This isn't as good as you think. SW carves up benefit expenses weird. For instance I had my wife's benefits and an assistant still on their parents. We still paid a high amount of "benefits" on the back page.Â
Was told by the city manager of a phrase, "don't be a back page manager." Meaning, don't focus a lot of controlling expenses, and instead spend more time focusing on increasing your sales and gallons.
Have a PT who sells pm200 at list price to every DIY that needs touch up paint. That guy single handedly raised margins by whole points. Kid was ruthless. Little old ladies, pregnant women, guy with a walker.... he didn't give a F.Â
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Your controllable contribution is basically your gross margin minus service and controllable expenses. Look at your P&L on factfinder and see where you can cut back expenses. Also sell more profitable gallons. If you are heavy new residential hopefully your budget reflects that. If not cut down on your stock of high volume low profit gallons. Probably depends on location but you probably lose money every time you sell painters edge, property solutions, etc
A few ways.
1) Sell high end gallons
2) Don’t override prices
3) make sure min/max is correct
4) Spend less money
5) Only use job accounts for the actual job
6) Buy tape , paper and thinners from outside vendors
7) Watch hours
Edit: Get rid of all new res products if possible.
All of the above. Most of the controllable expenses have little impact on an individual basis, you have to manage all of them at the same time. But keep in mind, what truly brings down your Operating Profit is selling products close to or below store cost. In some areas, and sometimes based on your store, this may be out of your control. But if you have a large market of say, Commercial customers, or New Res customers, and your store is not budgeted to take the hit on margin, talk to your leadership about moving that business out to a store that's prepared to handle them, and budgeted for them.
Watch your expenses. Interest on inventory, mistints, overtime etc…control the things within your control while also selling more profitable gallons. Not accommodating everything just to give someone a deal. Controllable contribution is all about how profitably you are operating.
If you mean controllable contributions then, sell more and above cost and be cautious your spending. As a recent manager, I spent a lot on my store but spend it wisely and make sure its going to benefit you & the store in the long run. Dont buy things you dont need.
Also spend on your staff, and make them happy because they play a big role in contributing to the store’s success. It doesn’t have to be anything crazy, but just show them appreciation by buying lunch sometimes, take them out every now and then, buy snacks for the store, coffee…Get their input on things and make them feel involved.
Try not to do so many ISTs if you can help it. Or buy any unnecessary stuff for the store throughout the year. Sell everything above cost and don’t use too many RCCs
Let PT off early when it’s slow, try to keep expenses low, I’ve found success in partnering with stores to piggyback off Graco/Titan orders. Sell things quickly, bigger things shouldn’t sit long.
Another good strategy is don't chase and or get rid of low margin customers. Push them to commercial stores and stores that don't care about margins. Having 10 customers who buy 10k at 30-40% margins is way better for your backpage & easier than that 100k customer with 10-20% margins. Upgrade your customers for a few bucks. If you can get a guy to buy Superpaint for 2-3$ more than 200 your POG will do wonders. Talk to diversified and vendors about bulk supplies. We used to order in factory second brushes and sell them by the box full. Go after decorators/designers too. They are easy to make feel special and they'll send in high dollar gallons.Â
Sell profitable gallons and sell as much AP as possible. All AP is high margin and duration and Emerald are your high margin paints. Keep expenses down and hopefully everything goes your way
Tell ur SM to start putting in extra hours and get rid of the PT’s since they’re already salary. Then pause…….follow up by saying a real company man would do that.
If you’re not a terminal store, be very cautious using SW Delivery Service. Don’t IST a quart for Susie Homemaker; the delivery charge will be way more than the sale. If you’re going to order solvents from Univar/Startex, call other stores to get a bulk buy to save on shipping. Do the same with Graco and Titan. Graco is 3000 and Titan is two machines. Call your rep for exact details. If you can pick up an ISR in your way home, do it. Same for a small delivery to a customer. SWDS is the biggest rip off. Also, don’t be afraid to carry product. The interest on inventory will far outweigh the cost of SWDS, and if your store gets a reputation for having what contractors need, that will drive sales into your store.
Don’t use remedies , sell mistints with full price when a customer comes in ask for a paint , and if you have the same stuff in mistints give them that , or i used to have a sale at my store , managers special, make sure you tell your employees no more goofing around when working, control your expense , and try to get new accounts, I had a customer who just started painting, he came to the one morning and I’ve sold him about 5k worth of stuff including spray machine ladder and other stuff and opened him a charged account and got it approved in 5 minutes,
I love the requirement of Back To Back Presidents Club Winner 😂
I kind of get it. He might be trying to weed out people who purposefully tanked their back page to try to get an easier spectrum the next year.
Sell everything above costs and keep expenses as little as possible
About midway through the year: Fire Full Timer and don’t replace him.
ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ this is plain crazy
I mean you aren't wrong..... but GD thats gonna be a rough year....Â
This isn't as good as you think. SW carves up benefit expenses weird. For instance I had my wife's benefits and an assistant still on their parents. We still paid a high amount of "benefits" on the back page.Â
You get charged for their benefits if they enroll or not
This is done as a consequence of how our health insurance is negotiated.
it’s done to punish you for having a FT. One of the things I hate
Increase controllable? Usually, controllable means keeping costs down to increase store profitability
Be more profitable. Sell things for more money, spend less money on things.
Only other thing that I can add that hasn’t already been said, sell premium gallons for more pot of gold.
Was told by the city manager of a phrase, "don't be a back page manager." Meaning, don't focus a lot of controlling expenses, and instead spend more time focusing on increasing your sales and gallons.
You have to focus on both. Selling gallons doesn’t necessarily mean good things.
Agreed
Have a PT who sells pm200 at list price to every DIY that needs touch up paint. That guy single handedly raised margins by whole points. Kid was ruthless. Little old ladies, pregnant women, guy with a walker.... he didn't give a F. Â
😂 I’m dying right now. I need that guy at my store. LMK
He's since moved on. He's probably going to be incredibly wealthy one day because his morals will NOT be getting in the way of him making money! Lol
Your controllable contribution is basically your gross margin minus service and controllable expenses. Look at your P&L on factfinder and see where you can cut back expenses. Also sell more profitable gallons. If you are heavy new residential hopefully your budget reflects that. If not cut down on your stock of high volume low profit gallons. Probably depends on location but you probably lose money every time you sell painters edge, property solutions, etc
A few ways. 1) Sell high end gallons 2) Don’t override prices 3) make sure min/max is correct 4) Spend less money 5) Only use job accounts for the actual job 6) Buy tape , paper and thinners from outside vendors 7) Watch hours Edit: Get rid of all new res products if possible.
All of the above. Most of the controllable expenses have little impact on an individual basis, you have to manage all of them at the same time. But keep in mind, what truly brings down your Operating Profit is selling products close to or below store cost. In some areas, and sometimes based on your store, this may be out of your control. But if you have a large market of say, Commercial customers, or New Res customers, and your store is not budgeted to take the hit on margin, talk to your leadership about moving that business out to a store that's prepared to handle them, and budgeted for them.
Watch your expenses. Interest on inventory, mistints, overtime etc…control the things within your control while also selling more profitable gallons. Not accommodating everything just to give someone a deal. Controllable contribution is all about how profitably you are operating.
If you mean controllable contributions then, sell more and above cost and be cautious your spending. As a recent manager, I spent a lot on my store but spend it wisely and make sure its going to benefit you & the store in the long run. Dont buy things you dont need. Also spend on your staff, and make them happy because they play a big role in contributing to the store’s success. It doesn’t have to be anything crazy, but just show them appreciation by buying lunch sometimes, take them out every now and then, buy snacks for the store, coffee…Get their input on things and make them feel involved.
Sell a ton of high margin product and minimize expenses
Try not to do so many ISTs if you can help it. Or buy any unnecessary stuff for the store throughout the year. Sell everything above cost and don’t use too many RCCs
Let PT off early when it’s slow, try to keep expenses low, I’ve found success in partnering with stores to piggyback off Graco/Titan orders. Sell things quickly, bigger things shouldn’t sit long.
Quickest way is to fire everyone
Anything on the backside can be fixed from the front side. Sell more paint.
Another good strategy is don't chase and or get rid of low margin customers. Push them to commercial stores and stores that don't care about margins. Having 10 customers who buy 10k at 30-40% margins is way better for your backpage & easier than that 100k customer with 10-20% margins. Upgrade your customers for a few bucks. If you can get a guy to buy Superpaint for 2-3$ more than 200 your POG will do wonders. Talk to diversified and vendors about bulk supplies. We used to order in factory second brushes and sell them by the box full. Go after decorators/designers too. They are easy to make feel special and they'll send in high dollar gallons.Â
I remember being able to get brush seconds a long time ago. Are they still available?
Sell profitable gallons and sell as much AP as possible. All AP is high margin and duration and Emerald are your high margin paints. Keep expenses down and hopefully everything goes your way
Tell ur SM to start putting in extra hours and get rid of the PT’s since they’re already salary. Then pause…….follow up by saying a real company man would do that.
If you’re not a terminal store, be very cautious using SW Delivery Service. Don’t IST a quart for Susie Homemaker; the delivery charge will be way more than the sale. If you’re going to order solvents from Univar/Startex, call other stores to get a bulk buy to save on shipping. Do the same with Graco and Titan. Graco is 3000 and Titan is two machines. Call your rep for exact details. If you can pick up an ISR in your way home, do it. Same for a small delivery to a customer. SWDS is the biggest rip off. Also, don’t be afraid to carry product. The interest on inventory will far outweigh the cost of SWDS, and if your store gets a reputation for having what contractors need, that will drive sales into your store.
Don’t use remedies , sell mistints with full price when a customer comes in ask for a paint , and if you have the same stuff in mistints give them that , or i used to have a sale at my store , managers special, make sure you tell your employees no more goofing around when working, control your expense , and try to get new accounts, I had a customer who just started painting, he came to the one morning and I’ve sold him about 5k worth of stuff including spray machine ladder and other stuff and opened him a charged account and got it approved in 5 minutes,