MyScoop is an entirely online magazine with editions in three markets, Birmingham, Mississippi and Nashville. MyScoop caters to Southern fashionistas and tries to capture the flavor of the south as well as let our readers know what’s going on in other parts of the world. MyScoop focuses on locally made or owned products that are sold nationally or internationally OR national trends that are sold locally.

If you are a fashion retailer in these markets, you want to know MyScoop as a media outlet. If you’re any other business owner, well, I’m here to tell you… Elizabeth Fowler is one of the smartest business women I’ve encountered in a long time, and she has some business scoop to share.

Marianna – How have you used the power of referrals in your business?

Elizabeth – When we expanded to Mississippi we used a referral program so our current readers in the state could tell their friends about us. We gained tons of readers through that web community. It is important to have a consistently email database and utilize Facebook so that readers are interacting with us and each other. My Scoop is the beginning of a very branded community. We have grown through Facebook and Twitter. We are currently growing by about 1,000 each month. All of the advertisements on our site are linked to that local business and we do the same with emails so there is constant exposure to My Scoop and the businesses.

Marianna – As a member of the media, how does a business get your attention?

As the media you can send out press releases. If business owners can promote a category as a whole and promote a trend and not just their store/product, we are much more likely to use that. Example: A boutique owner wrote an article for me on a summer fashion trend. She wrote about the trend as a whole, not just her business. She will gain attention to her business because of the article, but people are more likely to read it instead of just writing it off as advertising. Small business owners should remember that once you reach out you should continue to stay in touch. There are some business owners who will send me reports of new merchandise that they have just gotten in. That is very helpful because they have just saved me a lot of work in finding out what has come in.

To get in touch with the media, introduce yourself at networking events. Email them and follow-up with a phone call. Ask for a media outlets editorial calendar. Most owners don’t think to do that or don’t know that you can. You can learn what they are going to be featuring each month. For example, if you see that the October issue is going to have an article on pumpkin carving and your store sells a pumpkin carving knife you can let the magazine know that and advertise more specifically.

If the media calls you, invite them to come into your business! Make sure you have the owner or manager there – someone who knows the business well and can answer questions. Show them your products and ask how you can help them.

The biggest faux pas when dealing with the media is easily that business owners aren’t responsive enough and miss opportunities.

Marianna – Partnerships are a critical part of what you do and what you sell to clients. How do you view partnerships in business?

I have a great quote that I took from a local business owner, “In today’s world there is no competition; there is only collaboration.” These are the business that will continue to be successful. You should be thinking, “How can we leverage each other’s strengths?”

Marianna – In your opinion, what’s next in new media/social media for businesses? What will they have to do to maintain an edge?

I think we are going to see more creative concepts coming out of media outlets. I think owners should let the media help create their advertisements. That way the ads are more targeted toward the audience of the publication. We need to see partnering with advertisers to create campaigns for a specific market. As a business owner, you have to know what you are trying to accomplish. You’ll use it differently depending on what you’re trying to achieve.

Catch up with Elizabeth at http://www.myscoop.us, Facebook, or Twitter (@myscoopus).

This week our guest on ResultsRevTV will be Elizabeth Sparkman Fowler of MyScoop.us. My Scoop is an online style magazine dedicated to keeping Southern fashionistas in the know with the latest fashions, events and trends. They provide readers with daily articles, newsletter and the scoop on local events.

Elizabeth was a My Scoop reader from its inception and served on the blog’s Advisory Board. She has over six years of marketing experience and has worked in industries ranging from higher education to architectural projects. She has worked in TV, radio and Product Packaging as well.

As a native of Mississippi, Elizabeth spent the first four years of her career in Birmingham, AL after graduating from the University of Alabama. She has recently made her home in Jackson as Editor and Publisher of My Scoop Mississippi. We are thrilled that she will be with us this week and can’t wait to talk with her!  Here are some of the topics that Marianna will be discussing with Elizabeth:

• How to leverage the power of relationships in social media marketing to get more exposure for your business
• Media Marketing
• What the media looks like today

You can visit MyScoop’s website here and read more about Elizabeth here!

We hope you will join us for this episode of ResultsRevTV on May 11th to hear more from Elizabeth Sparkman Fowler.

Last week on ResultsRevTV, our small business owner guest of the week was Luke Abney, owner of The Rogue, a men’s clothier, and Forty Four Fifty, a women’s clothing boutique. Luke bought The Rogue making him a second generation owner of a landmark local business, and he’s started Forty Four Fifty entirely from scratch, making him the owner of a successful start-up. He shared a wealth of experience with us including how to succeed in changing times, how to manage employees, how to manage inventory and the keys to customer service and suggestions.

Following are some of the topics we discussed with Luke with paraphrased excerpts of the interview posted below. You can watch the full interview (approx. 30 minutes) here. And, as always, please feel free to leave behind YOUR questions or comments to add to the discussion!

Marianna: What changes did you make – or NOT make – when you bought The Rogue, a Jackson establishment for more than 40 years?

Luke: We bought the store five years ago. I remember going in The Rogue with my father and grandfather. I have always been interested in the store and took the chance to purchase it. We remodeled the store when we bought it, added more windows.

The question was how do you take the store and make it your own w/out hurting it? How do you evolve it from what it is to what it should be to keep up in the market? The challenge was to open up the store and make the display more interesting. There are a lot of people in the store who love it. The majority of our staff have been there at least 10, if not 25 years. In the store, we have at least 200 years of experience including the ladies doing the alterations. The people are as important as the products here.

Marianna: How do you manage your inventory and control your cash flow in this economy?

Luke: In our business, the most important metric to monitor our business health is “turn.” Men’s inventory needs “turn” between 2-3 times per year. Back in Mr. Neville’s time, it was once a year, so there would be stacks of clothing forever. He would sell it all down, and whatever didn’t sell, Mr. Neville would have his imfamous tent sale and sell it all. Back then, the banks were a little friendlier to the businesses too. Now, if you don’t sell it in 30 days, you don’t buy it to begin with. We have a faster turn over which allows us to always keep our inventory fresh and new. It’s also easier to order items quickly now than it used to be. We can order something for a customer if we don’t have it in the store.

Managing inventory as we do now has allowed us to open up cash flow, make our people the center of our business, and create a more customer friendly shopping environment. Now business owners need to turn inventory faster, but the advantage is that it keeps your guy coming back into the store. Before, if you bought all your clothes for the year in February, and you didn’t like what was in the store, you didn’t come back into the store until June or even September. Now, they can come in regularly and see something new. We can get back into things – basics – very quickly now, so we don’t have to hold those things in inventory at the same volume as in the past. But there are always some fashion pieces that we can’t get again. So, in those cases, we have to call our customers and invite them to come in because this is their one shot to get that particular item. And that’s a marketing advantage, too.

Marianna: How do your businesses execute customer service and maintain customer loyalty?

First of all, we want our people to be the center of store, who have the relationships in the community – they are the key to our success. At the end of the day, customer loyalty still comes down to that personal touch, to the handshake.

It helps to know the customer’s name; it helps to know what’s in the wardrobe. We pick up the phone and call them when alterations are ready or special orders have arrived. People want to wear nice things of good quality. We invite them to come see us for something that feels good and makes them feel better about themselves. We think we can make people feel better about their day, whether it’s a presentation, a meeting, a family reunion or a 20-year high school reunion.

Delivering those clothes but at the same time, they want to come see Amsey or David Cruse or Kevin or Warren or Mary or myself and get those clothes that they know will be with them for a long time.

If we dress a customer for an event we call them after the event to find out how it went. We write thank you notes for business. We do a lot of e-mails, phone calls, Facebook, anything we can do to stay in touch and in front of our customers to take care of them better.

Marianna: In a tightening economy, folks are spending less. How do you grow your bottom line even in an economy where men are wearing fewer suits and buying less expensive clothes? (Hint: the power of SUGGESTION)

There has been an evolution in the dress of a gentleman. We are selling more sportswear. To make up for the economic tightening, we are selling more ties, belts, pocket squares. We show customers what they can do, and suggest all options for them. If they say no, we find out why. Maybe if we listen to the “why,” we can suggest different colors and give them more options that they love and will buy.

With the staff, constant communication is key to sales. We look at what they sell and say, “Well, you sold shoes, but did you show them a belt?” What else could you have shown them?

Sometimes when you look at the big picture of sales it’s too overwhelming. You have to break it down day by day and do the backwards math and sometimes just a pair of socks with each sale is the difference in a bad month and a good month. That’s a much more doable vision for employees – and for me as an owner.

Marianna: How did you open a wildly successful, high-end women’s clothing boutique in the midst of the recession? (Forty Four Fifty has been open for 18 months, and is a wildly successful venture.)

We knew he had to get in touch with clients. We email our customers; we give them all of our contact info. Alison (Luke’s wife) puts her cell phone number on her card.

Marianna: How has technology like Facebook helped your business? What have been the barriers to using social media in your business?

There was a time when we were advertising in the paper every week. Now we are using Facebook and Twitter – anything to keep us in front of customers.

The biggest thing I can do to get more customers is show them new merchandise. When it comes in we take pictures and put them on Facebook and the website. If we put up pictures we will be selling it that day.

The more we can educate customers about clothing and our products, the better the chance that they are a customer for life.

Our greatest barrier to using these new media tools has been the culture of the store. It has been around for years and a lot of the clientele is older and not into Facebook and Twitter. Because of that we phone them as well as tweet, and we talk to them in the store as well as just on Facebook.

Marianna: What do you do to keep employees on track and generally manage your retail employees?

Most of our staff have been there for a long time so they know what it takes. When I have to talk to them about business I have to find the positive way to talk to them – Am I doing everything to help them? How can I help them help themselves and the business?

The Rogue has a culture of its own. When I bought the business, I had to learn their culture, so I could understand how the business and the staff work. Sometimes I have to show them how to do things differently in order to get better results.

B. Liles Studios is a jewelry studio owned and operated by Betsy Liles in Ridgeland, MS.  After 22 years as a nurse, Betsy needed an outlet for her creativity.  She took a class at the Mississippi Gem and Mineral Society and set up a studio in her home.  While still working the day-shift at the hospital, she began selling her jewelry wholesale to gift and dress shops and running her business on the weekends.   A year and a half later the jewelry business became her full-time job and she started to focus on retail markets as well as wholesale.

In 1997 she began attending regular workshops with nationally known jewelers.  Betsy then began intense, private tutoring with jewelers in specific areas of the craft.  Finally, in 2005, B. Liles Studio outgrew Betsy’s home and she opened a production studio at 206 W. Jackson St. in Ridgeland.  As an afterthought, she set up her travel showcase just in case anyone came in to shop.  At the end of the week it was obvious that the new building was a great place for a gallery for her B. Fine Art Jewelry line.  Betsy purchased another building across the street to use as the production studio.

B. Liles Studio now has design and gallery space at 215 W. Jackson St. to bring the whole business under one roof.  Betsy says having the gallery for B. Fine Art Jewelry in the same building makes for a much more professional workspace and easier for sales and consultations.  It is located in close proximity to the Craftsmen’s Guild of Mississippi, of which Betsy is a member.

B. Liles is quite unique in that almost everything that pertains to their jewelry is designed and made at the studio.  A few elements are purchased, such as small chains and clasps for children’s bracelets, but the rest is created from scratch by Betsy and the other artisans.  All pieces are signed and dated and because the items are handmade, the output is limited.  This is a place to find one-of-a-kind pieces that won’t be popping up all over the place.

We can’t wait to hear more from Betsy about Retail Marketing and Product Development: two areas in which she has plenty of experience! Don’t miss this episode of ResultsRevTV on April 27^th to find out more!

Next week on ResultsRevTV Live, Luke Abney, owner of the Rogue & Good Company and 4450 will be our guest.  The Rogue, which has been in business for 42 years, has been owned by Luke and his wife Alison for the past five years.  After the purchase of the Rogue, these parents of two opened Forty Four Fifty, a women’s retail store, in September of 2008.

In addition to the stores, the couple owns the property they are on, including the property that houses a restaurant adjacent to the businesses. With a motto of, “Yes is the answer, what is the question?” Abney realizes what makes his stores special is the experience customers have while shopping there. “We believe that our associates make the difference in why we have repeat business,” Abney says. And with close to 200 years of combined retail experience among his associates, Luke Abney knows his two stores strive to provide the best in quality and customer service.

Abney also says not only should the customer experience be special, but so should the merchandise.  He hopes the selection of merchandise, the shopping experience, and the efforts of the associates will help his customers achieve their desired clothing needs and wants.  “[Offering] that experience is definitely an advantage in our marketplace,” Abney says.

Tune in to this episode of ResultsRevTV Live to hear more from this experienced businessman as we ask him about the ins and outs of retail merchandising and his marketing approach.

Next week on ResultsRevTV we will have Jack Criss join us to share some of the knowledge he has gained in his 23 years of experience in the media and publishing industries.

Jack is the owner and publisher of Greater Jackson Business Magazine and has founded and published several other Mississippi based magazines.  He has spent the last 18 years in the field of business newspaper publishing as an editorial and advertising executive.  He is also the author of “Ready, Aim, Right!”, a collection of political and philosophical essays and editorials, published in 2004.

In addition to his work in the publishing world, Jack has hosted and produced business talk radio shows in the Jackson area for several years.  He is also a popular public speaker in the Jackson area, having addressed classes at the University of Mississippi, Millsaps College, Belhaven College, the Jackson, MS Young Urban Professionals organization and many other civic groups.  Jack has also spent a great deal of time with the Mississippi Chapter of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Team In Training.  He is a Board Member, Alum and Mentor and has run one marathon and two half marathons with the group.

As an active member of the community and with years of experience and success in the publishing industry Jack has much to say about business networking and surviving the ups and downs of owning a small business!  You will not want to miss this opportunity to hear about his experiences and much more!

This week, we have a really special ResultsRevTV episode. It will be airing on Thursday instead of the usual Tuesday spot. Our guest, Kristi Brown, author of To Walk on Fertile Ground will be encouraging us as business owners to follow our passion, even through difficult times.

Kristi Brown is the Owner and Founder of Upside Brown Consulting, LLC, and author of To Walk on Fertile Ground, a personal book on overcoming adversity by learning to live life to the fullest.

Kristi has gained prominence in business circles by coaching women, business and community leaders, and young professionals to find boldness, creativity, purpose, and vision. An eighteen-year public relations professional, Kristi’s utilizes her life coaching skills with individuals who want to seamlessly set and achieve personal or professional goals. A 2003 recipient of the Mississippi Business Journal’s Top 40 Under 40 Award, Kristi is a speaker and facilitator and is certified through the U. S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute of Organizational Management.

In 2003 after years of infertility, Kristi lost a baby to a molar pregnancy, a rare condition that eventually metastasized as cancer. Facing chemotherapy and surgery, Kristi drew from her deep well of personal strength and faith and found her purpose in life–to motivate and inspire others experiencing difficult times. As an emotional and enthusiastic speaker, leader, and coach, Kristi engages people to define areas of growth that point them in the direction purposefully designed for their own lives.