You went to DEMA. Now let's turn that experience in some profit.

DEMA should not just be about spending your hard earned profits before winter. (Side note: this is a hot button topic for me because winter in Arizona was our slow season.)

DEMA goals can fit into 3 categories.

1. Find new products and taking advantage of booking programs.

2. Find new travel opportunities.

3. Learn new business tactics to help you grow your business.

1. Finding new products is the fun part. Spending $10,000 to save 3% on your Huish order is not.

It's time to find those products that have been sitting on your shelf for 6 months or longer. Discount them and get them out the store. This will free up your cash and make room for the new products you found at DEMA. It also provides some good deals for your customers around the holidays.

(Your point of sale should be able to tell you which items have been sitting in your store for too long. My guess is that you are already thinking of a few items.)

2. Scheduling new travel experiences can get confused with vacation planning. Tying up too much money in trip deposits can put you in a bind.

Travel has seemingly taken up more and more floor space at the DEMA shows over the past decade. A strong travel program is a great customer retention strategy but it comes with less than ideal profit margins and cash flow struggles.

To make travel less risky, I find it best to use the trip reunions to help you plan the next trip. There was a group of 6-10 customers at 72 Aquatics that would plan 1 trip per year. They would help pick next year's destination and pay their deposits as soon as the dates were confirmed.

(Find ways to get your best customers involved in trip planning to lower the risk that you won't get enough people to sign up.)

3. The education sessions can kick up your motivation and you might find a few gems that could impact your business.

Try and limit yourself to just 2 or 3 things that you think you can tweak, implement, or add when returning back to your store from DEMA. It's easy to come home with a list of 50 ways to attract new students and then feel guilty when you get busy and don't act on any of them.

Ask this question to prioritize your new learnings: What is 1 thing that will make everything else easier or unnecessary? Now go do that 1 thing.

Until next time,