I wonder if you’ve noticed, as I have, that over recent years employees and businesses have become more comfortable with a dressed down environment. Balancing that trend with the belief that in business the clothes make the man or woman can create conflicts in the workplace, especially when it comes to whether or not to implement a dress code. We all want our businesses to be portrayed in the best light, while still allowing the self expression of our employees, so this is what I've found that works.

Dress code? Yes, but with flexibility. Consider what your purpose is in implementing a dress code. I like to think of a dress code as a guideline to steer employees to make the right decisions, rather than a list of "don't's." As a business owner I want my employees and my business to appear professional; however, I don’t want everyone to have to dress the same. Create a policy that is most appropriate for your employees and your business environment.

It depends. Having a dress code is important but based on the products you sell and industry you’re in, it could be very different from a formal corporate dress code. When creating a dress code, make sure it will make your employees and customers feel comfortable interacting with your business. As an extreme example, if your store sells skateboarding equipment, it would be silly and off-putting to customers if employees had to wear suits.

Be sensitive. As any business owner is aware when designing policies, you have to pay attention to any potential discrimination pitfalls, whether by gender, religious or race. To be safe, have your attorney review any policies you write. In general, if your policy places a greater burden on anyone based on gender, race or religion, it could be a problem.

How have you handled this issue with your business?

If you’ve been looking for a new retail concept that has less start-up costs than a traditional store front and can be profitable much more quickly, consider selling out of a truck. I recently read an article about a couple of entrepreneurs in Boston, MA, that renovated a van they bought off of Craigslist, outfitted it with laminate floors and wood paneled walls and created a rolling t-shirt and sneaker store. The van pumps out hip-hop tunes and sells streetwear as the guys announce their locations using Twitter. Could this be a retail concept that might work for you?

A couple of months ago I received the email below from Pottery Barn, which was sent to customers located in the areas devastated by the recent hurricanes (and tornadoes). I thought it was such a considerate gesture — and it's something I've never seen before from a major retailer. This type of soft-sell is a great way to garner customer and community goodwill and win the loyalty of your customers while attracting new ones.

I’m hoping this campaign will inspire you to think about what's happening in your local community this holiday season. Perhaps it may provide an opportunity for you to reach out in a new and creative way.

We've all been there. You meet, interview and then hire the person that you are absolutely sure will be your best salesperson ever. Then they turn out to be awful. So what makes a great salesperson? Are they born or made? I recently read a great article on this subject and thought I’d share my takeaways with you on how you can spot a successful salesperson.

Can they talk the talk? A successful salesperson will be immersed in their chosen industry and be able to talk the talk easily with customers and prospects. For example, they will know and easily use industry standard acronyms, such as POS or POP.

Are they adaptable? A successful salesperson will intuitively collect information, internalize, and adapt their approach based on past experience with customers. They will refine their pitch to the gender of their customer based on how they’ve observed men and women receive their sales pitch differently.

Do they understand politics? A wise man once said “wherever two or more are gathered, there is politics.” A successful salesperson will understand the human and personal nature of a purchase decision and be able to navigate within that environment intuitively.

Are they hungry? For a salesperson to be successful they need to have a healthy measure of hunger that compels them to close sales. A successful salesperson will appreciate being fairly compensated for their efforts. Successful salespeople are rarely the sort that will say “I’d do this job even if I wasn’t getting paid.”

We know it’s coming and it’s fast approaching… the craziness of the holiday season. Time flies, demands are high both from work and home life, and it’s easy to feel pushed to the limit. Now consider that your employees and customers are likely feeling similar holiday stress. So, how can you alleviate some of this stress while still getting everything done? I’ve been reading up on the subject lately and here are some timely tips you can put into practice:

Set priorities
Remember that monsters live in the dark, so make a point of shedding light on the enormity of what you have to accomplish during the holiday season by creating an overall plan of attack before it begins. Then make a habit of creating a "to do" list each day, and assign a priority to each and every item on your list. Your priority ranking should include three categories: critical, must be done today; important, but can be done tomorrow; and low priority, can be done in the next day or so. Share your priorities and "to do" list with your staff as well.

Remember stress relief techniques
For some reason, in the hustle of our busiest times we tend to forget the techniques we use in calmer times to manage our stress, such as walking, deep breathing or practicing yoga. Create a system to remind yourself and your staff of the stress relief tricks that work best for you. Get daily reminders by "Liking" About Stress Management on Facebook or installing an app on your smartphone.

Affect your environment
Create a calming environment both at home and at work that will carry you through your most stressful days. At your store play to the five senses by choosing a soothing scent, calming holiday music and perhaps even serve calming herbal tea to customers and employees. Keep in mind that “laughter is the best medicine” and foster an air of humor and fun among your employees and customers. For example, create a fun, unobtrusive game with daily prizes for employees. Have a game for customers as well, such as spinning a prize wheel for daily prizes.

Have fun and enjoy the holidays!

According to a new study that was just issued by American Express, independent American Express merchants who participated in Small Business Saturday saw an average boost in sales of 28% on Small Business Saturday.

Here are three ways that you can participate in Small Business Saturday (taking place on November 26th this year):

Contact your customers via email, telephone, social media and mail to invite them to store—utilize all of your marketing channels to promote this important initiative.

Plan fun and creative events for the day—Make the day special through a calendar of events for the day such as, holiday food sampling, festive music, free glasses of wine, tree trimming classes, or a local artist to the store to hand sign their work.

Hang signage throughout your store and use your windows to announce your participation in Small Business Saturday—remember that your windows serve as free “billboard advertising,” along with clever in-store messaging about the importance of why your customers should shop locally.

Are you looking for some additional tips on how to market Small Business Saturday to your customers? Please join us tonight for a free webinar titled, “A Retailers Guide to Small Business Saturday: How to Leverage the Power of this Initiative to Drive More Traffic and Profits for Your Store."

Register now for this free webinar.

I’m passionate about promoting independent retailers, especially during the critical holiday shopping season. Here are a few points of inspiration to help you jump start your holiday marketing plan today.

Develop an online marketing campaign.
Be sure to include email marketing, your website, social media and your store enewsletter to communicate the exciting events and promotions that are going on in your store and community during the holiday season.

Utilize direct mail.
Direct mail is not dead, and postcards are very inexpensive to produce. Mail one to every customer in your database and drop one in every shopping bag. Use the postcard as an opportunity to promote all the holiday events that you have planned.

Host in-store promotions to take place throughout the holiday season.
Consumers will be on the lookout for good deals this season. Drive more traffic to your store with special in-store events (a class on how to trim the tree, event with Santa or special Men's Night Out).

Pick a special day, like Small Business Saturday, to offer a substantial store discount.
Consumers are conditioned to believe that after Thanksgiving retailers offer the good deals. Take advantage of all the buzz around SBS and offer a big discount on your customer's entire purchase (or on one item) on November 26th.

Develop strong visual merchandising displays.
Amazing holiday visual merchandising displays will ensure that your customers spend more time in the store because it's enjoyable. Plus, word travels fast and your customers will share their fun experience with family and friends, driving more traffic.

Create a fun holiday contest on Facebook.
Engage your customers through a fun and exciting promotion on Facebook. Choose a few lucky winners to receive gift certificates to your store.

Support a cause this holiday season and invite your customers to join you.
Non-profits will need all the help they can get. Select a charity and start a donation bin in your store, encouraging customers to buy something there to donate to the charity. Include signage above the donation area about the charity and think about offering a special discount on the charitable purchases.

When I start to feel the crisp chill of fall in the air, I automatically start thinking about the holidays and the holiday trends for the year. Consequently I’ve been reading up on trends for this year and thought I’d share with you some of what I’ve found. I hope it helps inspire ideas for decorating your store with what your customers may be looking for to deck their halls in 2011.

Themes: Unconventional opulence – A new kind of opulence is en vogue this year; it’s a way of transforming your space into a place of comfort and well-being away from the harsh economic and political realities of our modern world.

Giving trends: Sustainability – A new type of sustainable gifts will be popular this year. Customers will be looking to give gifts that are not only eco-friendly, but also made with quality to be long lasting and not disposable.

Colors: Silver with light green – Pair light green with silver this year for a look of frosted greenery. I’ve also read that a wide variety of blues will be popular, along with the traditional red and white.

Tree decorations: Forest animals, like birds, deer, squirrels and owls, as well as more and exotic animals like peacocks will be popular tree decorations this year.

I’d love to hear what trends you're seeing for this holiday season.

Below are a few ways you can promote Small Business Saturday and drive customers to your store on November 26th.

Get a jump start on marketing Small Business Saturday through your online marketing campaign far in advance of the event. Start talking about the special events and promotions that you will offer on SBS on your website, blog (if you have one), social media pages, store newsletter and email marketing as soon as possible.

Create a special promotion to market on Small Business Saturday. Consumers will be hungry for good deals, particularly this season. Offer some sort of discount off the purchase of one item, an entire purchase or on a specific popular product line. The more deals you market, the more likely people will be to come in and check it out.

Drive even more traffic to your store through your social media push. Market SBS and your store promotions and events through Facebook, Twitter or even a YouTube video.

Issue a press release to the local media that you are a local merchant participating in Small Business Saturday. News reporters will be searching for local retailers to include in news articles around Small Business Saturday.

Send a printed or handwritten invititation to your VIP customers with a special offer redeemable on SBS. Your top customers often represent 30% or more of your holiday sales. Extend a special invitation and a special offer incentivizing them to visit the store on SBS.

Plan fun events throughout the day on SBS, then create a promotional postcard and/or email that you send to all of your customers in your database outlining the schedule of events (trunk show, local artisan signing books, wine and cheese, etc.).

Post store signage. Utilize your store windows as a billboard to market this important event.

Run a print ad in your local newspaper with a special coupon offer. Broaden your marketing reach by running a print ad on Black Friday when consumers are turning to the newspaper to plan a shopping strategy for the weekend.

Also, remember to visit the SBS Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ShopSmall for more ideas!

Just as we feel like we’ve got social media figured out, along comes a whole new trend for retailers to watch for. I’ve recently seen some great write ups on businesses that are now combining social media and gift giving. Sites like Giftiki.com and Shareagift.com harness social networking and online payments to make the gift giving chore something fun for the giver and receiver. These sites allow you and fellow gift givers to effortlessly pool your money toward something the recipient actually wants (like a new iPad) rather than receiving the assorted bad ties and scented candles. Giftki acts like an app on Facebook and will pull in the birthdays of your Facebook friends so users don’t even have to input data.

How can retailers get involved? Do some browsing and look into these companies, learn how their businesses work and how you may be able to collaborate with them. For example, with Giftki, they use American Express and Amex’s Serve online payment system. Do you accept Amex and are you able to accept Serve payments on your website? If not, you may want to consider getting signed up to accept online payments like PayPal and Serve.

Also, keep this trend on your radar and let’s come up with some new ideas on how specialty retailers can use collaborative gifting in our own businesses.