When school owners are looking at their merchandising program they often think only of what they sell off their display on a regular business. There are many other opportunities to sell merchandise in the normal course of business.
The first opportunity I want to tackle is the seminars that you run in your school. The seminars can be valuable for a variety of reasons however they actually provide a tremendous opportunity to sell merchandise. The problem tends to be that the school owner tends to start thinking about merchandise well after they have decided to hold a seminar, and by then it is too late. The truth is that the school owner should be thinking about merchandise in the planning stage of the seminar.

Some questions you should be asking yourself when you begin planning a seminar:

1) Do the students who take this seminar need any particular equipment to participate?
2) Do you want to offer any special uniform or apparel in conjunction with the seminar?
3) Do you have the adequate space to accommodate merchandise you hope to sell?
4) Do you have the people in place to help you maximize your profit from your event?

When you plan the seminar you should plan it in the same fashion as your entire merchandising operation. More specifically, you must build some products into the seminar curriculum AND set up a nice display to capitalize on emotional or impulse buys.

Here is an example of how to do this:

Let’s assume you choose to have a street self-defense seminar. In the 1.5-day course that runs over the weekend, the instructor will be teaching techniques that include knife attacks. Also assume that you want to charge $100 for the seminar.

Here are some ideas:

The first thing you should do is build some products into the purchase price of the seminar and give the products away to every participant. In this example I would suggest building a training knife, and knife defense video into the cost of the seminar. I do this by charging $150 for the seminar and giving a training knife and knife defense video to each participant. Remember when doing this to build profit into this price. I am assuming here that the knife and video cost $25 (total) and that the seminar price is adjusted by $50 - $25 your cost, and $25 profit.
When you market the seminar in all of your fliers, postings, advertisements etc. remember to advertise that all participants receive a free training knife and knife defense video for practicing at home in the course registration fee.
After building the products into the curriculum you should tackle the items you want to feature on your display. Therefore, the next thing you should consider are some apparel items that you normally never offer but advertise for your facility. You want to make sure these items are not something you usually offer because you want to create a sense of urgency. The items you sell in this capacity will ONLY be available during the seminar. When you order these do not order an enormous amount. They will be limited edition and there will only be a certain amount available during the event.

Some other things to consider in this regard are:

Where is your display going to go?
How is your display going to be set up?
What products do you need to have on the display?
What staff do you need available to help you sell the merchandise?

Paul Reavlin is the president of Revgear.com and RevgearMMA.com. in Hollywood, California. Paul is a CPA and has a black belt in Krav Maga. For more info and pro shop tips go to www.proshopmentor.com or call 800-767-8288.