If you were given a 1000 piece puzzle, how long would it take you to put it together? What about if you were given no idea what image you are supposed to have at the end? How much longer would the task take? Would you even be able to finish?

It's much easier to achieve the right end result when you know what problem you're trying to solve for. While It's a simple concept, it often gets overlooked when we're making purchases. A good price, or a flashy new feature often overwhelm the bigger picture. And when that happens, it's easy to get lost.

So if you're making a big purchase, pharmacy point-of-sale or otherwise, here are a few good questions to keep in mind to help you stay on track.

Last month, my kids joined a wrestling team. After breaking up skirmishes in the living room on a daily basis, we decided that if they were going to wrestle with each other anyway, they might as well learn how to do it properly.

After the first few weeks of uncertainty, they're getting into the rhythm of practices and tournaments, and are constantly asking me when they get to go to wrestling again. Their twice a week practices end with two excited little ones who can't wait to get home and practice their new skills.

This last practice however, my kiddos came home with heads low and the usual fountain of energy gone. Thinking that they'd met some wall in skill, or had been chastised by a coach, I prepared my best "hard work pays off" speech. Much to my surprise, the issue wasn't about ability or behavior, but rather about not having the right partner to practice with. One kids partner had been unfocused and off task, and the other had been resistant to lend a helping hand when it was needed.

Now of course, these are 5 and 6 year old kids, wrestling for a basic foundation, and most importantly for fun. So no harm done. But it's a good reminder of the importance of having the right person in your corner.

Let's face it, if you have the wrong partners in your pharmacy business, the results can be disastrous. So here are a few questions to ask, to help you find the right team of system and service providers for your pharmacy.

Halloween may be filled with spooky costumes, scary movies and haunted houses, but to me, Halloween doesn't have anything on the Holiday Season.

Maybe that's partly because Halloween is immediately followed by weeks of my children having way too much fun enjoying the spoils of trick-or-treating. But mostly, it's probably because the end of the year, and the Holiday Season, can be stressful. No matter how much I plan or how early I start, there never seems to be enough time to be comfortable.

For retailers, the holiday shopping season is likely to be in full swing in no time at all. With Thanksgiving falling later in the month this year, everyone is thinking about getting a jump start.

So, in what's become a bit of a holiday season tradition here at RMS, here are our top tips for keeping your retail pharmacy running smoothly during the holidays. And they're a couple weeks early, so you can get ahead of the rush. (Or at least give it your best try)

If you've talked with your credit card processing representative, or with anyone about credit card services in the last couple of years, it's likely that you've heard many different acronyms thrown around. You may already be familiar with terms such as FSA, EMV, NFC as services like chip card acceptance and Apple/Android Pay have become common place.

There's one important definition however, that may not have made your list yet. P2PE, or, Point-to-Point Encryption.

So what exactly is P2PE? For some expert answers, we turned to one of our many processing partners.

The world of pharmacy point-of-sale is definitely unique. Working in this sector is the quintessential definition of a niche market. I'm often met by blank stares or questioning looks when I answer the question of "what do you do for work?" Even as I close 11 years with RMS, I still have not perfected a response to that question that doesn't confuse those not familiar with the inner workings of a pharmacy.

Partly this is because the average person does not give thought to point-of-sale outside of necessary interactions when making a purchase. But the other major factor is that explaining pharmacy point-of-sale is complicated. There's no one sentence that can sum up everything we do at RMS.

Technically, the term "point-of-sale" just refers to the place where a purchase is completed. And sure, that's a good starting point. But in a pharmacy, point-of-sale has to go beyond that transaction. So what may start as a transaction hub actually ends up being a whole lot more.

Do you ever feel like retailers expect us to celebrate all the fall and winter holidays all at once? I've barely got a grasp on Halloween and haven't even thought about Thanksgiving. That doesn't stop the world of retail from counting down the days until Black Friday. Tempting us to browse, impulse buy and get into the holiday spirit, well all of the holiday spirits, nice and early. 

While it's extreme to put December swag on display in the beginning of October, box stores and retailers have one thing right. Preparing early saves time and stress. Here are 4 tips to start getting your pharmacy ready for the holiday season.

I Give up. Summer is definitely over. If the overnight low temperatures and early snow in the mountains of Washington State weren't enough to convince me, the arrival of October with it's pumpkin patches, and impending sense of not having enough time to get everything done, have certainly changed my mind. 

Which means for retailers, it's time to order, or restock, gift card supplies. Gift cards are an easy way to increase sales and a great idea for any retail pharmacy. 

If you need convincing, there are definitely some important facts and figures you need to take into account.  Here are some of the top reasons to sell gift cards in your pharmacy.

If someone were to ask you if your pharmacy business could be replaced, what would you say? "Sure, just drop in any old pharmacy in this spot and my customers absolutely won't notice!" Not a chance right? Because your business is unique and the relationships you build with patients are powerful.

There is always an aspect of every independent pharmacy business that is unlike any other. Which means that every pharmacy will be faced with distinctive challenges and have individual needs.

This also means that the solutions for these challenges are not one size fits all. And they never have been. But many pharmacies struggle with point-of-sale systems that expect them to be like every other pharmacy - not adding value beyond the ability to process customer payments. But it doesn't have to be that way. 

We can all think of negative customer service experiences. Times when a brand or company didn't live up to our expectations or needs. It's frustrating, because even if you don't need support through 99% of a products life, that 1% of the time when you need it can shape how you feel about a company, regardless of how wonderful a product or service is.