Nashville Wraps Blog

Retailing is the most competitive and demanding business that anyone could get into, with the exception of professional sports. There are enough retail businesses for over 500 million people but there are only 260 million of us. With thousands of retail stores, the Internet, discounters, changing trends, more selections and hot items, you must move your inventory or you will lose the game…big time.

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This year has been tough for lots of people, and Nashville Wraps is no different. But we are doing well because like you we are flexible and in charge of our own direction, growth and destiny for the most part. When times get tough successful businesses that survive actually become better.

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Faces to Facebook.

Why Social Networking Works

When I go out to eat, or to shop…I have my favorite places. What makes them special? They have what I want, but more to the point, they know me. As a customer I am going to be loyal to those places because I just feel good about being there. That is a huge advantage and your business is no different. The high level of customer attention that small business can bring will in most cases win elite customers over the big box stores.

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 How to Gift Wrap Quickly and Profitably

By Kathy Green, Nashville Wraps Packaging Consultant

Offering a gift-wrapping service during the holiday season is an excellent benefit for your customers and an edge for your business. We are all in a hurry as we shop for those special gifts and getting them wrapped even for a fee is a terrific way to inspire customer loyalty and provide a valued service.  [Read more →]

Image begins with the customer’s first impression…

You can’t buy it, bottle it, sell it or acquire it. But you can build it and maintain it. Read on as we examine and re-think a few assumptions about building the image of a business. This is second in our series by Bill Sheldon on “Business 101″ and is highly revelant to all businesses whether they rely on clicks or on bricks.

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I wrote this letter early in the morning of November 5th, 2008. It was sent to all our employees at Nashville Wraps as a statement of encouragement. I did not intend to publish it to the internet, but because of requests from several people I decided to put it on our blog at least for a little while. My hope is that it will help heal our nation and remind us all of our responsibilities… So here it is, including the preface.

Dear Friends and Associates,

You have not really heard me say much if anything about our political system, leaders, taxes or other matters that would somehow put you in an unfair position or hinder you from exercising your freedoms in the workplace. I feel that my responsibility to you is to direct the company so that we all will have the opportunity to live well, contribute, and prosper as best we can. To that end, I have always voted Republican. This election is no different. But like life, business and the rule of law, things change. We adapt, and find ways to grow regardless of circumstances.

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If your candle shop is out of red candles at this time of year, you may as well tell your customer to shop elsewhere! 

Read about our new series of articles designed to help us all be better, more profitable merchants! Bill Shelton has the talent and insights to lead us through these muddy retailing waters with clarity and vision.
Robby Meadows
Nashville Wraps

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Business all over the world is in a tailspin. Not only are there core economic issues, low consumer confidence and so forth; now world oil prices are going down. But is cheap oil a good thing? If you are on a budget it is; if you are investing in drilling platforms, maybe not. But drilling isn’t today’s topic.

The integrity of American small business is once again going to be tested in 2009 as a result of falling oil prices. [Read more →]

According to most small business owners we have talked to recently, the nations economic crisis and bailout of Wall Street has made an impact on projections for the short term but hasn’t influenced the holiday buying season as much as you might think. 75% of customers surveyed have said they expect holiday sales to be better than the previous year, while 25% are expecting sales to be about the same as last year.

A lot of people are still reeling from the past two weeks of economic flux, and are taking a wait and see attitude towards retail inventories. However due to tigher supplies with vendors and consumers taking earlier bites out of Christmas spending our advice is don’t wait too long.

The real question is why?

Why is it that entrepreneurs are saying things will be OK and the columnists, economists and analysts are all saying different?

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Which “green” are they after?

Wal-Mart has announced a new “cheap” reusable bag to be in stores this October. These bags are going to sell for 50 cents each and ony contain a small portion of recycled plastics. The store plans on decreasing its use of typical plastic t-shirt bags by 25% in the US and 50% in other countries. The new reusable tote bags are intended to help the green movement. But I can’t help but wonder which “green” Wal-Mart is really after. This bag is a good example of “green-o-nomics” or just plain Green-washing. [Read more →]