab Mumuni, Abdul Salis is his stage name. He has two kids Salis has appeared in numerous television roles, ...more on Wikipedia
Abdul Salis is listed on
Famous People Named Abdul
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Camps/Clinics
24 January 2020 | Bendigo Spirit news
Thank you, Gabe.
Tonight, as the Spirit take on the Perth Lynx for their final home game of the season, we will also see Gabe Richards take the floor at Bendigo Stadium as a player for the last time.
Gabe has worn a Bendigo Spirit uniform for almost every season the Spirit has been alive in the WNBL, amassing to 252 games, should she escape injury and see out the final road double next round.
Starting out playing in Seymour, Gabe has made her way from a region stage, all the way to the very top, representing Australia and claiming a Bronze medal at the 2014 FIBA World Championship in Turkey.
Gabe will finish the WNBL20 season with a total of 294; 252 games with the Spirit alone, and 42 from her time as an AIS scholarship player.
Richards as scored an incredible 3437 points, grabbed 2156 rebounds (8th all time!) and sent 183 balls to the grandstands in blocked shots. She has well and truly left her mark on the game of basketball…. and counting 😉
A 2x WNBL Champion and 2x WNBL All-Star Five member, for the 2013 and 2014 Bendigo Spirit teams, Gabe has been here through it all. While achieving one of the highest honours in being given WNBL Life Membership in 2019.
We as a club thank Gabe Richards for all she has done on the floor and behind the scenes. Not only as a teacher and student of the game, but also for the outstanding leadership she has given Bendigo over the course of her career. Congratulations on all the accolades you have received, and we have no doubts this will not be the last time we see her around a basketball court.


The latest Flash collection is out in a groovy looking hardcover and is collects issues 231-237.
I remember reading the New Flash. post crisis and coping with taking over the mantle of this legendary hero Wally West was interesting. Over the years he's continued to evolve and in all that time, in over 200 issues he remains interesting.
The Wild Wests picks up with Wally's return to the DC Universe after a brief vacation of sorts that saw Impulse step up and then get taken out. Wally and wife Linda have twins and the book is now focusing on Wally as a family man, raising two kids with powers. It's funny, has well thought out plots and really shows Mr. West as an adult, but still with his same enthusiasm. He wears the role of Father and Husband well.
The book opens with a ferry accident and Flash brings the kids along to help train them in the use of their ever growing powers. The accident turns out to be a prelude to an invasion which eventually brings in the Justice League and the planet Savoth which is a kind of safe haven for Flashs. The action is top notch and the story is really paced well. The whole family plays a part and really works together looking out for one another with out the cliche's of a damsel in distress. the kids even save Dad.
The ender is a fun story with the kids practicing again only this time in Metropolis and of course the man in the cape is there.
I love this new direction that Mark Waid has taken this character and I am more of a fan now than I've ever been. Daniel Acuna's art is fresh and perfect for telling stories with speed.
If the series continues like this subscribe me for life.


News coverage of driverless cars tends to skew from "Oh, wow, look at these fancy gadgets" to "Look out, the robots are taking over!" But we're going to need to take a very real look at autonomous vehicle technology. After all, it will dramatically reshape our lives in Northern Minnesota.
For instance, Dan Kraker at Minnesota Public Radio reported this week on how driverless cars could revolutionize the lives of people who can't drive. In rural places like Northern Minnesota, a driverless vehicle outfitted to serve people in motorized wheelchairs could add tremendous depth to people's lives.
In a recent column, I mentioned MobilityMania in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. Myrna Peterson, one of the organizers, is a big proponent of driverless technology on the roads of Itasca County. In the future, millions will live on the edges of towns and might not have family to drive them around. In that event, driverless cars sound not only cool, but perhaps necessary.
On other other hand, as we've pointed out frequently here at MinnesotaBrown, if a driverless vehicle can bring you from Togo to Hibbing, it can also haul 240 tons of taconite from the pit to the processing plant. It could even haul a truck full of Coors from Boulder, Colorado, to Texarkana, Arkansas. In other words, "truck driver" remains the top vocation in the state of Minnesota. That's true in most states. When thousands of "autonomous vehicle systems managers" replace millions of "truck drivers" we face a monumental economic challenge.
In fact, a recent study by the McKinsey Institute suggests that one-third of the U.S. workforce could be wiped out by automation by 2030 — just 13 years from now. This would be a seismic disruption of the economy.
But the change will come anyway. It's not if, but when. And when it does happen, what will we do? How can we maximize the best aspects of these changes will minimizing the negative fallout?
These should be the conversations happening now in the public squares and halls of government on the Iron Range and beyond.


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Q: controls that have items , wpf I want to be able to get a control that i don't know in advance what type is it and to be able to go through it's items collection . The problem is that each control wants it's own casting and i don't know how to do it generic...... if the control doesn't have items i want to use just this control....
Thanks.

A: This could work. A Control is a DependencyObject, and if that object inherits IEnumerable, it will have an iterator.
        private void DoStuffWithControl(DependencyObject dependencyObject)
    {
        if (dependencyObject is IEnumerable)
        {
            IEnumerator enumerator = (dependencyObject as IEnumerable).GetEnumerator();
            while (enumerator.MoveNext())
            {
                // Do whatever you want to do with the item (enumerator.Current)
            }
        }
        else
        {
            // Do whatever you want to do with the control
        }
    }

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Have a Strategy. Make a Plan.
Family meetings provide a cooperative framework for sharing feelings and ideas, for supporting wishes and goals, for problem solving, for making future family plans and for increasing the pleasure, harmony and fun in the family home.
1. Meet on a regular basis, at a specific time, for a specific length of time. After Sunday dinner works for many families.
2. Utilize active listening and "I" messages tools to encourage clear communication.
3. Use the meetings to solve problems and increase the joy in your family.
4. Use the meetings to plan family events, outings, games and fun.
5. Decide whether you want to keep minutes of your meetings. An adult may chair the meeting while a child may keep minutes. Trade around responsibilities as the children learn note taking and chairing skills.
7. Expect minimal involvement from family members five years and under.
1. Share appreciations from the previous week.
Example: Thank you Dad for fixing my bicycle. Thank you Johnny for keeping your agreement to stay out of your sister's room.
2. Evaluation of solutions used in the previous week.
Example: We have kept articles off the stair steps all week and I think we have kept our family safer. I would like to recommend that we keep up this new habit.
Example: I could tidy up after meals.
I could get a meal once a week.
We, kids, could make our own lunches.
We could all clean the house together on Saturdays.
Do we all agree that we will clean the house together Saturdays mornings?
5. Define wants and requests of one another. Make future plans for the next week or longer.
Example: Will you, Dad or Mom, make a chocolate cake for dessert on Saturday?
6. End with a family game, activity or snacking treat.


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Q: jQuery replace space with non-breaking space between two specific words I've created the following script that searches the page for any instances of "Two words" and replaces the space with a non-breaking space:
var search = $('body').html();
search = search.replace(/Two words/g, function($1) {
    return ('' + $1 + '');
});

$('body').html(search);

$(document).ready(function() {
    $('.no-break').each(function() {
        var $this = $(this);
        $this.text($this.text().replace(/ /g, '\u00A0'));
    });
});

http://jsfiddle.net/Ggkpb/
However, when I place it onto my website, it's causing other jQuery and javascripts not to work.
Is there a better solution to mine? Something that won't upset the other scripts on my site.

A: This line:
$('body').html(search);

recreates every element in the body, minus any event handlers that may or may not have already been bound. So if you're going to use that technique you need to be one-hundred percent sure that you do it before you create any event handlers (except for handlers bound directly to the body or the document, I suppose).
Unrelated to the problem, note that you can make your code somewhat shorter because you can call .html() and .text() once each, passing a callback function that takes the current value and returns the new value (you don't need an .each() loop):
$(document).ready(function(){
    $('body').html(function(i, oldHtml){
        return oldHtml.replace(/Two words/g, 'Two words');
    });
    $('.no-break').text(function(i,oldText) {
        return oldText.replace(/ /g, '\u00A0');
    });
});

A: Here's another way of writing it.
Since you didn't post an error messages, then I'm sure if this fixes your problem.
$(function(){
    $('body').html(function(){
        return $(this).html().replace(/Two words/g, 'Two words');
    });
    $('.no-break').each(function () {
        $(this).text($(this).text().replace(/ /g, '\u00A0'));
    });
});

A: I think it's better if you separate your text from your javascripts. You could mark every block of text in your page using a Class

abcxyz...Two words...

and then call
$('.text').each(function(){
      var search = $(this).html();
      search = search.replace(/Two words/g, function($1) {
            return ('' + $1 + '');
      });
      $(this).html(search);
});


Today, I learnt to appreciate even minor injuries.
So lazy me, cooked up this idea of engaging her to love alphabets (albeit the singlish way). She wanted to play, I wanted to educate. COMBINE THE IDEA!
As the festive season is approaching, we are also dashing for the best buys! Our upcoming 3rd event will be held at Spring Maternity, Bove, Suntec Tower 4, Level 2.


Students can visit the Ware Center in downtown Lancaster for additional screenings or more On Screen/In Person events (Photo courtesy of millersville.edu).
Recent, abnormally warm weather aside, with winter in full-swing, students have started getting their seasonal flu shots. Many places offer free flu shots, encouraging people to get vaccinated early in order to prevent spread of disease. This flu season, Millersville University offered another incentive for students to get their flu shots: a free movie ticket.
Dr. Hilleman dedicated much of his life and research to developing vaccines for children, such as the mumps-measles-rubella (MMR) vaccine (Photo courtesy of blogs.millersville.edu).
Students who went to get a free flu shot at the SMC Atrium on Monday, Jan. 30 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. would also get a free ticket to see a screening of "Hilleman – A Perilous Quest to Save the World's Children" on Tuesday, Feb. 7 at the Ware Center in downtown Lancaster. The film is about Dr. Maurice Hilleman, who developed the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine and invented the first-ever vaccine against cancer. Dr. Hilleman dedicated much of his time and research to diseases that affected children. Directed by Donald Rayne Mitchell, "Hilleman – A Perilous Quest to Save the World's Children" won the Scinema 2016 Best Documentary.
A talk after the On Screen/In Person screening encourages discussion and thought (Photo courtesy of blogs.millersville.edu).
MU received a grant from the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation to fund the On Screen/In Person film series. This film is one of several movies in this series that emphasizes timely topics (such as vaccinations). Similar to other screenings in this series, "Hilleman – A Perilous Quest to Save the World's Children" was preceded by a pre-show community panel at 6:15PM and followed by a Q&A session with the film's director. This discussion-friendly set-up invites discussion and encourages viewers to think critically about these relevant issues.
It is important for students to get their flu shots early in the winter season in order to prevent the spread of disease (Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.commons).
"Hilleman – A Perilous Quest to Save the World's Children" highlights the current debate on vaccinations (i.e. people choosing not to vaccinate their children versus people advocating for herd immunity) and also provides an incentive for MU students to get flu shots of their own. If you missed this event, keep your eyes peeled for the On Screen/In Person screening at the Ware Center.
For those who did not get the free ticket with their flu shot, tickets cost $7 for adults and $5 for senior citizens. For students interested in this series or other screenings, please visit http://www.artsmu.com/ for future screenings and ticket prices.