You unlock the door and walk into your store early in the morning. It is all so peaceful. After a nice day off, you are looking forward to digging into your action items. Your mind is humming with the list of things you are going to get done before the store opens. Walking to your office, you pick up an … Read More
7 Sure Ways to Waste Your Team’s Time
I remember when a retailer told me that staff meetings were a waste of time. Now I have heard many excuses why retailers don’t do them – but I usually don’t hear that they aren’t worth doing at all. So when I dug a little deeper, it became clear that this retailer was making some very common mistakes that did … Read More
5 Retail Skills Your Team Must Know
You have worked hard to create great relationships with your raving fans. Those relationships can be easily damaged by poor behavior from your team. You don’t want to lose any business that way.
Why I Love a Bad Employee
The beauty of having bad employees is that it points out a problem, right? And when you see a problem, you have 2 options: Whine about it or address it. I always say, there are only two kinds of retailers – whiners and winners. I already know YOU are a WINNER… So let’s address the problem, shall we? The root … Read More
Why You Should Hire Like a Turtle & Fire Like a Rabbit
Turtles are slow, unhurried. They take their time. When you are hiring a new team member, it’s so important that you move slowly and deliberately. To clarify, I don’t mean you should procrastinate or drag out the hiring process. What I mean by slow is being intentional, thorough and knowing what you want, and what you need. Hire Slow Use … Read More
Why You Should Hop Off the Fence
Decision fatigue is a very real thing and you might not even be aware that you suffer from it. It manifests as mental exhaustion, procrastination, avoidance – the inability to make smart, productive choices. And that’s such a terrible way to live. When you think about how many decisions we are faced with every day, it’s no wonder it happens … Read More
Don’t Lose Thousands to Save $30
You can IMPROVE your margins by taking MARKDOWNS. Crazy! Quite a contradiction, right? At first glance, it makes a lot of sense to take smaller markdowns, doesn’t it? By keeping markdowns smaller, you are protecting your profit margins. I bet you have stretched it to 50% off, but you didn’t go further because then you’re not getting back what you … Read More
Amazon Prime Days: How do you increase your sales by 176%?
Would you like to know how YOU should celebrate Amazon Prime Days? Wait, what?! Why am I asking you, an independent retailer, to cheer for Amazon Prime Days? Because this is a huge opportunity to take advantage of the cultural fanfare this event gets and puts a local twist on it to make it your own successful annual event. In fact, … Read More
Why You Should Commit to Your Markdowns
If you have followed me for a while, you might have heard me tell the story of the Christmas Vase. It’s a story about a client who had a beautiful vase that just wouldn’t sell. So she moved it to the window. It still didn’t sell. She marked it down 20%, and when it still didn’t sell she marked it … Read More
Why You Shouldn’t Do a Storewide Sale!
When cash is tight it’s easy to fall into the trap of running a storewide or sitewide sale. After all, what would attract customers more than “Everything is 20% off!”, right? I’m here to tell you… DON’T DO IT!!! This plan will backfire on you! When you run a storewide sale, you actually give your control away to your customers. … Read More
