By Lawrance Morrissey
You may have heard the rumor by now, but if not... Yes it's true, we're moving the FSBO Store. Of course everyone always asks "why" so I'm going to go into some detail for our curious readers.
In short, we're moving to a larger, better layed-out space so we can provide our customers better services. I would however, be remiss to leave off some of the self-serving reasons as well. So much so, that I think I'll start there. Do you know the first 3 rules of real estate? Location, location, location. Our current store, for which we pay full retail price/square foot for, is no longer visible from the intersection of 116th and Allisonville. It was for the first year of our existence, but then Star Bank decided that since 15 other banks are at this intersection, one more wouldn't hurt. So they built their bank, and our visibility went down the toilet. At our new location, there are no out-lots to interfere with the crystal-clear visibility from the intersection of 96th and Allisonville Road. Of course, having a new sign built that reads "For Sale By Owner Services & Supplies" will also be a huge upgrade from our current "FSBO Store" signage.When opening our store, we grossly overestimated how many people knew what F-S-B-O stands for.
The second major reason we're moving is because we have a pole in the center of our store. This pole has become a problem in the way we want to layout the interior space. The major problem we have is the limited seating for our seminars. Ironically, the new store has not 1, but 2 poles! Luckily, they are in unobtrusive spots, allowing greater flexibility for the interior layout.
Since we custom ordered the interior dimensions of our new space, we were able to |
very throughly address many the needs that we felt would help serve our customers needs better. For starters, we decided to locate our desks in the center of the space and run electricity and phone lines under the floor to our new island. This allows us to use both north and south walls for displaying inventory. This arrangement will allow us to increase our selection of signs by up to 200%. Yes, bigger selection means more storage space will be needed for inventory. Check.
We recently invested in vinyl sign-making equipment. We can now make custom signs while you wait. Our new store has been designed with this equipment and vinyl inventory in mind. A dedicated vinyl cutting computer will keep our PC from being ambushed at inconvenient times and proper counter space and lighting will be installed to insure professional signs, everytime.
Our seminars are going to be revamped as well. Gone will be the days of using a hand-written flip chart to get our message across. Our new projector will enable multi-media presentations which will add interest, and aid in memory retention. Our seminars will be ported to DVD soon, for our customers who can't make the live presentation.
Tables will provide a space for seminar guests to camp out, so note taking and beverage balancing will no longer be a chore. Our new dedicated kitchenette area will be complete with cabinets and a sink.
Our new space has numerous other design details to help our day-to-day operations and make life a little easier for everyone who visits. Speaking of visiting, a heard another rumor that we were going to have an open house to celebrate our grand re-opening. Details to follow next month...
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