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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

Store Commerce and eCommerce operated as ONE.

Where is Maxpawn.com?

The Bravo revolution will blur the lines of Online selling and your Store Commerce. The Internet and your Store will be One!

We are working our booty off and we are very disappointed we are late, however we go live Beta Jan 10th, to our selected beta stores and live to the rest of our Bravo Users Jan 20th, 2012.  I have included a variety of style sheets and Bravo Screen shots from our Test Version.  We decided to complete the fully integrated Web Return Management functionality in the first release.  Now you will have a Web process for customers to return items and business users to manage the all important customer service, notification, and refund processes all in one.

What revolutionizes your business is the ability to conduct business from your store on Bravo POS and see it immediately on our website – Maxpawn.com.  Whether you are pricing a product, selling a product to a customer right in front of you, all of these updates happen real time in front of your eyes.  Dozens of processes are incorporated into Bravo so you can sell in your store and the Internet as one, simple, the same way.  No more duplication of effort.

What you see on Maxpawn.com

What you see on Bravo POS.

as ONE

The vision of this product is emerging in the next days.  Store Commerce and eCommerce were never supposed to be one.  One was supposed to wipe out the other.  Bravo revolutionizes the traditional store with the web as one.  Bravo can put your store back into the driver’s seat.  Now it’s your turn.  Call or Email Bravo.

Cynthia Ramirez

Cynthia@bravorevolution.com

219-218-7919

Why is the time now to change your store operating system?

Why is the time now to think about a new system?

As a small business operator, doesn’t it feel like everyone in business is picking on you?  Wal-Mart is lowering its prices to put you out of business.  Amazon has created a phone app that captures the product information and gives back the user a result of the same item for less – while in YOUR STORE!  Read this article, Amazon Price-Check App Is Attack on Small Stores, And then Siri, which I had to add to my dictionary to write this article and has become a Noun and Verb overnight, is Apples new voice recognition service that works.  Really works.  So it does not take much imagination to ask Siri, “I need a power cord for my Ipad2” and Siri answering back while you are shopping at your mall, “You are 3 stores away, around the corner at the Apple Store, back shelf, 3^rd row”.  And last week Google announced 3D Maps, showing you where you are, what floor, and what isle.  Your phone will be your guide, your shopper, your adviser.

I have been lecturing this message the last 12 years.  “If you don’t have a cohesive integrated eWeb strategy you will be irrelevant and out of business.”   You need a system that can combat the big brutes and there sneaky web apps out to get your business. 

Store commerce is what you do every day.  Brick and Mortar with stuff inside to sell customers walking through the front door.   ECommerce started in 1998 was seen as a glorified electronic mail order catalog.  Back in 1998 there were predictions that it would wipe out the traditional retail stores.  It has not happened.  It has continuously grabbed share.  Continues to go up, but so far it hasn’t really come close.  So what has changed today?

Mobile.  That Star Trek device has become reality.  That phone has become a powerful personal computer hooked up to a mass of computers that are now called the Cloud which represents a bank of computers, millions of times more powerful than the computers that sent up NASA’s shuttles.  It’s in your hand.

The adoption of these apps, applications, computer programs have swung the pendulum off the clock.  Everyone loves it, everyone can’t live without it, and everyone wants more.  Sound familiar?  It’s the best drug since the word drug came about.

So here is what we have.  We have phones, that know where we are, know what we want to buy, and can search the inventories of the world or around the corner to find you the best price, best delivery, and with a simple click, exchange funds and have that item off on its way to your destination or pickup to meet your happy satisfaction.   The most gorgeous transaction ever created.

Where do you and your business fit in?  So, what I have learned over the years is that these fissures of competitive nature don’t happen overnight.  There effects are gradual.  And they are inevitable. Its accelerating.  It could be the tipping point.

There are many ways to combat the net effect of competitive nature.  What catches your attention is net effect.   It means less money in your pocket at the end of the year.  Some of you will reduce your work force.  Some will find other areas to cut.  But in the end, these cuts eventually cut into your service and product and again inevitably your boat springs a leak, you’re sunk.  These are those really successful iconic businesses that go broke after 15 plus years.  They lost their relevance.

So here is my grand idea.  Combat.  Hand to hand combat with the same weaponry the big competitors have.  The playing field just evened out.  Now you can afford it.

What is so cool about small business is that we are smarter on the ground, and we are on the ground. Big boy are flying high and slow to respond.  The Big boys have the air (TV, Radio, and mass media) covered.   Big business can shock and Aw.  Small business doesn’t have a shot in purchasing these Medias with the effectiveness that they have.  In some cases though the Big Retail create demand for goods that are also in the hands of small retailers.

Knowing your customer best as a small business is a huge advantage if you’re delivering the personal experience you should be.  Are you letting your customers win?  So, we win in the customer relationship column.

Merchandise or merchandising hasn’t changed no matter what size you are.  As a retailer if you are good buyer, you will retail your inventory.

The Big News

Now there is a new branch of the Department of Defense, Bravo.

The elements introduced the last 15 years are the Internet, Broadband, Wireless, Mobile, Social, and Applications (Apps).  The Internet up to this year was simply used and seen as a Marketing Channel.  The last 15 years we all put up web sites to let people know who we are.  Some of us transacted on EBay and Amazon and these types of transactions spurred on today’s innovation.  If you take all of these, (Internet, Broadband, Wireless, Mobile, Social, and Applications (Apps)) and leverage into your business, you and your business are big news.  This is where a small handful of Big Businesses are today, it’s already here, and where all Big Businesses will be
. 

If you ask yourself how big iconic brands disappear?  They don’t believe its coming.

To do this successfully, big business figured out that all these elements need to be integrated in order to deliver the goods effectively and therefore profitably.  The stuff in warehouses and in their stores needed to be transparent and one, and on the Internet, Social, Mobile, and app.

Big business has always had big bucks.  Even when Big Blue – IBM, had the mainframes, the retailers that could afford these, and believed, became the leaders.  Small business can’t afford.  Technology is a huge competitive advantage, and the huge cost by itself is the barrier.  Small businesses lose.

Even today this cohesive technology that is being laid down cost hundreds of millions of dollars to develop.  And even if you can afford, these companies’ employees and management have to believe.  You have to believe, because if you have the technology in your hands you have to apply this to your business and this requires learning and change. 

The biggest barrier is your ability to change.

Do you believe?  The technology is now available.

The future for small business     
Click here to sign up for a free live web demo.

No more servers or backups but what has become mission critical.

Your Network  the backbone to successful uninterrupted business services.

Bravo Business Systems is the world’s most powerful store operating system.  We power the Bravo application with IBM servers in the most protected colocation facility in the United States.  We have built this with the most secure technologies from Microsoft.  These are tomorrows technology here today.  This is all possible because of the Cloud and the Internet.

Moore’s technology law is still holding true today.  Expect all forms of technology to get faster.

There are 2 points of failure when Bravo’s data center sends a result to your store.  The Internet and your store.  The Internet has multiple routes to get to your store and it travels at the speed of light. It is not fail proof, but the most dependable communication link.   Bravo’s data packets travel round trip from coast to coast in about ¾ of second.  The speed of light travels much faster than that, but the data packets go through a number of gates to get to your store and back.

• ·         Your store is a destination and your router is the gate.   How is the landing pad functioning and quality – your router? 

• ·         Once the data packet passes the router the next gate is the switch that directs the packet to the correct destination.  

• ·         The switch also assists in finding the direct address so that the data packet goes to the destination in the most direct path. 

• ·         Your cables and connections. Believe this, if you haven’t replaced your cables in the last 7 years plus, there have improvements made that can make your hard wire network 10x faster and more reliable.

• ·         Optional wireless router – wireless routers are improving drastically every year, construction of your store, walls, and competing frequency can all impede the performance and reliability.

• ·         Ah, finally we are home; the computers or printers in your store.  The computer’s memory and processing speed are critical requirements, what your computer is capable in doing when this data gets there is time back to our data center.  The printers capacity, black & white, color (7x slower), makes a very significant difference.

IMPORTANT - What we have found in most of our users stores is the Internet is being used a lot.  Whatever they maybe, intentional and unintentional, (employee policies of use need to be enforced), in the end the capacity is over utilized and some application is going to suffer.

Our first suggestion is to use common sense.  If your store is streaming video and other bandwidth hogs this needs to be managed or eliminated.  Some of you are using the Internet for Security surveillance – this a huge bandwidth appliance.

Our second suggestion is utilize a Network Specialist to access, manage, and maintain (Virus protection).  Need to keep your pipes clean and the Internet is no different.  One example of traffic priority is QOS – Quality of Service.  This is sometimes called shaping of the traffic.  Most  routers can be set to prioritize your traffic.   All of the other bullet points above can be assessed by your Network Specialist.

ISP – Internet Service Provider  The ISP that you pay your monthly fees for Internet is a conduit and manager of bandwidth.  When new customers in your area are activated in most cases your bandwidth needs to be re-calibrated.  The flow of bandwidth to your store can be diverted by your next door neighbor, Hmm.  All you have to do is ask your ISP to recalibrate what you should  be getting.  Here are some additional questions if you think there is a problem.

·         Is there any reason today (time period), that my service has been interrupted?

·         Is there any repair services being conducted near or around my store?

·         Can you check my connection now to see if you see any issues?

Let us know if you have any additional comments to add to this topic.

Thanks,

Where is your eCommerce

                                            

How is your Cyber Monday? Are you a part of it?  Are you a part of the commerce channel that’s rearing its head as a decisive game changing channel to sell, find customers, and for merchants that deal in Used goods, the source of merchandise and your lifeline?

Some of you are reluctant to ‘change what is not broken’, and not be on the ‘bleeding edge of technology’, but if you don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel today, you are going to be left in the dark tomorrow.

Since, 1998 Bravo team has been discovering the processes and technologies to best sell your merchandise from your stores shelves, to people that shop on the Web.  Bravo has methods built into its technology that enables you sell on the web in the most cost efficient and profitable manner.  Not only does Bravo turn your store into a Web eCommerce Machine, the basic Bravo Store system offers you huge cost savings for your current operations today.  Employees love using Bravo.  The traditional POS – Point of Sale is simply boring and antiquated, Bravo UI is exciting and informative.

Most of you have tried and currently sell on EBay.   You have discovered that unique and high demand items get premium resale prices.  You have experienced big prices for items that you could never have achieved if you were to wait for the right customer to walk through your store.   Have you ever asked yourself why?  The answer hurts that certain customers will not come into your store, but on the Web, these long stubborn aversions disappear.  People love shopping in hard to get places utilizing the Web.

You have also discovered what doesn’t make sense selling on EBay.  That doesn’t mean your inventory shouldn’t be available on the web 24/7.  Our eCommerce solution not only solves how to sell to someone outside your trade area, but drives traffic into your store with Bravo/Google Shop local.  Bravo incorporates “In Store Pick-up” so that shoppers can purchase and come in your store to pick up the item.  This allows customers to test the item and alleviates your staffs effort to wrap pack and ship.

Why Bravo?  We understand your business better than anyone else in the industry.

1.       Our unique process enables a profitable integrated web solution and no one else has figured this out.  We eliminate the cost and effort in promoting your items in the Web.  Every item that is introduced into Bravo POS is automatically lifted to the web with no effort.  Not only do you get the benefits of the best inventory management system, every item that is on your sales floor will be seen on the web – real time.  (Factoid - Every item that you promote on EBay costs you between $8.00 - $23.00 in overhead cost.  If you are currently selling on EBay you are probably losing money!)

2.       Bravo leverages 100% of your inventory to the web.  It is nearly impossible and cost prohibitive to put every item on EBay.  With Bravo is just happens.  With Bravo eCommerce every item is leveraged to the web at no additional cost.

3.       All other web solutions require you to individually build a product description.  Individually manage the communication.  Individually collect the funds.  Individually handle refunds.  Bravo web solution addresses all nuances in selling on the web.

4.       Bravo integrates with Google.  Every item from your store will be found on Google.  Not only will customers from far away be able to shop your store, but someone around the block will be able to shop every day.  Your inventory will found with ‘Google Shop Local’ 24/7.

5.       Bravo and PayPal.  Bravo integrates with PayPal.  All funds from web sales go directly into your PayPal account.  This enables you to be in full control of your funds.  With PayPal’s consumer guarantee, every item sold by your company is guaranteed by PayPal.

6.       Bravo costs you less.  Bravo will save you between 50 – 60% compared to what EBay and Amazon charges and we only charge based on a successful web transaction.  Each individual inventory item seen on the web from your store utilizing BRAVO is free.

7.       Bravo PRODUCT KNOWLEDGE.   Bravo data offers you information so that you know before you buy.  Our product knowledge shows you what sells well in your store and on the web.  How long it will take to sell and what you should pay when purchasing.  Our product knowledge also segments the values of products by quality.

8.       Bravo Insta-Search.  With Bravo you can instantly search for product information on Google, EBay and Bing.  Bravo offers one click search so that you directly find product information at click of a button.

9.       Communication.  How do you have time to communicate and keep track.  Bravo’s complete communication and notification system does it all and keeps track of every customer and every item.  BRAVO TASK MANAGER.  Bravo communicates to your employees on what needs to be done next.  Bravo’s calendar knows what needs to be done and when, no more nagging your employees, Bravo does it for you.

10.   BRAVO IS A PROVEN SOLUTION.  This only works as an integrated solution.  Bravo is a complete integrated solution.   If you want to sell on the web profitably, you must have a system solution that does the heavy lifting for you and now it’s completely available and affordable.

Is it worth changing from my current system to BRAVO?

We are certainly not afraid in challenging the status quo and all that we ask is that you try BRAVO for free and see for yourself.   The technology you are using is old and really expensive to maintain.  These products solved business opportunities 30 years ago, but they are all antiquated.  Bravo’s introductory offering is ending soon.

www.bravorevolution.com

Bravo is for today and the future.  We have a basic business plan and philosophy.  Create products that work and must add value to our customers.    You only pay for what you want and use.

Bravo Premium does everything that your current system does and more.  It offers you brand new Microsoft services and products that have never been available before Bravo, everything from cheaper methods to print tickets to the ticket itself.   Bravo has designed tickets with Burrell to cut down your costs.  Bravo Premium will reduce your operating costs, increase your revenues, and your employees will love it.  Very little adoption and lifts the productivity of your store because everyone likes to use it.

We partnered with BESTBUY Business and Geek Squad Business.

Finance or Lease

We learned early on that our responsibility to our customers was more than offering systems solutions but offering a hand in getting you there.  We partnered with Best Buy to provide you world class IT services for your store.  Not only are they available to install and sell you hardware at great prices all over the United States, but offer you Lease and Finance options.  Contact Arambh at BestBuy.

Arambh Sutaria

Account Manager for Bravo

Cell: 702-290-6837

Fax: 952-430-5633

arambh.sutaria@bestbuy.com

Learn how we can help at BBFB.com

Maxpawn.com - design winner

Our Favorite - click to enlarge

We have made our final design choice for Maxpawn.com.  What do you think?

Over the last 5 months we have been working between our Bravo engineering team and our new Maxpawn engineering team preparing Bravo Store Systems to integrate a comprehensive eCommerce website to enable our customers stores to sell on the Internet.  At full speed!

You no longer have to post items to a website.  100% of your inventory available on the internet without lifting a finger.  Bravo Store Systems does it all!.  From the moment you price an item to when your receive feedback from your customer

"Bravo's innovative systems will sell merchandise right off the shelf"

Many of you have asked why make the technology leap now?  Simple answer, the technologies are finally ready.  You are not imagining today's  amazing ramp of technologies.  Its all around us and it is accelerating faster than ever. Cloud - Computing Power - Network.

Sitting on your own server in your store is like sitting on a island. You may as well close your doors to customers.  We believe that if you position your store to ignore the internet in the next year, your store will become irrelevant.

Bravo's system will put you in the middle of the action and ahead of everyone.  The cost advantages from software, hardware, inventory management, product evaluation, marketing, and fees are all less with Bravo.

The most compelling opportunity that Bravo offers is it enhances your stores overall efficiency, grows your market, and enables your loan portfolios to grow like never before.  We are able to enhance your margin, sell your merchandise much quicker, and leverage  mammoth computing power into your store.

We designed this product for you and your employees.  Everyone loves the look and touch of Bravo. 

No one has our processes.  No one has our eCommerce.  No one has invested the passion and the money into a solution like Bravo.

Now the big guys will no longer have the advantage.  You will !

Call us for a demonstration over the web and get your hands on this amazing system.  888.407.6287.

Apple blurs the online relationship with the store relationship. Kick retail into the next gear. Apple again...

Apple blurs the line between the web and store.  Sound familiar?

Lets throw out the security worry, Apple puts energy into the positive side of efficiency and customer experience.

Apple Store Self-Check Out: Shopping, Perfected

Lets think why this is a good idea.  Customers like it.  Customers love it.  Saves store operating costs reducing the need for certain check out transactions.  CSA's -  Customer service agents can spend time really helping customers.  Reduction in space for check out stations.  Fast service initiated by the customer, wow!  Apple blurs the online relationship with the store relationship. 

What about security?  Does apple lose items out of there front door.  Yes.  For the fool who believes there is no loss will be out of business.  But, I dont believe Apple is not aware of the cost to implement this gregatious idea.  I do believe though that the customer experience and value being created along with the savings of not having to ring up simple items with operating savings, this new method of self-service is a winner.

The future of the store and web are as one.  Be BRAVO!

Bravo will sell stuff off the shelf - Last 4 months and what we have learned !

Wow.  What a first 4 months.  First, I am having more fun than I anticipated.  Developing software and not having customers to tend too is nirvana.  Not because I don't love customers, but development requires detailed attention, and starting out as a new business you don't have the resources to take care of customers as you should, and it takes a toll on the development when attention is diverted.  It is so much fun to paint the picture everyday and never let the canvas dry.  But this cant go on forever and we launched our product June 15th - 2011.  We released our test version to 10 different pawnbrokers and went live with my brother Michael's store.

Yes, this is what you do to family members :).  We thought carefully whether we should beta with Michael's store, but we knew he would be tenacious and suggestive.  Mike and his staff were amazing. It turned out better than any system change over, 4 total, that I have been a part of over the last 25 years.  There were a flurry of issues, we were ready, and now I can say we have a world class product. Bravo is freaking amazing.  Our team has added over 100 new features since June and remedied every issue our customers have thrown at us.

Big surprise.  In every installation so far, I am astonished what effort is required to ready our clients.  Everyone is afraid of change.  There are 1000's of  books on change.  Bravo is a game changer and you have to be ready to adjust.  When you have been practicing something for more than 3 years, and some for over 30 years, expect some change!  It is something that requires preparation.  My personal experience and style operating my company over the 28 years, was constant change.  Everyone that has worked for me either loved it or quit.  I was never satisfied, and it was my belief that when you stopped re-inventing, you were doomed.   Don't sit on your hands and wait for something to happen, because the things that happen are usually not positive. I don't believe in "don't fix what isn't broken" mantra.  I believe in making things better everyday.  Bravo customers can expect a dynamic product.

Well, installing Bravo I haven't found change enthusiasts.  No one is ready enough.   We have to do some hand holding, preparing, reminding, and coaching.  It is a bit crazy!  Now this isn't just for small, medium size companies.  We have been analyzing a number of public traded companies in the pawn industry over the last 3 months.  Same thing.   Great people, talented, just aren't as aware as you would think.  My software competitors read my blogs and they are laughing their asses off right now.  I had no clue, I was the naive one.  Damn.

We are adapting quickly and have a new program rolling out in the next 2 weeks.  Keep posted we are going to approach this obstacle head on.  

Another big surprise.  New Pawnbrokers are the best adopters and are simply 'with it'.  This industry has been using such antiquated tools, the old timers just don't know.  This is the real opportunity.  When you put experience with Bravo you take the existing Industry to the next level!  Can't wait.  The old timers have been forced to figure it out.  Come up with  the work-around, extra procedures, post-its, reminders, audits, and then ultimately extra personnel to do the job there systems should be doing.  Everyone that has been in this business for the last 5 years or more are so trained not to expect anything from their systems, they don't.

The new pawnbrokers just starting out have higher expectations, are knowledgeable what other systems do for other industries, and when they see Bravo it does more, they love it.  It makes sense to experienced retailers that are coming into the pawn business for the first time.  This has been really fun for our team to see the entrepreneurial spirit live on.  Our companies ethos is about helping small business create businesses and jobs.  We will be announcing a special offering for new pawnbrokers to continue the momentum.

Bravo has feature.  We have assembled the industries most powerful computing power, partnered with IBM,  the best tools by Microsoft - Azure/Cloud, and processes of PRIMA to make the best operating system ever.  It is packed with power and flat out generates more revenue for our users, reduces costs of the operation, and the design is loved by the users that use it everyday.  

We do admit missing a report that someone loves from one of the 20 other systems out there, we get to them within a few weeks.  Bravo has processes that no one can duplicate and we dedicate ourselves in creating new and better things in the future.  With a new system there new ways and better ways to look at your business.

Bravo has eCommerce.  This has been my dream for 12 years.  Since 1999 in Boston I have been dreaming of operating system that sells stuff off the shelf.  Here it comes, days away.  It is going to be freaking amazing, simple, integrated, and no extra effort for the store operator and employees.  The Website we are launching is www.maxpawn.com.  Out of the gate nothing fancy.  Stout, efficient, simple.

Believe.  It is hard work.  Change.  Be Bravo.  These systematic practices brought amazing results for my company and bringing this to you via Bravo will bring bounty to yours.  We have a robust platform, the theory has been tested and proven, we earn our money only when you have success.  The next 4 months will be even more exciting.

International Bravo-Mexico is completely internationalized and is ready for South America.  Europe is next !

thanks for following my blog.

Steve Jobs

We will deeply miss Steve Jobs.  Condolences to Steve's family and the World.  Steve Mack

How to maximize your Metals Recycling Business.

How to maximize your Metals Recycling Business.

Metals recycling project flow, all the way through refiner has become a critical component in the Pawn Industry.  The business has become more competitive and there is a “Gold fever” in every corner – more competition  to come.  Everyone is working on a smaller margin and the Gold Market is volatile.  Pawn Brokers have had a win fall in earnings while gold has gone up.  For those that have been around for a while,  it will/may go down as it did in the late 70’s.  Get ready to navigate and everyone needs to pay attention.

Turnover is critical and the faster is better if you are business that does not hold the gold for a rainy day.

1.      At the counter – accurate testing is becoming more critical because the margins are thinner.  You don’t have as much room.  The dollars a larger and you need to be accurate.  Measurement and accuracy at your counters need to managed and verified.  This is the greatest risk when you have employees and multiple stores.  You should deduct the actual weight of stones in Jewelry to accurately weigh the metals.

2.       While loans are in your safe in loan or a buy hold.  Periodic audits are good idea.  Although the way our business functions there is constant random audit going on.  A systematic audit is always a good idea and curtails internal shenanigans.

3.       When expirations occur and the envelopes are opened this is the 2^nd area of internal control that need to be managed and controlled.  This needs to be done other than the originating employee.  This deters individual self-dealing and again shenanigans.  During this process the item get reviewed, sorted, and processed for recycling.  This process insures that process 1 is measured and deviation is managed.  When deviation is out of whack, you have something to pay attention too.

4.       When you have your batch ready, a total pre-melt assay should be calculated.  Today’s gold price.  And estimated total value before it is sent to the refiners.  You should also know what your carat of diamonds and colored goods are contained in batches for “Soak”.  A separate cost for Metals – Diamonds – and Colored Stones should be in hand and before the batch is sent to the refiner an estimated net profit calculated.  Then send to the refiner.

5.      Total weights should be verified and (pre-melt assay and refiner assay) should be compared and deviation measured each time.  There are many reasons for deviation and when one occurs it’s time to investigate and figure it out.  Diamonds and Colored stones is the biggest opportunity today!  I believe this is an area Pawnbrokers can really get good at in the future, liquidity channels, and creative businesses.  You should be receiving more carats than you are estimating at the counter.  The deviation of carats you are getting back should be measured and managed as well.

Pay attention to the market price you send your gold in on, and what the day’s gold price you get paid.  Agree with you refiner what market price you are getting paid by.  Remember you get hurt on down day’s and you win when the market goes up, you should keep very close track during this volatile times.

Good news, in Bravo this is completely automated, measured, and gives you insight each time you recycle your most valuable opportunity and profit channel.  Metals Diamonds and Colored Stones.

Good Luck,

Loan Extension - Customers love it and so will you !

Extensions – can be a offering for 1 day, 5 days, 1- 30 days, etc.  In Bravo your Extension offering can be customized for your own company, so when an item that is in pawn is selected, a dialog pops up, shows the daily charge, click and collect what ever the customer has or days they want. It then extends/amends the loan and handles all of the administration and accounting.  Manually extensions are very difficult to track, in Bravo it is easier than a rewrite.  Bravo is able to differentiate the charges that allowed by California law.

Why would you want to offer this service?  Isn't it too hard?

1.       It’s a way to offer an additional customer service offering – more options for your customer to keep their stuff.
2.       It’s a way to get customers to come into your shop more often.
3.       Customers that don’t have enough $ for rewrites usually lose their loan.
4.       Some stores offer customer holds without payment – Bravo manages customer holds as well, but extensions is an option with payment
5.       Customers love this option, and this drives customers to stores that offer this service.
6.       I would not have believed how much traffic this drives to the stores, but for customers to have the option to pay 10 days of interest for example, to save their loan, they do, and they appreciate it.
7.       This option has been adopted by every publicly traded pawnshop company, albeit not all operate in California.  But they did not adopt this policy to lose money.  Their loan yields increased.
8.       Bravo manages the administrative time lines so that the transaction remains compliant and address the issues you stated.   
9.       Offering an extension to a customer offers fewer potential liabilities and higher customer service satisfaction, than a disgruntled customer losing their item that they really wanted to save.
10.   In the end there is less customer loss,  you keep more customers longer generating more revenues over time.

These are most of the reasons that we know of, and the reasons that we included this feature in Bravo.  Many small stores can’t offer this feature because of the daunting administrative overhead.  Stores that don’t have this feature are losing business across the U.S. to others that offer this service.  Customers benefit and Pawnbrokers make more money.  It’s a nice combo.

Steve