The Executive Summary / Overview / Profile. Orange Tree Imports with Carol Orange & Dean Schroeder As seen on Small Business School on PBS-member stations in the USA and the Voice of America around the world. The best little show on television about the American spirit.

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updated: May 2007

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The Secrets of Specialty Retail

Here people explore, discover and ask, "What if?"

Retail Magic: We turn to a guru of specialty retail, Carol "Orange" Schroeder. With her husband, Dean, they started their business soon after graduating from college. Orange's parents saved money for her to go to college. When she completed her degree at Tufts University in three years, they gave her the money she did not spend for that one year of college and a new business was started.

That was 1975.

Orange Tree Imports is a specialty retail shop in a revitalized business district. Soon after buying the building on Monroe Street, Orange organized a neighborhood business association to do joint marketing and promotion. This group helped to change the orientation of this old shopping district. They refocused it to become a vital area of specialty shops and restaurants drawing people from a wide area beyond the local neighborhood and even Madison.

"A mailing list of your customers is essential and can be one of your store's most-valuable assets if you use it often."
-Carol "Orange" Schroeder

READ ORANGE'S BOOK. Orange has written a book of key ideas for specialty shop people -- Specialty Shop Retailing: How To Run Your Own Store. It will help guide anyone through the steps of setting up a retail shop.To buy Orange's instructive book on retailing, just click on the book.

CONTACT:
Orange Tree Imports
1721 Monroe Street
Madison, Wisconsin 53711
Tel: 608-255-8211
Fax: 608-255-8404
E-mail: Click here
URL:http://orangetreeimports.com

A LITTLE PHOTO ALBUM: A few pictures from this show.

LOOK AT STEP 5: EMPLOYEES. Why do Orange and Dean have such a loyal group of employees? Start here. Be sure to review the special show called, "The People Part."

GROW YOUR BUSINESS. You can learn more about how to use the mail to build your business at USPS.com.

MORE ABOUT RETAIL.

MORE ON DIRECT MARKETING.

WATCH TELEVISION THAT TEACHES

Key Ideas of this episode

1.		Start Young
2.		Use Money to Borrow Money
3.		Stay Focused On Your Target
4.		Build A Database
5.		Bring In The Hard-to-find
6.		Encourage Employees To Take Charge
7.		Turn Workforce Planning Upside Down
8.		Treat Employees Like Family
9.		Transform Your Entire Neighborhood
10.		Be A Team Player
11.		Create Event-driven Traffic
12.		Love People



She is one of this country's specialty shop gurus.


FAMILY BUSINESS: Some say half of all business is family business; those in the know say that two-thirds of all business is family business. How is your family known? What kind of identity do you have? We encourage you to also study some of the other family businesses. JOIN, JOIN, JOIN. Your professional associations in your industry are your key to continuing education, market research, collaborations, strategic partnerships, capital and so much more ... often you'll find that you enjoy like-minded people and many will become friends for life. Here are a few of the groups in which Dean and Orange are active locally: United Way of Dane County Madison's CitiArts Tempo (professional women's association) Dudgeon-Monroe Neighborhood Association/Monroe Street Merchants Association Madison Chamber of Commerce University of Wisconsin's SBDC TRADE & PUBLICATIONS: Gift Association of America Gifts & Decorative Accessories: Orange is a writer for this magazine. About Our Christmas Greetings: 1. Our Universal greeting 2. Our personal greetings WATCH TV. See where this show is airing around the country. If the show is not on the air and you'd like to be among our local viewers, click here. AMONG OUR PUBLIC TELEVISION STATIONS: SUPPORT THE BEST. If they carry this show, become a member! If you already are, great! If not, and your business is doing well, consider joining your station's Producers' Club (usually $1000). We'll help make it very worthwhile! Just let us know. Please note: SmallBusinessSchool does not air on Wisconsin Public Television and for over eight years, they have discouraged our programming. In Wisconsin we are working on alternatives so all you people in the great state of Wisconsin can still watch the show. There are many PBS-member stations that are very suspicious of business. Many from among our PBS-friends have tolds Small Business School, "You have succeeded where many have failed."

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