Success: The 10 Most Important Lessons in Specialty Store Retailing
... a framework to help take your business in the right direction
Linda Talley
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Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2012 by Linda Talley
All rights reserved. No part of the book may be reproduced in any form, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in books and critical reviews, without permission in writing from the author.
Table of Contents
#2. Do You Have a Plan for Success and Are You Willing to Work For It?
#3. Sales Are Made Based on Emotion vs. Logic
#4. Each Business Is Involved in Community Events
#6. Branding Is More Than Just a Word
#7. Hire for Humanity, Train for Skills!
#8. Make Business & Personal Development a Natural Part of the Workday
#9. Attend to Your Professional Meetings and Learn from the Pros
#10. You Know the Financial Benchmarks
Introduction
The specialty retail store owner is his or her own worst enemy because they tend to understand the content of the business but not the processes involved in running a successful business or of acquiring new customers. If you want to change that, you must constantly be on the lookout for ways to impact your bottom line using numerous approaches.
In a recent study by Erik Hurst and Benjamin Wild Pugsley at the University of Chicago, the authors noted that many small business owners, approximately 50%, enter an already established market with a product or service that is not differentiated from other similar businesses. Because they are not differentiated from their competition, they start small and stay small throughout the life of the business. They become a statistic.
Are you a statistic? Today, that’s a retailer who is resisting change. Things are changing too fast to resist them, and, if you are, you are spending too much time on that rather than creating a measurable competitive strategy for your store. Who said “If you keep doing the same thing, you will keep getting the same results”? When your business is not doing what you want it to do, you become a statistic and all because you didn’t see the need to change or want to change. Change is part of the success game; if you’re not willing to play it, get out of the game.
Are you a top selling retailer? These are the award winners who everyone says: “I wish I could do what they do.” They embrace change, they welcome it, they enjoy it and they thrive on it.
As a specialty store owner, you wouldn’t be reading this book unless you were ready to make some changes and changes you must make or be willing to face the consequences of declining revenues, customer attrition, decrease in staff morale and increase in staff turn-over. By following these 10 secrets, you will increase your odds of success. Is it easy? Yes. Is it simple? No. Will it take time? Yes, Will you be able to do it? Yes.
If you are ready to take yourself, your store and your staff to the next level, this book is for you. From working with retailers in numerous industries, what I find to be true is that the ones who get ahead, those who are successful, are the ones who have an inner drive, a willingness, perhaps even an urgency to take it to the next level - rather than focusing on technical skills which can always be acquired. Check in with yourself. Is that inner willingness, that inner drive, present in you? If it is, let’s begin!