I had 2 partners and we were sharing the load. It was not going to be an online shop and business is not quick for a vape shop around here. We were going to offer them with a $75 purchase and it would have not chewed the profit margins to bad. It is not like we were going to give everyone a shirt everytime. I mentioned that with the software used to keep tabs on orders they could make limitations. Same theory was going to be implemented I do not expect free stuff, but I will not buy a companies shirt with their business info. I do not wear sporting team shirts ET... I do not shop for the latest Nam brands. There is also a difference between a sports team or NASCAR shirt and buying a companies t-shirt with their info. Like I said before in one of my other posts paying for a shirt such as a Grimm army shirt is supporting someone and not promoting their company, if it was a Namber juice shirt it would be a different story. I wear a lot of horror movie shirts. I am not wearing a short that says universal pictures.com 666 piss on me lane ET... I know you will disagree, but to many people there is a difference between a person, team or band and putting a logo with a companies information for the reason of marketing.
As for my financial situation, loans ET... That is a bit personal for a public forum, I think most could agree with that. I can tell you 25,000 dollars is more than enough to buy 75 shirts to start with at 3.74 and open a decent little B&M in a small town. Rent for a decent building can be as low as 475 a month. Any other personal info you would like me to share with others. And I do not expect free stuff, I am his saying it would be a good idea and I will not pay for one. If I expected it, would I own anything? That would mean I would not do business with a store that did not do it. I have ordered from many shops, never got a shirt. Said in a earlier post I got a bottle opener, cool little touch and I have given that company a decent amount of cash in my vaping time.
As for the rewards programs, many companies have very good ones. if people think that spending hundreds of dollars and getting a 10ml is a good deal look at many other shops programs. You will see you can do better. One of the other poster put a good point out there as well. Companies that eat shipping cost would spend the same or close to the same cost of a t shirt. Just saying.
Thanks for the rather detailed response. I was genuinely curious about how much research and thought you had done on the topic because as I stated I have never seen someone bring up this type of topic while saying they were on the verge of starting the type of business that they would expect these kinds of incentives from.
Sorry if you took my previous message as asking for any sort of detailed info about your specific investments and what not. If you reread my first post you'll see that I simply outlined the kinds of things I would have expected someone starting a business to do, not that I asked you to provide the info.
I was prompted to ask the question because the thread had ranged pretty far with some rather extreme comments that from a business perspective are simply not based on the requirements of running a successful business. For example, the cost of juice and the selling price of juice does not equal profit margin. As I'm sure you know, profit margin involves taking the revenue generated by all the products sold and then deducting the costs of operating the business and the money left over is "profit".
Unfortunately too many people simply look at "profit" as being money in the bank as an excess, but that simply is not an appropriate way of viewing the money left over as net profit because the owner's income needs to be considered, and considered at an appropriate value for the owner of small business as compared to the kind of job that the owner would otherwise have if they did not run this business.
You also have to take into account the excess taxes that are required to be paid by a self-employed individual vs a person working for a company because the owner of the business has to pay the employers portion of the various payroll taxes not only on their employees, but also for themselves...
Once people understand all of this (which I'm not trying to say that you don't), it becomes easier to see that it isn't always a good business idea to invest in a form of advertising that offers a miniscule return on investment. I say this because the impact of the advertising has to take into account the actual potential business impact of that "ad".
In order for the ad to have value, it has to be seen by people who are potential customers of that particular business. For a B&M, this means people who use "open system" vape gear and juices, or people who are interested in trying/learning about it, who also live within a service radius that would generate business for their shop vs. potential customers who live in an area served by a different shop.
All of this is dependent on the recipient of the t-shirt actually wearing it in public where it will be seen by vapers or potential vapers.
At the end of the day, wearing a t-shirt to support a community like VU isn't that different than wearing a t-shirt to support your favorite shop and help improve their business. It's not all that dissimilar to me mentioning RockBottomVapes.com owned by
@RBVapes when I see people asking about products that I know he sells. I took a risk on RBV as an unreviewed shop in the unlisted business section because he had the best prices on the products that I wanted to buy.
He provided great service and is active in expanding his business into the areas that the community is interested in by participating in the forum. If he offered a t-shirt for sale, would I buy it? Probably not, simply because I don't pay for t-shirts that advertise anything, including any name brands because I agree with the position that I'm not paying to advertise another persons business or brand. If he had one to give me, would I wear it? Yes, and as long as I felt that the logo and fit were something that I felt comfortable wearing outside of my house, I definitely would. Would it have any real impact on his business? I doubt it highly simply because I personally have never seen another person in the area that I live actively use an e-cig much less an open system APV.
Bottom line, a B&M marketing dollars are best spent on quality signage, educated employees, a complete taste testing bar with good batteries and atomizers to test the juices. A willingness to educate customers in a way that doesn't demean them or make them feel stupid, and participation in as many local vaping events as possible to get their name out there.
Additionally, a business today must have a decent web site. I won't buy from a company that doesn't have at the very least basic contact info and overview of what they sell if they are a B&M.
An on-line retailer is better off spending their marketing dollars on SEO and advertising on sites that will generate traffic to their on-line stores. New businesses need to invest in cutting their prices to make their store more attractive than larger sites with established names and going over and above to ensure that their customer service is top notch. That is what RBV does. For example, I asked him about a product I was interested in. He ordered it and sold it at a 15% discount, not just to me, but as the selling price on his site.
I'm pretty certain that if I outright asked RBV to give me a special discount he'd do it simply because of the help I've given him building his presense here on VU, but I haven't asked and don't intend to. I like doing business with a company that cares about it's customers and I'm investing in my future savings with his store by helping him be successful and knowing that if I'm interested in something he'll actually look into it and tell me if he can get it and then sell it to me for a competitive price.
At the end of the day, freebies are nice, but if hitting a certain dollar amount in sales got me a t-shirt I'd pass and look for the site that gave me free shipping because that is saving me real money on my order not giving me another t-shirt that I don't really need.
