I know I mention Apple’s in-store merchandising often in the blog, but it’s with good reason. It recently won a first-place award in the VMSD International Visual Competition. The magazine and its judges know great design when they see it, and so should you.

The online article also discusses the other winners, including Macy’s Chicago and Pucci New York. Read about them to see how the top retailers merchandise their products as well as their brand.

I totally agree with one judge’s comments that “Less is more right now…It used to be that you’d use propping to tell the story. Now there’s more focus on the merchandise.” Consumers face so many choices these days, I also find it appropriate many times to just focus on one or two products in window or floor displays.

If you clutter a space with too many products, it can confuse customers. Using negative space is often a better choice but, as another judge says, “Less means taking a stronger stance and delivering a straightforward message…You have to have the faith that a few dramatic gestures are enough for people to understand. Otherwise, it’s very easy to start second-guessing yourself and begin adding those additional layers, and then you’re back to clutter.”

You’ll have to check margins before start focusing on single products to be sure they’re worth your merchandising time and effort. You might be surprised to find that some items you put on the back shelves will do great when spotlighted individually.

Whatever you do, keep reading articles like these to keep up with current merchandising trends. All it should cost you is some time online or reading hardcopy. The dividends are well worth it.

Overnight successes usually don’t happen quite that fast — especially in retail. I was reminded of that in stories I read about two vastly different clothing retailers. You may have heard of Forever 21, a hip clothing store known for its low prices on up-to-the-minute fashions. You probably never heard of Show Hoppers, a dancewear shop in Concord, New Hampshire that doesn’t even have a website. Fortunately, the Concord Monitor followed the mother-and-daughter owners of Show Hoppers in their first year as they learned the intricate dance of retail survival.

After 24 years in business, Forever 21’s worldwide sales are in the billions of dollars, according to this article in the Los Angeles Times. Show Hoppers’ owners say they’re thrilled if sales hit $300 a day. Yet both are niche marketers. Aggressive Forever 21’s mantra is “Create a niche, and then blow it out.” Show Hoppers’ niche is dancewear for girls in their small town. They realized parents had to drive many miles to find appropriate clothes for their little dancers, so they started on a shoestring with a boutique catering to those parents.

Forever 21 attributes its success to spotting fashion trends and then finding manufacturers who can supply them with quality, low-cost clothing. Show Hoppers is still looking for its place in the Concord sun — or sleet, if you factor in the miserably snowy first winter they experienced in downtown Concord. But they hung in there, adjusted inventory and are optimistic about their second year in business.

I like the attitude of the daughter, who doesn’t let being legally blind slow her down: “Every decision you make that’s unknown is scary. But if you don’t take a chance, how are you going to know?”

I also like the attitude of Forever 21’s senior vice president: “Where there’s a flash of opportunity, we’re stepping in.”

It took Forever 21 nearly a quarter of a century to achieve its “overnight” success and become a media darling. I hope Show Hoppers is content to become the premier dancewear shop in its home state, and perhaps beyond. Before you become an overnight success, I hope you will read both stories and draw inspiration for your retail store.

Here’s another story about an enterprising retailer who spotted a need and is filling it. With a name like Life’s Sweet, you might think it’s a bakery. But it’s really a place that turns family memories into tangibles like hardcover photo books and music DVDs.

Like so many parents, Sonya Cartwright of Colorado wanted a more permanent way to preserve her family’s photos and scrapbook items. She left the corporate world to find a way to do just that. Cartwright knew that most of us now keep our photos stored on digital camera memory cards or hard drives, possibly to never be seen on paper. So she found a way to transfer them to large-format hardcover books at an affordable price. Customer can make photo compilations of birthdays, anniversaries, other milestones, or just random images. Just give Life’s Sweet the digital or hard copies and they put the book together, complete with binding.

Look at the samples on the Life’s Sweet website. These aren’t just little end-table books but large coffee-table books with full-bleed images of 10 by 12 inches or 12 by 16 inches. How many of us have the time to do print, assemble and bind such books? I know I don’t. That’s why Cartwright’s idea is so appealing. I do know how to make DVDs with music to accompany photo slideshows, but again, I can’t find the time for it. And I don’t think I would trust the job to the photo counter in a drugstore or even a big-box retailer.

The Life’s Sweet website is full of great slogans that immediately convey the company’s services, like “You snap it. We publish it.” and “We do all the work! You get all the credit!” I also like their press page, with inks to lots of media coverage, industry awards and even Life’s Sweet’s TV commercials.

I haven’t seen photos of the stores’ interiors. But if they convey the concept as well as the website, I think Cartwright has a formula for long-term success. She might even get partnership or buyout offers from larger competitors. Whatever happens, it’s nice to see another corporate dropout become the very picture of entrepreneurial success.

It’s been years since I saw a model-car raceway in a retail store. The ones I remember were called slot cars. They were really popular in the ’60s and ’70s. You brought in your own slot car or rented one at the indoor track. Some tracks are still around; you can find them with a quick Google search.

Given the popularity of remote-control model cars in the past few years, I’m surprised no one thought of substituting them for slot cars and updating the indoor-track concept. Well, two entrepreneurial guys did, and I love the stores they’ve created: American Hot Rod Racer in Sterling Heights, Michigan, and Beachwood, Ohio.

According to this story on candgnews.com, Rick Maicki saw how much fun his three kids were having with small, homebuilt pinewood derby cars. He and brother Henry wanted to leave engineering and go into something more family-oriented. Rick came up with the idea of putting reconfigurable tracks for remote-control cars in a mall environment. He also came up with a way for kids (and their parents) to build their own cars in the store before competing on the track. To build customer excitement, he added flat-panel TVs that display racers’ names, photos, car details and other statistics.

What a winning idea: Kids get to play together with cars they take pride in. Parents love to take the kids to the track for some quality time. The Maicki brothers reap the rewards; not just the monetary ones, but the joy of seeing kids’ faces light up once their cars hit the track.

Take a look at the store. It was designed by a professor at an art institute; a student did many of the murals and artwork on the walls. Those are great ways to get started in retail without spending a ton of money. The brothers also have a great website that tells everything you need to know about their two stores, including a mission and values statement. More stores are being planned, thanks to the success of the first two.

The brothers also got aggressive with their PR. It’s pretty much a story that sells itself: the rebirth of indoor model-car racing. Crain’s Cleveland Business was so impressed, they posted a five-minute video about the place. I urge you to watch it. It should get you revved up and thinking about how to keep your store in the fast lane.

Once you have a good thing going in retail, it can be hard to step back and see if you can improve it. Even successful restaurants and art galleries/studios will resist change if they have steady, consistent sales. But the owners of a funky eatery/pottery/glass arts establishment in Durham, Arkansas, saw the need. They’ve embarked on a remodeling project that will result in a classier, more-upscale environment.

An article on NWAOnline.net tells how Terra Studios is being transformed into the Muse Gallery and Coffee House. The good thing the studio has had going for it is the Bluebird of Happiness. Really. They’ve sold 8 million of the glass figurines in the 20 past years, attracting about 60,000 visitors annually. Those visitors are often hungry, which is why a restaurant is on the premises.

The new owners, according to the article, “are revamping the businesses to create a sounder business plan and increase opportunities for local artists.” It’s always a calculated risk to remodel. Yet the owners recognize the need to bring the gallery and restaurant into the 21st century. They’re going about it in a smart way, I believe, by inviting more local artists to sell their wares in the gallery. This will help the new place generate a buzz in the arts community, which in turn should attract art lovers interested in more than just the Bluebird of Happiness. But the bird has a new companion, the Pink Bird of Hope, with 10 percent of sales going to the Ozark affiliate of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation.

The coffee house will offer local products, which is part of the owners’ start of making the business a “green” one. They’re already in the black from artists’ rental apartments on the property, and they’re using their own money to make all the upgrades possible. I applaud them for taking the risk. Whether the bird are blue, pink or any other color, they’re well-positioned to keep happily counting the greenbacks for many years to come.

Lots of people say they’d like to try their hand at retailing, “if only…” That’s as in “If only I could afford a great location,” “If only I could find a good supplier,” “If only I knew what to do first.” There are plenty of “if only’s” — real and imagined — as barriers to getting started in retail. But there also are plenty of ways to get around them and start that retailing dream of yours off and running without having a huge budget.

Resources for getting into the business have always been around: seminars, reference books, Small Business Administration advisers, etc. Now the Internet makes it easier than ever to find out how others have done it, with plenty of examples for you to review. Below are our top six ways to kick-start your way into retail, even if you don’t have a ton of money to burn through.

1. Find a seasonal space to test a location.

You’ve no doubt seen temporary stores pop up at shopping malls and strip malls, selling everything from calendars to Halloween supplies to Christmas decorations. The rent on such a space can be a real bargain, especially in a down economy. This is a great place to not only gauge the site’s retail traffic, but to hone your skills as a retailer.

2. Buy used merchandising items.

This includes “meat and potatoes” fixtures and supplies like shelves, racks, slatwall, clothes hangers and sign holders. As much as we’d like you to buy new stuff from our store fixture catalog, there’s no need to spend a lot of dough if you’re not really sure you’ll be in business a year from your grand opening. There’s a huge market for used retail merchandising products. Try eBay and other online sites if you don’t have time to hunt all over town. Keep your eyes open for stores that are liquidating and need to get rid of things in a hurry. A Commercial Realtor might be able to help you in this regard, but also check the legal notices in local newspapers.

3. Buy closeout merchandise.

Depending on what you plan to sell, you can find closeout merchandise in the strangest places. We know of one small retailer who bought hundreds of USB-powered fans from China to use in an invention he was trying to perfect. However, the winds of fate blew his career in a different direction and now his garage is filled with boxes of those small, lifeless fans. He’s trying to unload them through craigslist.com and local free classifieds. Again, keep an eye out for items that you might pick up for pennies on the dollar.

4. Hire temporary help.

In this economy, there’s no shortage of good employees looking for work. If you’re considering high school or college students looking for experience, also consider older workers. Many baby boomers are finding that full-time retirement is not their style and are looking for opportunities to put their years of career knowledge to work for someone like you. Better yet, try to get a mix of ages so the wisdom of the old can be absorbed by the eagerness of the new. Sure, you might lose some of them when the new semester starts or a corporate job beckons, but they will at least have helped to give your own retail career a boost. And you can always hire more.

5. Hire a store designer.

I know, I know. You’re thinking that this is just a shameless plug for our own store design team, right? Whether you get help from us or somebody else, investing in an experienced retail store designer can save you a ton of money down the line by pointing out common “rookie” mistakes and creating a store layout that can grow with your business. Department store staff often moonlight as designers as well. They’re always looking for more creative outlets and they won’t charge you as much as their own bosses pay them. Other good sources of design assistance are art school grad students who are hungry for an opportunity to demonstrate their skills in a real world context.

6. Consider the Small Business Administration.

They are a great source of advice and assistance for the aspiring retailer. Visit their website for lots of success stories, tips and resources in your area.

Being a successful retailer doesn’t take a huge budget, just well-budgeted use of your time. Follow the tips above when you embark on your retail adventure and you’ll be off to a great start. Bon voyage!