I’ve
covered many topics on this blog in my bid to help retailers build a successful
business and deliver an exceptional retail experience for their customers.
These snippets of information may sometimes be easy to achieve and at other
times more challenging. We all know retail is challenging but lets not forget retail is also an exciting and invigorating business to be part
of, and today, retail has a voice! Thanks to a few high profile pioneers we’re
now seeing more support for our shop keepers and recognition of their important
and vital contribution to our economy.
Retail is all about the detail and these tiny tip bits may not always
seem to have a massive impact individually on your business but, all together,
they most certainly do! From experience
I know that sometimes it can be one single idea that comes from nowhere that
can change the way a business works for the better. I can think of numerous
occasions where this has happened and often this eureka moment appears when you’re
focus is elsewhere, you just have to keep pushing forward!
One of
the big issues that frequently arise, especially for smaller businesses, is
lack of time. Often the bulk of the work is down to one person and what adds further
to this problem is our current state of connectivity through social media. It’s all too easy to look at what others are
doing, living and working their perfect existence, super humans in total
control! Of course, this is exactly what
we’re expected to believe, most of the
time it’s all smoke and mirrors! This can, however,
have a negative effect on our own performance and instead of doing what we’re supposed to be doing we get distracted and
ultimately de-motivated. Our attempts to move forward become thwarted before we
even begin.
I think
this quote by an unknown author really sums up what we all need to do on a daily
basis.
‘One of the most
important keys to success is having the discipline to do what you know you
should do even when you don’t feel like doing it.’
So I
have a plan! Come September I want to
bring together a small group of retailers to help them streamline their working practice, share
best practice, keep them motivated and, more importantly, make sure they enjoy
the process. This isn’t about creating more work it’s about working smarter and
seeing reward for effort.
Watch
this space, if you think you might be interested drop me an email, tweet me
or connect in whatever way you feel is best and in September I’ll forward you
all the details. You’re location around the world doesn’t matter; my aim is help
you stay focussed and simplify the day to day process. This is about making the
most of your resources and keeping it fun!
I fully
understand budget constraints, I understand lack of available time but more so,
I understand that we all need a bit of motivation now and again. You know what
it’s like, some days we’re in the right mindset and work is easy, other days it just isn’t the case and everything becomes a slog. This is when the problems occur; it’s at his point when we revert back to
old habits, doing stuff with no beneficial effect to either ourselves or our
business.
This
isn’t about me doing this on my own; I won’t be assuming the role of dictator
but more a catalyst to help you push through the uncomfortable stuff and build
a rewarding business. So I’m looking for
a bunch of retailers with different skills willing to share ideas, develop best
practice across the group and to bring with it commitment, honesty and
transparency. Oh, and a sense of humour would help enormously!
There’s
no signing up all I need is for you to let me know if you’re interested. This isn’t
some automated programme with a one size fits all approach, its coming from me,
from the heart!
So
after this longer than usual scribe I’m off for a couple of weeks, not exactly
a holiday more a case of organising family stuff. Staring off with moving one recently graduated daughter across
London to new accommodation so, a bit of decorating, a few trips to IKEA and a
bit of encouragement to try and get her ensconced in the real world of work. And
then, it’s getting the youngest daughter set up ready for her start at University,
more trips to IKEA and more planning to see if we’ll ever manage to fit
everything into her tiny student accommodation. Keeping it tidy will probably help but somehow I don't think this will be on her agenda! Will she ever keep it
tidy, probably not!
After
all that, and probably feeling more exhausted than when we started, its back to
work for Pat and I. I’m just hoping, by a very slim chance, that maybe, just maybe, we could fit in a short trip to Paris for a bit of downtime, a bit of culture and for me to indulge myself with a
visit to my favourite shop, Merci.
Hope the sun is shining where you are, see you
in a couple of weeks.
All the best
Peter
#visualcommunicator
#retailconsultant #designer
tel 07907 691711
email info@artysmith2.com
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