We have laid out the five ways to grow your business, and the three over-arching changes that you will have to adopt to make the five ways work most effectively for your business. 

If you have not yet read about the five ways or the three over-arching changes in the article "What Does Growing Your Business Mean?" let me know and I will E-mail a copy to you. 

This is the first of a multi-part series of articles that will be published through the Bike Profits Newsletter focusing on practical How-To Ideas, or the tactics needed in order to implement the changes you make in strategies, policies and your retail process to grow your business.

Let's discuss the immediate opportunity. 

We recommend you identify local bicycle lifestyle niches in your community and take action to own them where you live, or as many niches as make sense for your business plan going forward.

In future articles we will examine the upper-end and fit athletic road, tri and xterra market niches, along with folding bikes, recumbents, BMX, freestyle, tandem and electric, but the biggest set of interrelated niches is infrequent, casual and non-cycling baby boomers, with the focus on women.

There is a lot of talk within the specialty bicycle retail channel about selling more to the 76.9 million baby boomers between 44 and 62 years of age, and to women in particular.  Some bicycle brands are offering women's specific models, and others are providing layouts for dedicated women's areas in stores. 

All of this is good, but still doesn't get to the heart of the changes that bike shops, and bike shop owners have to make to sell more merchandise to baby boomers in general - and specifically women. 

The Bicycle Product Supplier Association (BPSA) funded a research project the end of 2007 that brought to light the fact that the bicycle industry has done little or nothing to raise the awareness of the general public, including non-bicycle riding baby boomers and women about the advantages and fun of bicycling. 

The BPSA research also confirms the earlier research conducted by IDEO for Shimano relative to the Coasting project...most baby boomers and women in particular wouldn't even think about shopping at a bike shop because they don't feel welcome, are intimidated and confused by the merchandise and the way it is displayed - or have had a bad experience and simply will not come back. 

There are two ways to look at this.  One way is what many in the bike shop channel of trade have already adopted...which is to ignore, or deny the problem.

The other is to recognize, as some specialty bicycle retailers have...the huge opportunity that baby boomers and women represent, and invite them in!   

Here is a big and immediate opportunity, in this economy, for the bike shop owners in the U.S. who are willing to make a few low-risk changes and reach out and introduce themselves and the joy, health enhancement and just plain fun of cycling to a whole bunch of new customers.

Each individual bike shop can make itself relevant and greatly raise its awareness and importance in its local market space - and do so within its current and available budget, and without any help from the national brands.    

If you want to know the demographics and buying power of baby boomers and women, let me know and I will send you the details...but the baby boom generation represents a lot of U.S. consumer buying power, much of which will continue to be spent on what boomers want, when they want it right through the current economic turndown - and beyond. 

Your immediate and primary strategic changes relative to the opportunity are:

   *  Focusing your whole organization on becoming consumer-centric

   *  A complete retail process

   *  Develop a passion for retail

Tactical How-To Ideas To Implement Strategy And Grow Your Business:

This is the first article in a whole series of How-To Ideas, and you can't do everything at once, so here are three priority tactical areas I recommend starting with and taking immediate action on:

1. Take a first critical look at the outside and inside appearance of your store and clean up, brighten up and start to organize for easy and enjoyable shopping.
2. Develop and implement an in store sign program.
3. Focus on the greeting!

• Taking a first critical look at the outside and inside appearance of your store.

Outside: Take a good, slow and critical look at the outside or your store.  If you don't want to take a look around, have your managers, employees and customers do so...and have all of them report back what they would like to see improved, or cleaned up! 

An outside appearance that is worn or shows its age needs to be brightened and some times this is just a matter of soap & water, paint and elbow grease!

Entrance:  Make sure the same critical look is given to your entrance.  Are there those neat looking brand or manufacturers decals all over your front door or entrance windows?  If there are...get a razor blade and have them scrapped off!  Make sure the windows and floors are cleaned, and are checked and kept clean on a regular schedule.  If your staff doesn't know how to properly wash windows, sweep and mope floors or vacuum, now is a good time to train them!   

Neutral zone:  Shoppers simply can't process what they see at the walking speed they first enter your store...it takes 3 to 4-seconds for their brains to catch up on processing what they see.  So, don't crowed the front entrance, and create a "neutral zone" at store entrances that is open and inviting and allows shoppers to start to get comfortable in your store environment.

Add flowers and green growing things:  A good way to help shoppers feel comfortable is by adding flowers and green growing things at, around and inside your entrance. 

Wide aisles:  Walking into a cluttered store with narrow, hard to navigate aisles is a definite turn off.  It is important to organize your store displays to allow a shopper who enters to see a clear path or paths to navigate, and shop your store.  Easily getting a repair bike or stroller through aisles, and being able to pass other shoppers with out a struggle is critical to an enjoyable shopping experience. 

• Develop and implement an in store sign program.

Signs Sell:  Its simple...good, well-located signs are a part of a systematic retail process, and they are tools that assist store sales.   Walk into your store, and look around.  Are there signs of a size and located where you can easily read them that guide you to the main departments?  If not, take a look at what you have to do to get such signs in place as soon as possible. 

Directional signs:  Shoppers being comfortable navigating your store, and finding what they are looking for is part of making them comfortable and enhancing the shopping experience.

Remember to look at and use signs both coming and going!  Even retailers with good in store signage often completely forget that shoppers walk in more than one direction in any store.

Departmental, category and product signs:  The first tactical opportunity is to guide, educate and inform shoppers about the differences between difference types and styles of products, but also between different models and price points. 

I am not talking about self-service, but I am definitely talking about helping shoppers (and your staff) become more knowledgeable about the products in your store, and assisting them in understanding the different levels of functionality and value that you are offering.

The second tactical opportunity is to guide, educate and inform your store sales associates, both full-time and part time.  Signs on bicycles and merchandise will make it much easier to educate your part-time staff, and will make them much more comfortable working on the sales floor, so they in turn will make the shoppers they serve much more comfortable.  The same applies to your new hires, whether part-time or full time.

No hand lettered signs please!  You can create all or some of the signs you need in store using your office PC and strike a balance between what you make yourself and what signs you have a vendor make for you. Implementing a good, effective professional looking sign program is a tactic that will pay for itself many times over!   

• Focus on greeting!

The intercept or greeting is more critical than most bike shop owners realize.  Our experience with Mystery Shopping shows that the greeting is one of the weakest portions of the typical bike shops retail process. 

Finding the absolute best greeting for making shoppers feel welcome and comfortable in your store may take time, or you may already be there, but the first few seconds upon entering your store is the critical period during which a shopper is going to determine if they are comfortable, will stay and shop...and more importantly decide if they are beginning to like the shopping experience. 

So...after the entrance and moving through the neutral zone, the intercept and greeting that happens within the first 60 to 90 seconds is critical to a shopper finally determining if they are going to stay and shop your store.    

There is a school of thought in the bike shop channel that you should not intercept, or greet as soon as shoppers enter the store, the conventional wisdom being that most shoppers want to be left alone to look around, and don't want a sales person hanging on them.

The last part of this rings true, but the initial intercept and greeting is critical, and it is during this initial greeting that a greeter or sales associate determines through the questions they ask and the responses they get as to whether they back off and let a shopper look around, or not. 

Men shop differently than women, and both will give off strong signals if they want to look around on their own...but both will also expect you and your staff to stay close enough to answer questions and be available when they want you.  Both are also absolutely put-off and irritated if they are, in their perception, ignored. 

Also, if your store isn't properly signed, and your merchandise isn't properly signed, you are negating the advantage to letting a shopper "look-around." 

What I want you to do tomorrow!

What we all tend to do is read articles like this, agree with what makes most sense to us, and make a mental note...but in the course of our busy days, we just never get around to taking action. 

Write it down!  What I want you to do tomorrow is make up your mind about which tactical how-to ideas from this article make the most sense to you for implementation to help your business grow...and write them down! 

Share it!  Next, share what you have written down with your managers and staff, and explain why you feel making the changes required to make the idea or ideas happen will help grow your business.  Listen for positive feedback and input, and ask for support in making the changes happen.

Take action to make it happen!  Last, and most important...take what you have written down and with the support and help of your managers and staff...make it happen as soon as possible for the benefit of your business and your whole organization!     

Future articles in this series will cover: outreach to invite them in; making your store the brand; become a third place; the sea of wheels; good, better best merchandise selection; lifestyle display and product packages; store lighting, including natural lighting and skylights; dressing rooms, rest rooms and seating; digital signs and kiosks and when to use and not use flat screen TV; becoming a multi-channel retailer.