About a month ago, I went to wake up my kids, and noticed that my little boys weren't quite so little anymore. Feet sprawled over their toddler sized mattresses in every possible direction. There was no more avoiding it. It was time to upgrade to twin size mattresses and they'd need a matching bed frame to go with them.

After shopping and research, my other half and I had the brilliant idea to make our own loft beds. After all, plans are readily available online and it can't be that hard right? A good solid weekend of work and we'd have our problem solved, and hopefully for less than purchasing something similar would cost.

When I was in elementary school, I got the chicken-pox. My mother was well prepared with all of the traditional remedies but had determined that the best way for all of us to say sane would be to keep me busy. So instead of yelling at me to stop scratching, she started teaching me how to sew, bribing me with special fabric to make a very pink tote bag to haul my ballet gear to and from class. Ballet didn't last for very long, but my love of sewing grew and eventually became a passion for all things DIY.

A couple of months back, we shared a recent study discussing the staggering amount of sales forfeited by retailers due to out-of-stock products. Even for pharmacies with small front ends, sales lost because of empty shelves can be detrimental.

One of the major components to keeping inventory accurate is an active store recovery process. Depending on the size of your pharmacy, this might seem a little daunting at first, but if you take the time up front to build your active recovery program the right way with the right tools, you can take the first steps towards saying goodbye to out-of-stock concerns.

Labor Day is always the holiday that sneaks up on me. It's always here faster than I expect it to be, bringing with it the end of summer and the beginning of so many other things. (Like football season. Go Hawks!)

The seasonal shift that accompanies Labor Day results in everything from back to school shopping (and the sales to go along with it) to end of summer cookouts and final vacations. And there's likely a whole fall to-do list that's just waiting to be noticed.

Not to be outdone by yard work and winterizing the house, your pharmacy probably needs some attention as well. As we get ready for Labor Day and take the first steps into Fall, there are some considerations that will help you transition out of the summer months with ease.

A few months ago, I started using curbside pickup service at the grocery store. The first few "pickups" were free so I figured I'd give it a try. It's not like I really hate grocery shopping, but I thought if I could spend one less hour a week listening to different variations of "Mom, can we go home now?" on repeat, it was definitely worth it.

It only took a couple of pickups to convince me that this was the way to go when it comes to necessities. It's easy, saves me time, and I actually get home with everything that was on my list.

Grocery is just one of the retail verticals adopting curbside pickup. What started at restaurants has now expanded to major retailers like Target and even Home Depot, who has announced a new program where customers can pick up online orders from a convenient locker.

If you've thought about curbside pick-up before, but just haven't taken the leap to implement the service, there's no time like the present to get started. If you aren't convinced it's the way to go for your pharmacy, here are some points which may make you reconsider.

The last time you went shopping and received a paper receipt, what did you do with it? Did you carefully fold it, place it in your wallet for storage when you got home? Probably not. More likely, that receipt was carelessly shoved into a pocket, lost in a purse, or forgotten in the bag your purchases came in. And even if you did file that receipt away, did you actually ever go back and use it? Or on the flip side of things, when you actually did need a receipt, could you actually find it?

Think about all the receipt paper you go through each year.  Consider the cost of printing AR statements and mailing them. Is this really the best, most cost effective way to run your pharmacy? Is it best for your customers? The answer is probably not, at least not all of them.

The solution? Embracing email receipts and other communications in your business. Here are 4 big reasons to take the next step and start using email more frequently in your pharmacy.

If you start looking into credit card processing options, you're going to get hit with a lot of buzzwords, acronyms and probably some straight out confusion. There are so many different considerations, opinions and no small amount of conflicting information.

So what does it really all mean? What features are out there and how does adopting, or not adopting, one of those features impact you? Here's a summary of some of the key features to look for.