Top 12 PawnMaster Blogs of 2017

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We would like to extend an extra special thank you to our partners and customers who have contributed to our blog this year to help us put out valuable information. 

 

1. 7 Habits of Highly Successful Pawnbrokers

  1. Keep Compliant Using Required Fields: In most areas of the world, collateral lending is highly regulated, and failing to abide by those regulations often results in heavy fines and punitive actions. One of the easiest ways to ensure that your employees are gathering all of the data needed for police reporting is to set required fields so a pawn or buy cannot be completed without all of the required customer and item information.

HOW TO: Setting the parameters is as simple as going to Admin >Store Setup>Customer Required Fields and Item Required Fields.

BONUS TIP:  Keep in mind, it may be tempting to make Model and Serial Numbers required but items such as jewelry often don’t have these and the employee will have to enter “None” or “NA”. Keep reading

 

2. Bullion and Coin Fraud on the Rise

Lately, it seems like stories are popping up every week of pawnbrokers, jewelers, and coin and bullion dealers being victimized by fraudsters. Headlines abound of fake gold and silver bars and high end fake coins being passed off as the genuine article. It is essential that we as pawnbrokers have the right tools and knowledge to combat these growing threats. I myself have been a victim, despite being a coin dealer for 12 years prior to becoming a pawnbroker. Yes, I openly admit it! I had no one to blame but myself. I should have known better, but I let the dollar signs cloud my judgment. It’s easy to become a victim of your own greed in these circumstances. The old adage “If it seems to good to be true, it probably is,” should have rang in the back of my mind. Overall, I was lucky. I recovered my money, but the experience taught me I had to up my game. I immediately took more coin grading and authentication classes and decided that I had to become an expert in identifying fakes. Keep reading…  

 

BE THE BUYER (not the seller) – Put yourself in your customers’ shoes. Think about a time you bought something on eBay. What process did you go through? How did your experience make you feel?

                When you think like the buyer, you can “speak” to that person.

As a buyer, we go through 3 phases:

  1. SEARCH
  2. REFINE
  3. BUY
  1. Search –The default search setting on eBay is “Best Match”. Most buyers don’t change that so let’s talk about how to make your item “Best Match”-worthy. As a buyer, think about the terms you would use to search the item you’re going to be selling. Start there, with your title. You only have 80 characters, so make good use of them! Keep reading… 

 

4. How to Create a Bulk Item in PawnMaster

One of the most frequent questions I get when doing training on inventory management is, “What’s the difference between a “Bulk item” and “New item?”

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For me, the best way to approach this is to think of a “Bulk item” as a place where similar items that will all be sold at the same price, are located. Whereas, “New items” are a specific size, style or model of items that will be restocked over and over again.

So let’s look at some examples of each: Keep reading… 

 

5. Gold is Not the Problem

 As you know, we love the pawn industry. A few weeks ago, we presented and exhibited at the NPA Convention in Las Vegas I heard something very disturbing.  I must have heard at least 200 owners talk about how they are not making money the way they used to in this industry. What is more disturbing is at least half of those, when asked why not, immediately responded” because gold is down from $1,856 at its highest to $1,230 an oz. now… It amazes me that so many of the people we spoke to had this as their main reason for down profits. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the price of gold is only one of the many challenges you face right now that is causing less profitability in your pawn shops than in years past. Keep reading… 
 
 
6. How to Undo a Payment in PawnMaster

One of the most frequent questions I get after a shop has been using PawnMaster for a while is, “How do I undo a payment?”

Let’s face it, we all make mistakes now and again. Perhaps we are in a hurry and we accidently select the wrong customer. Or the customer has multiple loans and they change their mind as to which loan they want to pay on. Whatever the reason, it’s time to undo a payment. Keep reading… 

 

7. 5 Helpful Hints for Pawnbrokers – Volume 6

1. This is NOT your Grandpa’s old pawn shop! We must have an outstanding customer experience!  Make it lively with upbeat music, smiling faces, etc.  Also, give away bottled water and/or popcorn.  Think about your shop from a “millenial’s” perspective and make sure the experience is one that will bring them back because it is fun to be in your shop(s). Keep reading... 
 
 
8. Employees as Advertising

There’s an old adage about advertising that I still remember to this day:

Probably half of the advertising dollars you spend are wasted…and you don’t know which half it is.

So instead of frustrating myself more, I stopped advertising and focused on my employees. I became the sole responsible party for all new employees from the initial interview of a CSR (break-in employee) to managers and supervisors. I knew what kind of people I wanted working for me and the only way that could happen was to control the process. Keep reading… 

 

9. Glossary of BSS (Buy Swap Sell) Terminology

Buying and selling online is becoming very popular and lucrative. In fact, Facebook recently launched its Buy/Sell feature to accommodate this development. It is a huge opportunity for retail operations to sell more product. But before you get into it, there is a whole new language you’ll need to understand so you don’t miss out on any opportunities.  

FS – means “For sale”. Keep reading… 

 

10. 5 Helpful Hints for Pawnbrokers – Volume 1 

1. All TV’s on the sales floor are turned on. Two factors sell nearly all TV’s… Price and picture.  There is virtually no chance a TV that isn’t on will generate much interest from customers. Older TV’s may sometimes have a great picture and, hopefully, be affordable to someone with a small budget. Even poorer pictures can sometimes be enhanced by attaching a Blu-Ray player. Still, go back to rule one… Turn it on! Keep reading… 
 
 
11. 5 Helpful Hints for Pawnbrokers – Volume 4

 

1. Use Facebook. If you don’t have a business page for your pawnshop, get one.  Use incentives in the store to generate “followers” on your page (i.e. give a free DVD for a follow).  Post everything you can in the Facebook Marketplace.  Use the “boost” feature on Facebook to promote high dollar items or store events/sales.  The ability of Facebook to profile its users and generate qualified customers to you is priceless, literally. Keep reading

 
 
 
Stone removal is, and should be, an important part of the pawnbroker’s and jeweler’s process. If you’re not doing it, you should be, and if you’re not familiar with how to do it, that’s where I come in. Stone removal is a terrific, easy process. It’s incredibly affordable, and it’s a simple way to gather items of value to bring to a convention to be able to sell. Keep reading

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