Thoughts on theft

Employee Theft.  In my opinion, it is one of the most  devastating things that can happen. Especially to a small business owner.  

I'm not talking about missing pencils or an occasional soda.  I'm talking about when an employee deliberately steals cash or product from you.

If you have been in business for a while, usually know the feeling. If you are new to your business, you will eventually have it happen.  What is both sad and funny is that many owners refuse to believe that it is happening. Worse, many don't know what to do about it.

Just the other day, an owner called us because some employees are leaving the cash drawers open and working directly out of the cash in the drawer.  When we hear this, we figure the employee is not ringing in transactions and then pocketing the cash. I've discussed many ways to help stop this in the past- multiple cash drawers,  assigning employees to drawers, fingerprint id, pole displays and more. 

The bottom line is you have to have a firm policy that includes verbal and written reprimands with the ultimate penalty being that the offender is fired. 

It will be hard,  but in most cases, you will find that the rest of the crew knew it was happening and is glad the offending person is gone. 

SelbySoft Trade Show Booth

I thought it would be fun to show our last booth!

On the left you have an All in One computer with a small, four drawer cash drawer, receipt printer and a kitchen / barista monitor above it.  

The podium to the right has an All in One with a receipt printer, finger print id and barcode scanner. 

To the right of that is a docked tablet system with a network printer for wireless ticket printing.

Finally, on the far right is another tablet system mounted to the truss.  It prints to the wireless ticket printer. 

Coffee Shop Managers

I talk to a lot of Coffee shop owners. I also talk to a lot of Coffee shop managers.  The two of them sometimes have different needs. 

Owners often focus on the big picture - Theft, inventory control, gift & loyalty systems and employee management.  

Managers are more concerned with actual day to day issues.  Things like reliability, speed,  customer service and ease of use.

What's amazing is how many owners never  ask their manager or head barista to look things over.  I say amazing because sometimes the owners take a couple orders a week. The coffee shop manager can take thousands of orders a week!  

Next time you shop for a point of sale system, ask your manager as well! 

Coffee Fest Atlanta review

I'm back from Coffee Fest Atlanta and finally able to think about the show. 

As the first big coffee show of the year, this is the one that I feel sets the trend for how coffee shops will approach us for the rest of the year.  

Based on this show - the coffee industry is strong! 

Some of the trends I'm seeing from the show are:

• Beer & Wine:  More people are looking at adding this as an option in their shops. I heard from multiple owners that they have a drop on coffee sales after four in the afternoon.  Beer and wine sales help keep the revenues up after that time. 
• Food:  A number of shops explained that they were adding more food options to the menu.  I hear this every couple years but this was a little different.  I heard more about food that focuses on fresh, local and healthy options than just your usual sandwiches. 
• Coffee & Not Syrup:  I heard from a number of attendees that they were limiting the syrup options in drinks. 

Mike. 

SelbySoft's Future

I often think of our future as a company.  Consequently, I think of our past as well. One of the things that stands out in my mind is how difficult the point of sale industry can be.

We don't get an opportunity to talk about it much but SelbySoft has always been an innovator. Our first point of sale product,  Take 1, was a video rental software.  

SelbySoft introduced features such as multiple window ordering,  was one of the first to tie into rental profit sharing sites, game trading, and more. In fact, that software is still being used after 25 years.

With SP-1 for Coffee & Pizza, we released one of the earliest fully graphical systems, a delivery system that offered mapping, an inventory control that allowed for extensive recipe control,  a free gift and loyalty card system that includes multiple features and more.

That's great but it's all in the past.  SelbySoft now has to move toward the future.  We have plans for a number of new items in the future.  Think more mobile solutions for your customers to order on,  mobile ordering in store by staff, comprehensive reporting from any device and so on. But we will not stop there...We will be looking at reporting through watches, using beacons and geo-fencing to market and more.

The future is coming and it will be great!

SelbySoft Inventory

I talk about inventory control often at shows and with customers over the phone.

Some people are excited about it and get what the benefits of tracking inventory can bring. 

Not everyone however.  We hope to change that through training and education.   You see,  we know that if our customers track what they sell  and track what they receive,  they will make more money. 

Cost of Goods Sold s one of the most important things you can track on a regular basis.  Even more important is tracking the variance between what you actually used and what you should have used.   Really,  this is incredibly important.  The two biggest reasons are to ensure that the staff is using the correct portions when making drinks or food.   Even better is that you can make sure that you are cutting waste.  

Cutting waste is the easiest way to increase your bottom line.   Think about it,  every dollar of waste you stop is a dollar you put in your pocket!

Take off

I love taking off in an airplane. I'm not a pilot and I don't have any friends with planes that I know of. My only real experience is being on a commercial flight and talking off

In fact I'm typing this on my way to Coffee Fest Atlanta and sitting on the runway waiting for the plane to get going (proof in the picture).

This thrill of taking off reminds me of the same thrill I get when we figure out that one off solution to an obscure technical issue for a customer and the thrill we get when a new prospect chooses to invest their money, time and confidence in us.

PS Ask me about landings sometime.  I like those too!

Thinking about Point of Sale

How much thought do you give to Point of Sale?  Probably not a lot.  Maybe only when there is a problem.

We obviously think about it a lot - like whole a lot.  It's one of those things that makes you look to see what register or POS terminal a store is using when you first enter.  If someone has a picture of their shop on Facebook, we immediately try to figure out what system they have.

It's a good thing we do - we see features (good and bad), ergonomics and more by keeping our eyes open.  When you take a look at our system, you will find features that are inspired by what we have found in the marketplace.  A good percentage of features you see in SP-1 by SelbySoft are suggestions from customers.

Next time you see something cool or useful in a point of sale system, don't keep it to yourself!

Mike.

Practice, Practice, Practice

If you follow me on on Facebook,  then you know I have a daughter in Soccer.  Not just the "kids like soccer" way but the "year round, don't care if it is raining or 20 degrees outside" soccer

Watching practices for the last 10 months (twice a week plus games) has reminded me that practice really works.  It's not about getting to be the best either.  It's about doing better and learning what you can improve on.

This is applied to our business as well.  When we lose a sale,  goof a shipment or  forget a switch in a hardware configuration it's because we need to do a better job.  Doing a better job is what gets you too perfect in my opinion.  Practicing and learning from your mistakes is what makes a difference. 

Ok,  I'm going to watch soccer practice now.

Mike

Can't wait for SUMMER

I was walking through our back storage at the office and ran across this:

Anyone else looking forward to summer?

Coffee Fest Atlanta

This week Jordan and I head to a Coffee Fest trade show.  This one is in Atlanta Georgia. 

I'm excited for the show. 

I believe that good trade shows are one of the best things we do.  At the coffee shows it is great to be surrounded by a few thousand like minded people. 

The excitement of being able to meet and talk to people that are just starting their businesses is so cool it's hard to explain.  Some of these people will never get off the ground, some will close in their first year or two,  some will come to dread owning their own business.  All, however, are 1,000% excited to be trying. 

And just to leave you with something positive... Some will open, have a fantastic time and be happily successful!

I dare you to come to Coffee Fest and not have your batteries re-charged. 

Mike