Guerrilla Warfare is commonly defined as ”a wartime strategy involving a small attacking, mobile force, typically deployed against a larger orthodox military force with less mobility.”

As a small business, you and your team are that “small attacking, mobile force”. You have the ability to move and react quickly, to pivot as things change, and to make decisions on the spot to protect your business. 

Let’s face it, it’s a different environment out there. While the pawn business has never been what you might call “conventional”, it still looks pretty different from anything many of you and I have ever  seen.

So what to do? How do we all move ahead, and do it PROFITABLY?

We all continue to hear about the “Tsunami” of loans, (I like to think of it as a “Tsunami of required capital”) but either way you look at it, we will all have a lot of loans that will be difficult to predict a redemption or payment schedule for. Buys should go up, and if our customers remain unemployed, payments, redemptions, and sales may be less than we expect.

All of this seems to point to an even greater need to “win at the counter”.

Our CEO, Len Summa, just wrote an article in The National Pawnbroker magazine about this very subject, and it is good news… Do what you do well every day! 

Every customer has a choice when it comes to spending their money, and taking care of their financial needs. The truth here is that your customer is your BIGGEST asset! Treat them well! Loan a bit more, sell for a bit less. Ask what THEY need and do your best to accommodate them. Now is the time to work on the “long game” that results in customers for life.

The stores that try to take advantage of a situation will be remembered by their customers, and the stores that win every day at the counter will be better and stronger for their efforts.