Furniture Retail Tip #28 From Grandpa Mike-e-e! at 90 - "Women Are Happening All Around Me!"

I'm Grandpa Mike-e-e at 90 and it's all happening around me.

What's happening around me you ask? Educated young women, bless them, are happening around me and it's a wonderful blessing that I'm sure you out there are also experiencing.

Experiencing? Yes. Experiencing new forms of education, invention, and dedication. Wow-e-e! When my son, was sweating through law school his class at the university included three women. Three of them? Yep. Three women.

Now, I've learned that the college mix all over the country is something like seventy percent women... and a couple of surrounding guys.

In the female sphere of my personal family the mother, my daughter, is a recognized expert in senior care and life administration; her older daughter in her twenties has earned a Doctor's specialist signature in Physical Therapy and her sister a Phi Beta Kappa and a couple of years younger is very busy in a leading Chicago university delving into the hows and wherefores of senior age living.

I'm reporting and bragging and I'm positive you, too, have such women reports to register and be proud of.

Which brings me to the need for talented women in our game of retail management.  Even in this day and age, there are too few women owners of retail furniture stores. Yet, there are talented, skilled women out there who dream being on their own entrepreneurial track but don't have enough startup capital to launch that dream. So-o-o, I propose they find another crystal gazer to partner with and then together track down a third dreamer to form a 3-person dream team to design and create a three woman-thinking-tank with one premise: "I can't do it myself but I can team up with two other talented women to create a mutual dream project."

I say they should search for women in the twenty-six to fifty-four age level (even with children) arid then talk, talk, talk and get to learn one another's retail life ambitions, capabilities and values. Today, with all the social networking possibilities out there, it’s a lot easier than it used to be.

They should then solo out to find an itty, bitty bank whose managing principals appreciate women talents; a bank that has experience in small entrepreneurial financing, and is proud of it. An honest bank management team that deals with hardworking, honest, dedicated, itty bitty people. A bank with unique experience that understands little people business needs and is willing to be an ex-officio member of the team. Anybody out there know of a bank like this? Lately they are hard to find!

So, you ask, what does an anxious trio have to do to get started? They have to agree, after open frank discussion, to put up an agreed cash sum and either have or bring in some financial accounting expertise. They have to crisscross their talents and experiences and be totally honest with each other. Women have an advantage over men in the honesty game anyway.

Additionally, they should write it all down in a business plan that includes everything from getting start-up cash, to finding a location, to how they will serve a unique need in their community, to how they will attract customers, ensure their satisfaction and turn a profit.

A-n-d it would be a plus, if two of them could carry a melody, and at least one play an instrument. At least that will give them something to do should their retail business turn temporarily slow.  Though I have been told, that today, there is never down-time at retail because there are infinite possibilities for building email lists, getting followers on Facebook and Twitter, Blogging and writing and submitting articles on furniture related topics online.

All three must certainly add and subtract without a pocket computer, have at minimum partial credits on the way to a degree and have had work experience right after high school.

A-n-d of course, love to work hard and long.

Here is one more idea. They should all join WithIt (Women In The Home Furnishings Industry), an organization whose stated goal is to “to link people with knowledge, create situations for hands on learning, encourage industry dialogue and push the standards of a very competitive marketplace.” It’s a great organization to join for any woman who wants to find advice backed by experience, exemplary role models and mentors. Check out this organization at www.withit.org or contact Sara Lyke, Executive Director at 336-880-2188 director@withit.org.

A-n-d here is another idea -- I am full of ideas today. Check out the website of Furniture World Magazine’s contributing editor Margo DeGange specifically designed for “women entrepreneurs in the furniture and design business” at http://www.margodegange.com. She writes for Furniture World about design and marketing topics… plus she gives seminars and webinars.

Finally, without exception, all three have to read Grandpa Mike-e-e's book on Retail Life; Chapters 1,2 and 3...at least twice.