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3
Use the prior mailing list.
If you’re going
to inherit an existing business, make sure you
inherit the mailing list that goes along with it.
Most importantly, utilize it in the most opportune way
possible. “We let existing customers know that the busi-
ness was under new management, with an invitation to
come in and try us [out], with our expanded selection
and special deals,” relays Roberts.
4
Carve out a neighborhood business.
It’s im-
perative to have relationships with cigar custom-
ers, “especially if you’re going to be a neighbor-
hood business, which most cigar lounges are; they have
a fairly small customer radius, which I learned from the
tobacco business,” stresses Roberts. He also learned
from his core business that you have to “service the heck
out of customers” to stay one step ahead of the major
competition, which he identifies as convenience stores.
“You have to recognize your customers when they walk
in the door. In tobacco stores, you have to ideally have
the cigarettes they smoke ready on the counter when they
come in the door, because you’re asking them to make an
additional stop. So you have to have something different,
and that’s service, and it applies even more so to a cigar
lounge; it’s even a more personal relationship.”
5
Invest in a manager/partner.
Managers who
are also business partners are part of the success of
Smoke Em’s tobacco outlet stores, so Roberts was
quick to make this same employee opportunity available
in the company cigar store and lounge. What this basical-
ly means is that managers own about 20-30 percent of
the business; they get profit sharing every month and see
an instant and immediate benefit for their efforts. What
Roberts gets is an owner on the property who has a vested
interest in giving good service, staying in touch with new
industry products and services, and watching out for theft.
“It really is a good business model. It’s helped me
manage the business and keep my perspective,” Roberts
explains. “If I was managing the minutiae, I wouldn’t
have the overall perspective I have—I’d be in stores put-
ting out fires. I’m better at my role knowing the day-to-
day stuff is taken care of by someone who cares.”
Likewise, when “you have an owner greeting a cus-
tomer coming into the store, and that customer knows
that they’re talking to an owner, it’s an important dis-
tinction,” he continues. “If they have a problem, they
know it will get solved right there, rather than having
to write a letter and waiting.” It makes for better train-
ing, too. “It’s training employees for the level of service
and cleanliness that’s ultimately expected, because an
owner is right there.”
An added piece of the manager puzzle for a cigar
lounge is to find an owner partner with a “vast amount”
of cigar knowledge—someone who can be friendly and
knowledgeable, without intimidating or turning off nov-
ice customers, which make up about 40 percent of Big
Sticks’ cigar clientele, according to Roberts.
Big Sticks found this person in Paul Buza, a veteran
cigar retailer who had prior experience managing a Tin-
der Box store and all the connections that went with it,
including cigar manufacturers and local reps. Roberts
admits that finding just the right person to manage the
lounge/cigar business was a big factor in its success.
You have to
have something
different, and
that’s service,
and it applies
even more so to
a cigar lounge;
it’s even a more
personal rela-
tionship.
[ T O B A C C O B U S I N E S S . C O M ]
TOBACCO BUSINESS
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