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.
Next week on ResultsRevTV Live, Luke Abney, owner of the 
