Market Update

After the tragic events of the last few weeks, I began to wonder why people like celebrities leave such an impression on our lives. It is often said life is like a dash, the dash between two dates on a tombstone, and how you live your dash will define what says on your tombstone. I am sure Michael Jackson would hate to be remembered for his numerous outtakes, but rather for being a pop legend as he was in his prime. He probably would like to be remembered as the man that broke down barriers between the advertising business and artists, making both profitable rather than “sellouts”. At the age of 50, Michael was too young, and will be truly missed, as well as Farrah Fawcett’s acting and her strength through cancer, Billy Mays love for his work and energy, and Steve McNair for his passion and love for the game of football. Their lives ended short, but they left a life long impression.

No one knows the time or the day, so the real lesson we need to learn from such tragedies is what kind of a legacy would we want to leave? Do we want to be remembered for being great parents or great business people? Do we want to change our community, industry, family or world? At times we could do some, but not all. And the greatest part is that our passions are like our DNA, different and unique, allowing each one of us to leave a legacy unique to ourselves. It is by this vision and goal that we need to act and live to achieve. How often do we miss the big picture getting caught up in our daily hassles of life and forget our true passions that we would want to be remembered for?

I bet often.

Your business

Just like our lives, we need to plan a business for something beyond than its current sale, current project and current profit. To truly leave a legacy we need to plan a business life of a legacy. There are too many businesses that simply live in complacency of current profit, with no passion for the art of products and services they provide.
Here are a few steps to planning a legacy for your business

1. Who are you?

A business is a reflection of who we as owners. As discussed earlier, it’s about your legacy, so let your business reflect that. At Tulipia Bridal our passion is to make brides beautiful, fulfilling their dreams. However, our passion carries us past our current gown orders. We assist in numerous shelters and organizations dealing with battered women and victims of house abuse and sex trafficking. As we continue to build our business we donate a portion of our profits to such organizations. That's who we are!

2. Dress for Success

An experienced professional knows to go to an interview dressed as if he already works in the position. It’s a phenomenon that when one begins to dress and act as what he would like to become, he eventually becomes as he wishes. If you and your company would like to be a world changer, an industry changer or simply a community changer, you must begin to act as such. Once you begin to act and sound like the company you’d like to be, you will naturally shape into your position. Once you figure out who you are and what kind of legacy you’d like to leave, imagine what does that look, sound and feel like.  What does it look like being the number one bridal shop? What does it feel like? What would your customers experience? Begin to imagine and start to dress up.

3. Start Now

Good is the enemy of great. Busyness is the enemy of progress. The worst thing we could do in implementing our legacy is put it off for tomorrow. Some things might not be possible for you to apply right away, but you must start within your means. We at Tulipia would love to donate millions and assist women around the world, however while we don’t have the means to do that now, we are donating the little that we have, including our time. Our start today, will bring us closer to our legacy tomorrow.

P.S. For further reading on this subject, Michael Gerber does a great job in his book The E-Myth Revisited.

Tulipia and You

This month, rather than pitching Tulipia Bridal and how we could help you grow your business, we’d like to help you start your legacy today. Child trafficking is one of the fastest growing crimes in the world. UNICEF values the global market of child trafficking at over $12 billion a year with over 1.2 million child victims. Men, women and children are all victims but, the most vulnerable groups, those with limited rights or protections, have been the hardest hit… especially children. Tulipia Bridal fully supports and promotes the Stop Child Trafficking Now (SCTNow.org) organization and their battle against such heinous crime. We kindly ask you to look at various ways you could participate in this mission, and begin your legacy today.

Release 8 - Beyond Business.pdf (1.53 mb)

Market Update

The U.S. reported GDP shrinking by 6.5% last quarter, yet entrepreneurs refuse to quit. The markets have changed, and new and creative ways for business need to be found in order to stay competitive. Even when the GDP is slowing and unemployment is rising, the sky is not falling. Since early 1990s, the U.S., along with its trading partners, enjoyed a significant growth. The stock market (judging by the S&P 500) grew 3000% at its peak in 2000, while GDP grew about 5.5%. Other than the global reaction to the September 11th attacks, the U.S. showed stable growth and success. As we know, in this world nothing lasts. Markets, customers and needs change, but the best way to deal with change is ... adapt. Modify your business strategy, cut some costs and keep your ear open to your customers.

Your Business

This month, we will discuss something that might be dangerous to us as a supplier, but we love our retailers and will sacrifice this knowledge for their success. In the current economy, the buyer hasthe power, it's a fact. Thus, if you are purchasing advertisement, supplies, services or other business expenses, you have the power. The easiest cost cutting tool in business and life is negotiations. In numerous eastern cultures it is a daily function to bargain and negotiate over such things as groceries or clothing, but often in North America we give in to final price tag.

Today we cannot compete if we continue to overlook this issue and ignore our power as the buyer. While entrepreneur magazine does a great job describing cost cutting negotiations practices, if you don't feel ready to haggle with your suppliers and hate confrontation simply ask, "Is that the best you can do?" In today’s economic times, buyers flock very few suppliers, especially in B2B sectors, so usually you will get a deal. Asking those 7 simple words could save you thousands that will flow directly to your bottom line. To learn more about negotiations and strategies Bargaining for Advantage by R. Shell is a great source.

Tulipia and You

With Tulipia bridal, you don't have to worry about negotiations. We work on individual level with all of our retailers, and are eager to help you. If you feel like you need a better deal, call us and ask, "Is that the best you can do?" We love our retailers and will continue to provide quality product and service to meet their needs.

Market Update

After people decided not to listen to some sound business advice, numerous retailers found themselves in yet another price war. Not only have they scared the economists into believing were going into deflation, they’ve also confused their customers. Hopefully, they’ve learned their lesson.

The Financial Times reports that U.S. consumer prices finally rose in February.  While numerous factors affect the rise in consumer prices, which is a good sign for a growing economy, the suspicion is that numerous retailers fell into panic. After a very quiet and difficult 4th quarter, the retailers fell into panic and began to offer large discounts, unbelievable deals, and even dropped their prices. After a few months of even more difficult times, the retailers began to realize that discounts and dropped sales, we not profitable. Only if they listened back in November, December, and January. Well, hopefully they’re paying attention now.

Your Business

After raising an interesting point in our March article about cross selling, we’ve decided to discuss some simple, yet practical sales issues. Very often both physical and retail stores make the following mistakes.

1. Difficulty of the Purchase In a quick paced world, whether we’re selling wedding dresses or cheeseburgers, it must be easy. If you look at the greatest companies online, you’ll notice a trend; their sale is complete within 5 clicks or less. The more barriers there are between the point of customer interest in a product and their confirmation of the order, the faster the customer loses interest in the purchase. In physical stores, if a purchase of a product requires long wait time, the interest in purchase declines sharply. So be ready to sell!

For further reading on customer’s decision making, read "Why we buy” by P. Underhill.

2. Poor Salesmanship Sales people often get a bad representation. A true salesperson is not one who is ready to pounce on anyone with a wallet, but one who believes in his product to help meet a need. A true sales person achieves his goals through a connection and a relationship. A true salesperson first connects with their client, rather than just inquiring whether the client is ready to purchase. A true salesperson looks first to help, then to sell. A true salesperson finds pride and happiness in their job, even if it doesn’t result in a sale, because they were still able to help someone even if this particular product wasn’t the solution. Just remember, Snake Oil is not FDA approved!

3. Coming Soon Effect At times we often make promises for which we are not ready. When a site promises to be “Coming soon” but hasn’t changed in the last 5 months, simply take it down or don’t lead people to it. If a product or a service is promised for months, but is not delivered, customers no longer expect it from you. If you are not ready, don’t promise to be. Be ready to sell and deliver on your promises.

4. Self Promotion And last but not least, do not follow Tom Green’s example!

Tulipia and You

4 Reasons why as a gown retailer you would make a mistake not to work with Tulipia Bridal.

1. Difficulty of the Purchase We make purchasing easy. You register, select the gowns, check out. And if at any time you have questions or need help we’re there to help. And we respond quickly, just call or email us.

2. Poor Salesmanship First thing we do when we get potential retailers is try to find out a little more about them. Our focus is not on the order you will place today or even this year. We are looking to help you build your business and be successful in fulfilling dreams of your clients. After all, that’s why you went into this business.

3. Coming Soon Effect We are not coming soon. We’re here! We’re also in Europe, where we’ve grown a following. But don’t let them keep all the top fashion.

4. Self Promotion We promise we won’t put on the wedding dresses. We are focused on helping you be successful, profitable and happy. We just want to join you on that ride.

Tulipia Bridal is committed to serving you through quality products and excellent customer service, fulfilling your customer’s dreams with our exclusive wedding and evening gowns, while helping you grow profitably.  For the expert help you need to position your company for future growth and profitability, contact us at info@TulipiaBridal.com.

Release 6 - Sales.pdf (1.15 mb)

Market Update

These days the only thing that remains strong is the United States Dollar.  The question arises why does the U.S. continue to struggle with this recession, while the USD continues to gain on its ForEx counterparts? Forbes does a great job of answering this question, stating simply that everyone else is just doing so much worse.  Well it shouldn’t be a surprise, the U.S. is the major trading partner of the world, involved with over 13% of all trades. Even more incredible is that the U.S. found a way to produce over 20% of the world GDP, with less than 5% of the world’s work force. Our downfall however, was when we gobbled up over 23% of the world’s debt, which will probably continue to grow. Our Canadian friends produce nearly 2% of the world GDP with less then 0.6% of the world’s work force, and indebted 16 times less than the U.S. (All information was gathered through CIA’s 2008 World Factbook).

So while all this information reiterates that the U.S. is the most economically efficient and skilled nation in the world, the ability of U.S. commerce system to function rests in the hands of business owners like you and me, to creatively come up with new ways to satisfy demands all while trying to make a profit. But in the toughest of economic times, we need to stay focused in order for the rest of the world to succeed.

Your Business

In the words of President Obama, “We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before.” But in order to do so, we must be more focused.

As entrepreneurs, we usually have the same problem. Often times we get caught up in the day-to-day operations, simply trying to make the next sale, pay the bills and make sure everything is in its proper place. However, in the mist of it all, rarely do we sit down and do an overview of our business and analyze where we are, where do we want to go and how do we get there. This is exactly where we need to be focused and disciplined. You can think of numerous companies that lost sight of their core business and began to lose money. These companies began making errors in judgment by looking beyond their core competencies and forgetting their mission statement.  So in these difficult times we must make difficult decisions, with each decision needing careful evaluation which yet again takes away from our day to day operations. In order for our decisions to leave us better off than we were before, we need to consider the following points.

1) Each decision must align with your mission statement (To see an example of a mission statement see our January article). If your mission is to provide the fastest service to brides, would it make sense to bring in a new product that takes nearly twice as long as your current product? Even if the margins are great, make sure that you do not turn away your loyal customers. If they love you for a reason, make sure you don’t take away that reason.

2) Cross sell for success.  After a recent haircut, I’ve observed an interesting fact. My barber has numerous products on the shelf but I’ve never heard him offer any of them. He is a friendly guy and has numerous loyal customers, but he has never said “Hey, I think your hair would be healthier if you used this shampoo.” There is nothing difficult in cross selling; we just need to be intentional. Sometimes the best ways to increase your business and provide more value to your customers is right under your nose. Before you make your decision to totally revamp your product line, look at what you already have.

3) Do not compete with yourself. In the quest to increase sales and meet customers’ ever changing demands, we rashly add products. However, does it make sense to introduce a new product with a lower profit margin if it will take the sales of your high margin products?

4) Rethink your service offering and consider your customer in every decision. In today’s environment, every business needs to understand their customer and be receptive to their needs more than ever. Thus, service to your customer requires deep customer insight that provides more value to their profit chain. And remember the answer isn’t always in discounts.

So if we stay focused on our goals and mission, step away from our day-to-day crises, confront our fears and not quit, we will truly overcome any difficulty.

Tulipia and You

While not every decision is easy to make, choosing Tulipia Bridal usually is an easy one. If we are aligned with your mission and your product lines, we simply continue to enhance your business with a great partnership. As we continue to grow organically, we do so because our products sell themselves. Tulipia Bridal wedding and evening gowns bring high European fashion, using high quality material all at affordable prices. Tulipia Bridal is committed to working closely with retailers in order to understand their needs and concerns, becoming a part of their profit chain.

Providing you the best and most recent European fashion, Tulipia Bridal is proud to release our most recent collection of evening and wedding gowns for the 2009 season. This daring collection is full of vibrancy and detail. As with all Tulipia collections, there’s a little something for everyone. So stay focused, step back from your day-to-day operations and make wise decisions that will let you prosper even in these difficult economic times. After all, the whole world is counting on you.

Release 5 - Staying Focused.pdf (1.31 mb)

Market Update

We are so sick and tired of this cold! The chilly streets of the Northeast just might be colder then the record low national retail sales, leaving us frostbitten physically and financially. While the media cries wolf, the government continues to increase national debt, the consumer continues to hide.
This month we are looking to snuggle up with our loved ones and get warm. Well, here is your first wave of warm air. It is not as bad as it seems. National consumer confidence is at record low, but that reaction is a result of the national media. You put enough pessimists on one channel and it creates a following of pessimists. Why is it always easier to be scared and cynical rather than proactive and optimistic?

We’re not psychologists here so we won’t attempt to answer that, but we know if we quit crying wolf, the people in town will not panic. It is true, we are facing difficult times and this is a recession. However, we survived 1982 and 2001, where the country was as bad or worse in GDP growth (by the way look at figures yourself, don’t let the media skew them for you). We survived then, and we can do it again. We’re smarter, stronger, and more united. This is the perfect time to look at our business, our industries and be trendsetters.

Management specialist Jim Collins was recently interviewed by Fortune, stating “As a rock climber, the one thing you learn is that those who panic, die on the mountain.” So don’t fear, the future is bright and warm.

Your Business

The banks are finally thawing after the cold shock, melting their grip on loans and financing, which is so very important today. Rather then financing your business on credit, what is more important is your Cash Flow. Very few of us want to worry about cash flow and focus on financial statements, that is why the first professional help we hire is an accountant. We conduct our business because that is what we do best, and then worry about finances. The majority of small businesses I’ve worked with have a common problem: Make sales, pay bills, take home the profits. While this sounds like plan for success, it leaves a large gap for vulnerability.

Very often we focus on our sales and profits, both of which are found in our Profit/Hopefully-Not-A-Loss statement. There we analyze how much we spent, how much we sold and what we’ve made. However, the more important part of our finances is our cash position. The high life of entrepreneurship is working for yourself, however unlike our friends who work for others, we cannot rely on each week’s check. While working for others we are sure that each payroll period our check will clear, and we will have cash in our possession. When we work for ourselves, we know that a sale doesn’t always mean cash.

For example:

Your monthly sales average $10,000 a month, while your expenses are $7,000, and you’re doing okay. This month you decide to give your customers a chance to pay their bill in 45 days, rather than 30. This works great, your helping them out in tough times, while increasing sales up to $11,000. 10% awesome. Yet, now you are having a cash problem. While the sale was made, you did not receive the cash just yet, meanwhile your bills are due. So you still owe your $7,000 dollars to employees, the electric company and your vendors, and now you are digging into your own pocket to pay the bills.

Thus, while your sales increased and your customers are happy, you might not be able to keep you business afloat for long. This model will hurt further more when one of your customers goes out of business (something that many of us experienced recently), or if you are planning to expand. Basically, managing your cash flow is as important, if not more, as managing your checking account. So watch that cash. Cash is King.

Our friends at Cathedral Consulting Group offer a more extensive lesson on Cash Flow Management, and Small Business How 2 also offers great classes.

Tulipia and You

This is where we come in to help. While Tulipia Bridal does not offer extensions on bills regularly (we try to live what we preach), we allow all of our wedding gown retailers an opportunity to manage their cash flow. Regardless of the wedding gown payment models you set up for your brides, we protect your margins on the gowns through strategic pricing (see more in our article on Margins or contact us for details). Furthermore, our service and delivery of wedding and evening gowns, allows you to keep your inventory to the minimum, with faster turnover, leaving your bride more time to plan her perfect day, while you protect your cash flow.

Release 4 - Keeping Warm.pdf (2.32 mb)

Market Update

Tulipia Bridal wishes you a Happy New Year and the best in all of your endeavors in 2009. We wish you a new and refreshing business season, with profits and growth in your personal and professional lives.

2009 has kicked of fairly well. The stock markets are improving, and although the economy is still reacting to the recession, the future still looks bright. It is easy to remain pessimistic when nationally the retail industry sales are down, but it is easier to look on the bright side when we look the wedding industry.

The Metro News from Ottawa, Canada, states that the brides are not looking to cut back, while some vendors in the wedding industry are looking forward to a very profitable year. The Providence Journal, of Rhode Island, also reports further wedding industry growth in the region. While both articles agree that the effects of the economic decline on the brides does not restrict their spending limits and that the business is looking to increase, the brides are working under a strict budget and are looking to get the best deal with the most value. Richard Markel of Association for Wedding Professionals International looks to add, “While the brides still look for bargains, as they did before, they will still buy based on their criteria.”

Thus, we continue to confirm that the wedding industry is looking to turn around the economic down sets of 2008 and looks to greater growth in 2009. The business is still the same, capturing the bride’s attention, fitting her criteria. We must work smarter, add more value and be more creative.

Your Business

Every New Year we make resolutions to improve our lives somehow in the next year. The gyms notice an increasing growth of attendees in the first few months, salads begin to outsell burgers, and people begin to set goals and plans for themselves. While few stay true and committed to their established resolutions, even fewer people make resolutions for their businesses.

Facing slow business, both due to economic recession and seasonality of the wedding industry, we need to look over our business and slim down our extra pounds. This is the perfect time to take some time to re-evaluate your business. The following is a simple, yet effective way to lose the extra weight in your business and get back in shape as the industry turns around.

1. Look over your business plan – If you don’t have one, make one. If you have the time, you can get technical and make an extensive plan. Doing so, you will learn a lot about your business, your industry, and your competition through research. But if  you do not have the time, don’t sweat it. Simply look at your product(s) and analyze your strengths (look at “Being Unique in a Copycat World!” article). Understand who you are and what you do best.

A simple way to do this is by using this statement:

Tulipia Bridal’s looks like this

Simple, yet very clear. This should be the direction where you want to go. Remember, you cannot be everything to everyone. Just think of an average diner. Lots of options, but all subpar.

2. Return to basics ¬– After you analyze who you are, and who you strive to be, stick to that. If your core strengths are customer service, then return to focus on that. Very often when things get busy, or we are worried by micromanaging our businesses, we forget what is really important. Find the passion and the reason why you are in the business once again, and focus on what you are the best in the world at.

3. Cut the Extra Weight – The longer you are in business the more things we add on to our processes. However, sometimes the way things are done isn’t the healthiest for your business. You don’t say, “I eat a bag of chips before dinner everyday, because that’s the way things are done.” While it might be the way things are done, they will not help you with your New Year’s resolution of losing weight, for example. So if giving your customers 10% off on every sale is the way things are done, then maybe you should change the habit (see “Killer Discounts” article). Maybe that very attractive, but useless and expensive letterhead you use isn’t the best investment you can make.

Another great way to cut expenses is to analyze your process, from purchasing to final sale. Maybe you can decrease your purchasing expenses, handling costs, storage, or reduce your expenses in final sales. Be careful to only reduce costs in non-value adding expenses. If you provide a great wedding dress storage bag, and brides absolutely rave about it, then keep doing that, but if it doesn’t really matter to them, don’t wait until someone says something. No one complains about a freebie if it doesn’t harm them.

Tulipia and You

Once again, Tulipia Bridal is a great place for you to start slimming down and looking great in 2009. After you’ve looked over your business plan and are truly looking to have a unique and exclusive collection of bridal gowns, then our collections speak for themselves. As you are looking to improve your core business, Tulipia Bridal is there to enhance both your company and your bottom line.
As you begin to return to the basics, whether it is providing great customer service or unbeatable selections, Tulipia Bridal becomes a part of your value chain. We work individually on every order, helping you do what you do best, while fulfilling your customers dreams. Bringing our unique and exclusive wedding gowns, we do not add on any special charges, or extra problems. We try to become the most profitable and effective part of your value chain. There is no pork-barrel spending in the Tulipia Bridal Bailout Plan.

Wishing you a happy and leaner New Year.

Release 3 - New Years Resolution.pdf (2.15 mb)

Market News

BAILOUT!!! The U.S. President Elect Barak Obama is expected to provide additional $500 billion economic package, through job creations, tax cuts and another stimulus plan, as reported by the Associated Press. While many talk about this issue, very few actually explain what this will do to the Small Businesses.

Regardless of whether or not we agree with these actions, their effects on taxpayers and the future of our economy, this will be good for our business short term. The extra $300 to $600 each person received between June and September of this year, led to a small boost before the large downfall of the stock market. As similar stimulus plans are in the near future, consumers will receive a lot of money to boost the economy. Thus, our brides will have some more cash, and as we saw from Tulipia’s previous article, they are not looking to cut their budget on one of the most important days of their lives. So now that we are not panicking, the question is how do you catch the bride’s attention?

Your Business

Looking at many bridal sites and stores, what we often notice is one thing in particular… resemblance. Everyone promises to be the best, everyone promises to be the cheapest and everyone promises extraordinary customer service. Well, if we are all the same, how do we attract the bride?

As promised, we will talk about marketing in this issue. The real question is how do you differentiate yourself and play to your advantages?

The first thing we must understand is: What are our strengths? Consider the following aspects (The 4 Ps of Marketing):

 Is it your product? Are you offering a product that is unique and creative? Or is it one of the few traditional and classic gowns that are out there?

Is it your placement? Are you the only distributor in a certain area? Do you have connections in retail chains that no one else has?

Is it your price? Are your expenses so low that you can offer the best prices on the market? Is your service so good that people will pay more for you?

Is it your promotion?  Have you built your brand name, or store name, to the point that when people hear it they think reliability or exceptional service?

Next step is to decide what you would like to be known for. What your goals and aspirations? For example, at Tulipia Bridal, our goals are to build a brand.

Now that you evaluated your strengths and have a goal, you must build upon your strengths to reach your goal(s). When you know where you are heading, it will be very easy to establish who you are looking to target. Why spend money to reach the price sensitive customers, if your wedding dresses are expensive? Why reach out to modern and artistic brides, if your wedding dresses are classic?

As you begin to understand your value offering, you are now able to separate yourself from mass competition, and are more focused and effective in attracting your ideal customer.

One thing we do want to point out, be careful of separating yourself by price.

Remember this: There will always be someone who will be willing to make less profit then you.

Tulipia and You

Now here is where Tulipia comes into the picture. Tulipia gives you the edge to be who you would like to be. We offer unique and exclusive wedding gowns, with styles inspired by European designers, using European fabrics, manufactured by high quality European craftsmen. We realize that the U.S. often follows fashions from Europe, and the wedding industry is not far behind. Tulipia allow brides to be unique trendsetters on their special day. Tulipia’s strategic distribution allows for exclusive partnerships within numerous areas and locations. Our suggested retail prices not only give a great value to the customer, but also provide a great gross margin for the retailers. And last but not least, while Tulipia’s brand name is young, there is none like it.

Understanding who we are lets us know who to target, which business decisions are right for us, and where we are going. So now try to understand who you are, and play to your strengths. Tulipia is there to help.

Release 2 - Value Prop.pdf (1.52 mb)

“Killer Discounts!!!”

By: Alex Andreyev

Market

The politicians are arguing, the stock market is falling, and all chaos is breaking loose on all industries. If the big boys of Wall Street need a bailout, where does that leave us, the small business owners? As Sarah Palin mentioned (or maybe it was Tina Fey), If we are going to bail out Freddy and Fanny, when is someone going to bail out me, Joe the Plumber?

Well, regardless of who took the oval office and what will happen in the stock market, the wedding industry is in good shape. After conducting a survey, Knot.com, a world-leading destination for brides, reports that while 76% of brides are concerned with the poor economy, only 17% are definitely cutting back on their budget. Even those brides who are reducing their budget, will decrease honeymoon and entertainment spending first. The wedding industry is not completely recession proof, but it is still a thriving industry.

While the industry is vibrant, it is still as competitive as ever. In order to stay profitable, a few steps need to be taken. We must minimize our expenses, market efficiently, and promote more sales (expenses and marketing will be addressed in the following releases). Very often, in order to generate higher revenue, companies give outrageous discounts. While giving a discount might be a good way to increase sales, the outcome on our profit could be detrimental.

For example:

You sell about 10 Tulipia Bridal gowns per month, which generates $12,000 in sales. Your cost of goods/dresses sold (COGS) is 50% of your sales. Your fixed expenses (rent, insurance, etc.) are $1500 per month. Your variable expenses (salespeople, packaging, shipment), also know as Sales, General and Administrative expenses (SG&A), are about 20% of your sales. Now let's see how this all works financially.

Here you have your profit of $2,100 per month, or in other words, out of every dollar you earn you keep 17 ½ cents.

You are happy, but now your mortgage payments went up, cost of food is up and you want to go on vacation soon. So you decide to give a 10% discount. At the end of the month things look great, your sales are up 20%. Wonderful, but for some reason you still don’t have enough for your vacation. Here is why:

Here is why:   

So here you see that while your sales increased by $2,400, your profits fell by $720. Beyond this loss, you now work harder, sell more, but keep less then 10 cents on each sale.

Don’t let your vacation plans fade just yet. Tulipia Bridal gowns are all priced in order for you to make and protect your gross margins. As you can see when you give discounts, you are giving up margin, which is essential for protecting your business. We price all of our gowns in order for our retailers to receive at least 50% on wedding gowns, and 40% on evening gowns. Rather then giving away discounts, you can simply invest the same $1,440 in your marketing initiatives.
While investment in your marketing of $1,440 would still leave you with only $1,380 in profits, this investment should generate future increase in sales, while continual discounts will decrease your margins and profits with no additional benefit to your overall brand name. So keep it up, the best time to take a vacation is when very few people can, the beaches are less crowded that way.

Release 1 - Margins.pdf (1.49 mb)