Stephen Falk, West Main Jewelry Buy & Sell, Rochester, NY
Entrepreneur Stephen Falk opened his first pawn shop in upstate New York in 1994 after a successful career in the wholesale tool and equipment distribution business. Following a meeting with Data Age founder and software developer Tom Streng at a pawn broker’s convention in the mid-90s, Stephen began using PawnMaster as his inventory management and point-of-sale software, and continues to use it to this day. (more…)
Why should I do business with you and not your competitor? Many companies try to solve this riddle. It seems like most of them have nothing but the best intentions but many of them have “happy ears” in their attempts to answer this question for themselves. Happy ears are when someone only believes in, or perceives how they answer the question above to be based on their own assumptions. These are their own beliefs but the real question is, “do your customers feel the same way you do”? At Data Age Business Systems, we constantly do the exercises highlighted in a book called Creating Competitive Advantage by Jaynie L. Smith. Simple stated, we test what we feel is the reason customers buy from us and then we poll our customers and ask them the same questions we’ve asked ourselves to make sure we’re in alignment. (more…)
With the 2016 Rio Olympics going on, I’ve found myself enraptured by the determination of the athletes. These people are worldwide outliers. The best of the best at what they do. The ones who challenge status quo. But how do they get there? Were they born that way?
Data Age Business Systems, the developers of PawnMaster, the leading pawn shop management software, announced today, the promotion of Bill Reinacher to Director of Operations.
All Businesses can talk about their great service or incredible products all day long, but self-promotion can’t come close to instilling the kind of credibility and authority that comes from customer testimonials, customer success stories and customer loyalty. Especially from customers you have been doing business with for many, many years.
Over the years I have had the pleasure of meeting and working with so many successful and highly inspirational people. These people span many different business sectors and they all seem to have similar traits. Tony Little is one high energy guy who was one of the pioneers, not only in the fitness industry, but also in the marketing arena driving a new medium called the ”infomercial”. He has to his credit over 70 success ventures to the tune of almost 3 billion dollars in generated revenues. Whether you have purchased one of the products he has sold or not, (I have, the ab crunch was inexpensive and awesome) I’m sure you’ll agree his style and passion for what he does is unmatched. (more…)
Once again, I’d like to sight a source I have strong roots to. Good to Great by Jim Collins is a wonderful piece of work. Not only is it validated by many, it is driven by common sense. Staying silent to avoid a conflict or preserve your position can be damaging across the board. Great companies welcome open dialogue, where the end result promotes new ideas, new ways of doing things, and collaboration. Staying silent does no one any good. Mr. Collins talks about healthy debate without assigning blame. Speaking up does not mean lashing out and fostering negativity to drive your point.
All of us have big dreams and can visualize our success no matter what the target or goal may be. At times these dreams are bigger than we can handle but the ride sure is a pleasant one when you drift away in thought. Many of these goals can be achieved and one of the many secret sauces in doing this is how motivated you are. (more…)
Many businesses use Quickbooks ™ to track their company’s finances, but entering in the day’s transactions can be tedious, costing the shop money in the long run. With General Ledger, you have the ability to export information directly from your PawnMaster program into your accounting software, without the arduous task of entering in the data by hand.
Over the years I have hired or contributed to hiring hundreds of professionals. When hiring we try to hire for attitude first, coachability second and finally for a domain skill with experience. I think we would all agree attitude is a very desirable attribute you can’t coach up all the time. When hiring for a specific position, for example Sales, we know there really is not an exact science to replicating success. Some may have higher success ratios than others but at the end of the day, in the hiring process, it boils down to the individual you are inviting to join your teams. At Data Age, we feel as long as we have the right attitude we can find a seat on the bus for someone. Not everyone knows, right out of the gates, what their path is in life or in the workforce. Many sales people find out they want to go into marketing and even more just want to help customers, thus seeing them take on a client support role.