Outdoor Retailer Winter Market 2009 Show Dates Changed
to Reduce Exhibitor Costs

This week's lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico will mean an initial $8 million for local parks and trails around the nation with up to $48 million in guaranteed funds expected over the next few years.

The dedicated monies are the result of an Outdoor Industry Association (OIA)-backed law that passed in 2006. The law guarantees that 12.5 percent of all new energy exploration in the Gulf of Mexico will flow directly to the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) State Assistance program. The law is significant because dollars will be automatic and not subject to the whims of Congress.

"The stateside LWCF program has been underfunded for several years as communities have seen their need for parkland and trails continue to grow, said Frank Hugelmeyer, president of OIA. "Our industry owes a big thanks to Senators Salazar and Alexander who passed this law. It is gratifying to see the first permanent dollars set aside to improve and expand our nation's recreation infrastructure."

Many local communities depend on state LWCF funds as the seed money for basic community parks. The LWCF stateside program has funded over 41,000 projects including sports fields, outdoor recreation facilities, and trails in every county in the U.S. over the last 40 years.

Join the Industry in Washington, D.C.,
for Capitol Summit, April 15-17

This April, the outdoor industry's top executives will head to Washington, D.C., for Outdoor Industry Association's (OIA) 15th annual Capitol Summit, and we hope that you will join us.

Held at the Hotel Palomar in Washington, D.C., April 15-17, 2008, the goals for Capitol Summit include

• Ensure quality recreation on America's public lands
• Support an increase in funding for our national parks
• Increase funding for close-to-home recreation
• Protect our national recreation destinations
• Ensure fair and predictable trade of our industry's innovative products
• Ensure the growth and success of the outdoor industry

For 2008, OIA has teamed up with the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) by joining them on the Hill, as well as at their 2008 Salute to the Parks Gala on Wednesday, April 16.

The Salute to the Parks Gala offers one of the largest and most influential gatherings involving the recreation and conservation communities. This event celebrates America's national parks and recognizes Members of Congress and others who have demonstrated dedication and commitment to America's national parks.

With active outdoor recreation's $730 billion annual contribution to the U.S. economy and federal elections this fall, there has never been a better time for our industry to come to Washington, D.C.

We hope you will join us! Space is limited and pre-registration is required. OIA membership is recommended.

There is no charge to participate in the 2008 Capitol Summit. Participation in the 2008 NPCA Gala Dinner and Reception is $250.

Registration for for Capitol Summit is now open online or by contacting events@outdoorindustry.org. For the most up-to-date information and agenda, click here.

Setting Business Goals for Retail Succes

Use OIA's Outdoor Specialty Retailer Operational Report 2007
benchmarks to set goals for your business

Contributed by Jay Townley

In Outdoor Industry Association's (OIA) February 15, 2008, WebNews, we strongly recommended that retailers use OIA's Outdoor Specialty Retailer Operational Report 2007 (SROR) benchmarks alongside your business goals or as the actual goals for the coming year.

A business plan is essential to growing your business. As you know by now, we feel that an annual business plan is essential to growing your business. Your plan doesn't have to be a big document, and it can actually be relatively easy to write and put together, but it does have to contain certain key elements, including

• Expense and Revenue Budget
  • Comparison of previous year to current year forecast for expenses and revenue and to channel benchmarks
• Specific Goals that you want your business to achieve during the year
  • Most important retail process policies or procedures to achieving the goals
  • Most important direct-response marketing programs to achieving the goals

Put your plan in writing. Getting these five key business plan elements down in writing will give you the essentials you need to track not only your actual progress toward achieving the goals for your business, but also facilitate your sharing both the goals and tracking progress with your staff.

Goals can be simple – but effective! If you are setting goals for your business for the first time, they can be simple and straightforward. As an example, gross operating margin, total operating expense, and net pre-tax profit are the three key metrics we presented in last month's article.

Let's assume a business is doing $1 million in annual revenue. Let's also assume for this example that in a slow economy you don't anticipate growing total revenue for the coming year. This doesn't mean you can't grow the profitability of your business.

If your gross operating margin last year was 42 percent of revenue, your goal, based on the SROR benchmark, can be set at 44 percent, or a two-percent improvement in gross operating margin.  

Your retail process goals, or changes, to support a two-percent increase in gross operating margin can include purchasing from suppliers with B2B capability to increase inventory turn and gross margin return on inventory (GMROI) and increasing transaction value by selling high-margin product categories such as accessories.

If your total operating expense was 41 percent of total revenue last year, your goal for this year, based on the SROR benchmark can be set at 39 percent, or a two-percent reduction in total operating expenses.

Your retail process goals can include paying all invoices on time to take the maximum discounts offered and reducing advertising expenses, starting with Yellow-Page ads while focusing on direct-response marketing. You can still increase payroll and wages, and you certainly don't want to lose any good employees while reducing expenses – but if the goals are achieved, you will be able to pay bonus and/or profit sharing to employees.

	Last Year's Goals	This Year's Goals
Annual Revenue	$1 million	$1 million
Gross Operating Margin	42% = $420,000	44% = $440,000
Total Operating Expense	41% = $410,000	39% = $390,000
Net Pre-Tax Profit	1% = $ 10,000	5% = $ 50,000

Based on our example, last year's net pre-tax profit was $10,000, or one percent of annual revenue. If the goals of increasing operating margin to 44 percent of total revenue and reducing total operating expense to 39 percent are achieved, the goal for net pre-tax profit is five percent of total revenue or $50,000.

About Jay Townley
Jay Townley is completing his 49th year in the bicycle industry. He started as an employee in a bike shop in 1957; worked for the Schwinn Bicycle Company for 24 years as Sales Promotion Manager, Director of Product Safety and Governmental Affairs, Assistant to the President, Vice President Marketing, and Vice President Purchasing. Currently Townley is a partner in The Gluskin Townley Group, LLC, a market research consultancy, and he manage Jay Townley & Associates, LLC, a business services group.

Contributed by Julia Day Clark

According to Leisure Trends Group's exclusive LeisureTRAK® Study, six in ten Americans believe everyone should be connected with nature or spend time outside.

Thirty-two percent believe this strongly. Americans are split on whether outdoor time should be used for physical exercise or relaxing, with 56 percent preferring to take it easy and socialize and 46 percent preferring to be active when outside.* Unfortunately, computers and television cut into outdoor time for 48 percent and 38 percent of Americans, respectively. Women (27 percent) are more likely than men (20 percent) to "Strongly Agree" that they prefer to relax and socialize during their outdoor time. Sport participants (39 percent) are significantly more likely to "Strongly Agree" that all people should be connected with nature than non-sport participants (25 percent).

Super Active Mindset
According to the LeisureTRAK, those who engage in an outdoor activity more than three times a week (termed "Super Actives") are 54 percent male and 46 percent female. They are more likely to be competitive in their approach to leisure time than those who are active less than once a month. They are more likely than the non-actives to be physically active during their outdoor time, prefer to be outside as much as possible, believe all people should be connected with nature, have been eating healthy food over the last year, have taken steps to increase their physical activity in the last year, and have made exercise a priority for themselves.

* Respondents could select more than one answer.

About LeisureTRAK®
For eighteen years Leisure Trends Group has conducted the LeisureTRAK, a quarterly study viewed as the definitive guide to what Americans do and love to do in their free time as well as their leisure attitudes and motivators. Leisure Trends defines leisure time as "the time Americans have when they are not working, sleeping or doing things they 'have' to do". LeisureTRAK® research is available through published reports, annual subscriptions, proprietary questions and custom analysis as well as database access to 76,000 plus interviews since 1989. For more information contact Julia Clark Day at 303.786.7900 x 107.

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