BRAVO goes Mobile BUYA.COM MOBILE

How important is the Customer?

How important is the Customer ?

Do you need customers?

Do you know how much they are worth?

How much does it cost to acquire customers?

For this example let’s just look at YELLOW PAGES.  These other costs have to be taken into consideration.   Rent, Bill boards, Radio, TV, Telephone, Exterior Signage, Utilities, Banners, Social Media, Text Messaging, Direct Mail, Employee interaction, Word of mouth, Newspaper, Web Site, just to name a few.  In fact the true value of your business and most of your investment lies in the number of customers you have.  The lively hood of your business is determined by new customers and keeping the ones that you have, called retention.

I never really understood the depth of this question until I did an analysis of my advertising budget while I was CEO of SuperPawn.  One area of discussion was the YELLOW PAGES.  We were spending $315k per year for our stores and were introduced to a program where data was prepared by the Telephone Company of the number of calls we were receiving at each one of stores.  We also had a 3 day study of what type of calls we were receiving at the stores so we could attribute new customers and current customers along with the types of questions.

For an average store we were spending $750.00 per store per month.  We were getting 5 calls a day from new customers, so each call cost us $5.00 for each call.  We were successful 25% of the time in getting the customer into the store and 80% of the time conducted a transaction.  So we were successful in getting 30 customers a month for $750.00 or $25.00 per customer.  Wow.

We learned a lot just by the review and research.  We found that our interaction on the phone was weak.  It took too many rings to answer the phone and our employees were not trained on how to interact with customers on the phone. 

$ecret Phone Tip – customers calling for estimates for items were often told they had to come in.   Most of those did not come in.  Those customers that were given a courteous estimate of value, 90% came into the store.

But, $25.00 per customer blew me away, and that did not take in consideration telephone and employee costs.

We also found that if the customer did not come back the second time we lost money.  Customer retention is vital.

This is a great exercise in measuring Advertising dollars spent and return on investment. Every dollar of advertising should be evaluated by how many new customers will you get and keep.

The next evaluation is how much it costs you to acquire an item.  Yes, for every item that comes over the counter there is a cost to acquire that item.   So this is called overhead and driving increase volume of transactions drives down the cost to acquire.  The more efficient you can be, the lower the cost to operate.  This is one of the most important drivers to profitability you can produce with efficient accurate process.

Any slowdown can turn a profitable opportunity into a loser and it is really hard to figure out.  That is why gross profit is not a great way to determine success.

Increasing volume of sales is also one of the best methods to succeed.  Lowering margin and increasing turn is the most healthy and profitable way to improve your business.

So, sit down and analyze your advertising.  Pay attention to all of the time you are taking into conducting your business.  Organize yourself and your staff.  Get more done efficiently and you will find a better looking and successful business.

Figuring out what a customer is worth is called Customer Relationship Management.  A lot has to go into such an analysis, and each time a customer comes in to your store, each and every transaction has to be updated and evaluated.  BRAVO includes this very heavy data driven analysis called Customer CRM.

In Bravo you will know how much your customer is worth.  Bravo keeps track of every transaction of every customer every second.  Essentially Customers are worth their contribution over a lifetime.  The longer you keep a customer the more they are worth.  Bravo ranks your customers so you know who is the best, the top 10% and so on.  Check it out if free with Bravo and is only driven by the powerful Data Analytic's of BRAVO.

Why is eCommerce important to Pawn ?

Why is eCommerce important to Pawn? 

I think there are many reasons, so I will only hit a few in the article.

1.       First answer is retail.  The more customers that you put in front of your merchandise the more you get$ and the faster you sell it.  Half of your effort in the pawn business is selling stuff and If you haven’t noticed every retailer in the world  is moving their entire inventory to the web.

2.       How do you sell on the web?  There are a lot of test scenarios.  The easiest test is to put stuff on EBay.  It’s not a slam dunk.  It’s a lot of work to figure out.  But when you see how fast and effective it can be, you will understand why it continues to grow every year.

3.       Second answer is your Loan Business.  If you can figure out a faster and more profitable method of selling, you are apt to start lending more.  It is our pawnbroker nature.   If you can figure out how to lend more with the same default rate, why not?  Here is your path to loan portfolio growth, without adding a single customer.   A 150k loan portfolio increase of 20% is 30k @ average APR of 120% = $36,000.00 per year more.  What is yours?

4.       Marketing and Brand building.  Nothing is more effective than customers seeing your name and the frequency on the web.   Bravo does all of this for you for free.

5.       How do I get started?  Start selling the small stuff and get your feet wet.  Build your customer base.  How often do your current walk-in customers come into your store to shop?  On Maxpawn.com 20% of our customers will visit your store every day to shop.  Web customers are loyal.  Average sale on Maxpawn.com currently is $105.00.

6.       They love pawnshops, they love to shop, they want to see every day what is in your shop.  From their home or office.

7.       A big surprise selling on the web is – FUNJ.  Yes it’s fun when you get an offer online and the eventual deal when the funds hit your account. J

Below is an example of an item reaching relevance and position on Google.  Bravo submits thousands of items from your store each day.

Back from Dixie Pawn Convention.

Sons Grow Up!

Oh what fun it is to see a son with his father at a pawn convention.  Proud father and his bug eyed kid.  It brought back so many memories.  My mom and dad took me to the JCK jewelry show in New York.  There was no NPA or any convention for pawn back then, but seeing the trade is fascinating and anyone that has not been has to give it a whirl.  There is a new generation of pawnbrokers beginning.

Kathy and her team from the Dixie Pawnbrokers Association did an amazing job.  Congratulations.  The Southern Pawnbrokers are a real tight group.  Everyone knows each other and there is a real sense of camaraderie in the air.

Our take away of the last 2 days is there is change in the air.  New stores are opening and competition from the big 3 public's are shaving market share from the independents.  Business the last year was good.  Diamonds were being bid bought and sold.  Pawn is good!

What is fun for me after growing and running Superpawn’s 50 stores (sold to Cash America – 2004) was learning from the Industry leaders that sell services and goods to the Pawn Industry.   Thanks to Steve Wexler, Michael, and Tony for your advice and help to Cynthia, Michele and myself.

We were saved by AT&T – wireless hotspot device. 

We got to the show to find out the Internet connectivity was going to be upgraded next month.  It was so bad that we were ready to pack up.  I had seen this device at Costco when shopping with my wife and thought maybe there is a store nearby.  There was a store closing in ½ hour and off went Cynthia and Michele.  They came back with a black device half the size of an Apple phone.  We logged in boom done.  A great deal for $120.00 and $50 a month and can be used anywhere a cell phone works.

We set up Bravo from scratch in 15 minutes.  Ticket, label, and receipt printers, along with scanners tested beeping and printing.  The web application is so easy compared to servers, connections, and old setup. 

We validated our technologies ease of installation at this show.  Going to a trade show and seeing your product work, and the way Bravo requires, the simplicity and the minimal effort is what you would have expected.  I was so proud that we have the technology that works like everyone would expect.

What happens when the Internet goes down?  Our competitors common fear tactic.  What happens when your server goes down? This has been a 20-year problem with servers that has never gone away.  The answer to both questions is you can’t conduct business.  The next question is, how often?   The server goes down more frequently than the Internet.  And if you plug in an extra Internet service provider for your store, like the AT@T hotspot you nearly guarantee yourself uninterrupted service.  Bravo services have never been interrupted.

Our competitors didn’t even set up a store demo because of the expense, time and technical support required to setup their systems.   Setting up Bravo is as easy an Apple App on your phone.  You get the benefit of a Million dollar data center for each of your stores and powerful software that gets your store operating the way you want.  This is the beauty of Cloud Computing.  Its already 5 years since Cloud computing has been introduced and where most of services are being delivered today.  Bravo is 100% Cloud.

Freedom

I asked a pawnbroker that has been looking for a software solution for the last 10 years why he decided on switching to Bravo.  “Freedom”  “I don’t want a system that limits me in how I want to operate my store”.  “Bravo is Freedom”  “Thanks for finally bringing a new and complete product to our Industry”.

That made the convention for me.

Steve Mack

Maxpawn.com - LIVE!

CLICK ON MAXPAWN

After 2 years of dedicated development, a vision back in 1998 has finally become reality – Maxpawn.com.  Mike Wishart, Kelly York and myself have dreamed for years, saw our opportunity converge December 29, 2008 and dedicated the last 2 years to make this a reality.  Many of you have asked me why after selling Superpawn for a zillion bucks and recognized for technology,  do you want to put yourself through this challenge?  ANSWER is simple – to create a better opportunity for Small businesses and Pawn Brokers

We packed every secret, proven business practice, and the power of today's computing resources into Bravo Store Systems   Then  we attached a completely integrated distribution channel – Maxpawn.com  to every store  and connected our users inventory directly into the web.  Thursday we turned on Mr Pawn of Boulder City, Nevada.  Friday we turned on my brothers store Max-Pawn of Las Vegas, Nevada.  From these 2 stores, we have 4237 items for sale today .  By the end of next of week we will have our 7 additional companies and 45,000 items for sale.  Items for-sale on Google, in the stores, and on Maxpawn, all at the same time.  We expect 5 million items for sale by year end.

No other system exists.  As each item is sold from the store, sold on Maxpawn, priced from pawn, new merchandise added from vendors, the systems from Bravo does all of the heavy lifting in keeping track of the details in your store and online,so you can take care of the customers.  Kick back and watch your merchandise fly off the shelf during your store hours and when your store is closed.

 

As a pawnbroker myself, selling and handling $600,000,000.00 dollars of merchandise during my tenure at SuperPawn, I can now tell you now why I am so excited today. 

In the last few years operating Superpawn I discovered through PRIMA, our former legacy technology, how this idea became the most astonishing business model I have every come across.

We were selling between 1200 – 3000 items per day on the web from our stores.

Most of the items were being sold through the very first API developed with EBay – read this article.

During this period of online sales, we figured out that it was costing us more to sell on EBay than we were profiting in the majority of transactions.

We discovered that integrating online and in-store processes through technology we could create the most efficient selling operation.  Your Store – BRAVO – Maxpawn ----------AS ONE.

BIG SURPRISE – read carefully

As pawnbrokers we all have been committed in driving regular main stream folks into our stores.  Its extremely expensive and nearly impossible to drive new customers.  We as pawnbrokers haven’t scratched the surface even with the help of “Pawn Stars”.  Also, more people are shopping on the web and mobile, so this is a delema for all brick and mortar operators.

The secret salsa of Bravo and Maxpawn is 30% of the online sales driven from Maxpawn are “In Store Pickup”.  Of those that pick up merchandise from your store – 90% are new, never been a pawnshop customers.  We never saw new customers like this before!  This is the difference when Pawnbrokers design a system.  We know the Pawn facts.

This makes double sense.  First, people continue to be reluctant in purchasing used merchadise from any online seller.  Now they can shop online, find the item in your store, try it out, and then take it home.  Second, there are customers that love to shop pawnshops everyday, and there are many people that are afraid to go in, but are hugely curious.  Now they can shop everyday and in their privacy, we sort the merchandise specifically by your store and most recent merchandise.  Customers can see new stuff everyday, and they do!

Obviously with Bravo and Maxpawn, your store is seen around the globe.  Now you have the Web resources that Wal-Mart has to level the playing field.

Find out how easy it is to change to Bravo.  We have developed a new self service conversion process that is the simplest ever, so don’t fret, we want this to go smooth as you do. 

Thanks to all of our early adopters that drove this product development.  Thanks to everyone else that has read and commented on our progress.

You are all great people in a great business.

If you have any question please feel free to contact me.

Steve Mack

Our promise and what to expect

Bravo systems compliment the novice user and enhance the expert.  Businesses time invested in front of a computer terminal day in and day out should do more than print tickets, tags, and end of month reports.  Bravo’s approach transforms your effort into yielding profit from every click!  Its design was to cut out paperwork, reduce footsteps and eliminate missteps.  We reutilize every aspect of your daily activity to create efficiencies so that everyone in your store can do more – and smarter.  In today’s business environment this is a critical opportunity.

Bravo makes ‘Pawn sense’.  Our business is unique.  We are great retailers that sell used stuff.  We acquire merchandise from the public, one item at a time.  The Pawn business must maintain healthy margins.  Since the products we sell are used, we need to be critical of its condition and quality.  When we acquire products well, there is usually a good outcome. 

Microsoft and Bravo will be the latest and best solution ever brought to market. With the advance of the ‘network’ and ‘technology’ there has never been a better time to develop a new system solution.

·         You should expect complete functionality and dependability.

·         You should expect a complete system to cost a lot less.

·         You should expect features to exceed your expectation.

We took the time in making an investment in our team to retool and update their skills.  Our technical teams are experts in the used good and the pawn business.  Great technologies and experienced business knowledge make for great systems.

Are you ready for a new system?  All we can hope for is that you consider our opportunity and follow the progress.  We have included and will be adding feature videos.   Please sign up for Bravo so that we can keep you informed and in the end, earn your business.

Thanks, and please join the Bravo Revolution.

Our Team is set out to fullfil a dream - Bravo

What are we set out to accomplish? When I entered the pawn business in 1980, I wanted to change the face of the Pawn Industry. In Nevada, Arizona, and Washington - Superpawn's brand had accomplished a distinguished brand.

Our technology was a great part of Superpawn’s success. We only scratched the surface of what we know is possible with system innovation. When I sold Superpawn in 2004, we retained the rights to all of the technologies we had spent 15 years and nearly 20 million dollars developing. Our technology is called PRIMA.

Today, with technologies that have proven capabilities and dependability, we have finally decided to harvest the core components of PRIMA and create a systems company for Pawnbrokers with one store or more. An Internet based system with robust components that will foster operating opportunities for Pawnbrokers that have only been dreamed of. And, some completely new ideas as well. A multitude of products all under one umbrella, tightly knitted, and fully integrated.

The team we have selected are a highly experience, exceptional programming, and system engineers, with each having over 20 years of experience in the Pawn systems industry. We welcome back Kelly and Mike. They will be contributing to this blog and we look forward to your suggestions and opinions. Our systems administrator and hardware specialist, Norm, has 25 years of experience and has been with us for 5 years.

We expect to hire 15 other specialists during this build; and we will be interested in computer programming resources throughout the project. Talented, like minded, and experienced in the pawn industry are the core requirements that we will be interested in the future for this project. Please contact us if you or someone you know would be interested?

During our first 2 months we will be collaborating, consulting, and educating ourselves. Our project calls out relationships, partnership, or alliances with these companies and government entities—Microsoft, Google, EBay, PayPal, Amazon, Apple, Western Union, Money Gram, NetSpend, ATT, T-mobile, Sprint, ATF, FBI, Homeland Security, and FTC.