paul smith's Snaps & Bytes e-home
June 2000
SCoRE. What is there to say about this great show which hasn't already been said? Nothing. So instead I'll tell you the future lies in being BIG.
Barclays Bank know it, Gangland Misters know it, Sumo Wrestlers know it and now you know it. Grow or stagnate. Expand or die(t). Evolve or Dissolve. "But how?" you're probably shouting. To save you from the acute embarrassment of yelling a rhetorical question at a magazine in public, I'm going to tell you.
You'll love this!… The secret is to sell more stuff.
You're not impressed? Ok, here's a bit more information.
There is any number of ways to increase your turnover. Some will kill your margin, but today I'd like to concentrate on broadening your range of products and services and remarkably, for once, I'm not just suggesting branching out into something we distribute.
I wanted to write myself a cool website. (You'll find the results at: http://paulmadbobsmith.tripod.com) Before I could prod the workings of HTML in an anxious way I needed a book. I visited every computer shop in my town but drew a -----. Ultimately I was forced to visit, of all things, a bookshop. I resisted the urge of every fibre of my being to look at the Black Lace erotic fiction section as I searched for a suitable tome. I found what I was looking for in the chunky orange shape of The Idiots Guide to Writing WebPages. It's great and, had it been in a computer shop and not a bookstore, I may have picked up a copy of FrontPage or some clipart at the same time. You follow my reasoning. So:
o If you don't already, why not sell computer books?
o Then display software nearby which relates to the titles you sell.
o Learn HTML (believe me, it isn't very hard) and offer to write peoples sites for them.
Big idea two. We've recently started distributing second user hardware. The response has been very surprising. It seems a lot of you get asked for this type of stuff all the time and haven't yet dabbled because you are wary of getting stitched up on some crappy old stock like a Kipper in casualty. The good news is if you use a supplier you can trust, as we do, the rewards can be very pleasant. We can supply dealers a Compaq P133, 12" TFT laptop for as little as £280, to happily retail at £499 inc. VAT. That's almost 35% margin on a system, and if that doesn't engage your interest, you're obviously making far too much money already.
Last and least, if you're a reader of Top Gear Magazine, you'll spot on pages 147 and 204 of the June edition e-mails from one Paul Smith. Ah! Fame at last! Chuffed that they chose to print my first ever letters to them, out of the literally hundreds that they receive each month? Lets just say my head is quite... What's the word?
497 words, Dale. Hope it's ok. I'll fax over the info from the DICE final this week too. Paul.