How Do I Find Daytime Volunteers?

There is no secret about where to find middle-aged, adult volunteers available for weekday assignments: recruit from the large segment of the workforce who do not work "normal" hours. In fact, logic shows that "normal" hours are relative indeed. Think about all the jobs that require: shift work; predominantly evening hours; weekend days; or odd or flexible schedules. More

Can We Recruit Volunteers Via the Internet?

Yes, you can, and recruiting volunteers on the Internet offers a number of benefits. It's an effective, fast, no-extra-cost way to find volunteers. It's an excellent way to target non-traditional volunteers, and people that are under-represented on your volunteer ranks. Before you post volunteer information in cyberspace, however, some words of caution. More

Dealing With Difficult Training Situations

A trainer or facilitator's task is to guide participants through a set of learning objectives while maintaining group cohesion. Very often, however, they are faced with the delicate task of managing individual behavior while maintaining the group dynamic. When faced with this kind of circumstance, trainers and facilitators must think fast and on their feet. More

Avoiding Volunteer Burnout

Experience is key to successful volunteer service; so don't start your volunteers off with too tough a task. Starter responsibilities may include leading a task force on a single issue, coordinating a single event, or taking a learning position on a committee. Volunteer burnout is often the result of over-sizing a volunteer task. More

The Relationship Between You and Your Customer

What is at the foundation of Retail Store Design and Visual Merchandising? If it could be boiled down to two principles that guide everything, it would be these. Don't think; feel. Stop looking at your store through your eyes, and start seeing it through your customer's eyes. More

An Expert’s Guide to Discounting

Think before you slash. That's the advice John Quelch, a professor of marketing at Harvard Business School, gives to business owners tempted to cut prices. "You don't want to give away your profit margin to customers who still would have paid full price," he says. Whether they're following Quelch's advice or acting impulsively, nearly 30 percent of small business owners say they have lowered their prices, according to a February survey by the National Federation of Independent Business. More

How to Develop Your Product Placement Management

Your objective is to maximize the sales across your whole store and therefore where you position products in the store can have a major effect on the overall return on your investment. More

Rate Your Store from a Shopper's Perspective

We've all shopped stores that have made such a bad first impression we've vowed they won't have the opportunity to make a second. But even if you consider yourself a critical shopper, you may have a blind spot when it comes to evaluating your own store. That’s why it's important to step back and look at your store from a shopper's point of view. More