November 2006
Success Stories
Jeremy & Lori Johnson
Jeremy and Lori Johnson’s dream was to purchase the Modern Cleaners in Canyon, Texas. During their evaluation period, the SBDC assisted them with a Business Valuation, a Historical Trend Analysis and Financial Projections. With these documents and their equity, they got a Federal Home Loan Bank EDPlus Equity Match Grant and a First United Bank SBA guaranteed loan to purchase the business.
Business
- Modern Cleaners
Owners
- Jeremy & Lori Johnson
Location
- 411 16th St, Canyon
Phone
- 806-655-3611
Employs
3 FT, 3 PT
Contact Us
SBDC
701 S Taylor Suite L118
Amarillo, TX 79101
806-372-5151
fax 372-5261
email
Sponsors
NewsTalk 710 KGNC
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Affiliations
Funded in part through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration. All opinions, conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SBA.
WTAMU Small Business Development Center is a member of the
Northwest Texas SBDC Region Network.
Accredited by the Association of Small Business Development Centers
The Psychology of Pricing
The "9" Effect
Pricing
is so critical to most businesses that a 1% change can mean the difference
between failure and success, yet most business owners don't understand how
to price for maximum profit. Consumers use several methods to gauge
prices, including the following:
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Price familiarity. Customers know the prices of items they purchase frequently and they will respond to changes in the pricing of those items. Merchants have more pricing flexibility on products which customers have difficulty becoming familiar, e.g. those that vary among retailers by design, quality, or size.
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Signpost items. Customers use what they know about some items to make inferences about others - they know what the price of tennis balls should be and if they are priced reasonably, customers assume that the store's rackets are also priced reasonably.
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Sales promotions. While offering items on sale may increase your overall sales receipts, overusing such promotions will dilute their effectiveness in the long run.
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The "9" effect. Customers seem to react favorably when they see prices that end in "9". In one example, a national women's clothing catalog raised the price of a dress from $34 to $39 and sales increased 33%.
From "Research Findings You Can Utilize", a talk presented at the New England Mail Order Association conference by Duncan Simester, head of the Marketing Group at the Sloan School, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
For a quick look at how adjusting your pricing will affect the bottom line, contact the SBDC for a Financial Projection Model.
Notary Services
Free to Clients
The
SBDC now has four Notary Publics to provide notary services to our
clients. The most common use of the service is for filing
Assumed Name Certificates, also known as a DBA (doing business
as). Banks generally require a DBA registration in order to
open a business bank account and businesses can gain some degree
protection for a business name by filing a DBA. A filing fee
will be charged by the county clerk involved, but the SBDC
services, including the Notary services necessary to witness the
certificate, are free. For more information on DBAs, or to search
available business names in Potter or Randall counties, visit the
DBA section of our website.
Quote of the Month
"We must open the doors of opportunity. But we must also equip our people to walk through those doors."
- Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th President of the United States (1908 - 1973)
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