It’s a whole new year and a fresh opportunity to grow your retail sales. Maybe you’ve been cooling your heels because you believe you’re doing “well enough”. But when you allow complacency to set in, you’re opening the door to inertia and inertia isn’t what your bottom line needs.
It’s a generally accepted principle of retail that you can never have enough customers. You can never get smug about your market position. If you’ve been doing that, it’s time you made a New Year’s resolution to not settle for “well enough”. Your business’s future health depends on it.
This post is about how to make 2018 a year you’re not ashamed of and grow your retail sales. And you need them to grow, because slumps happen and when you’re fat and healthy, you can absorb those slumps.
Your vision for the future.
You’ve made mistakes and you’ve learned from them. That’s why failure is so important – it’s your greatest teacher.
Dwelling on the failures of the past isn’t going to grow your sales. Improvement depends on examining past missteps and transforming them into the tools that make your business more successful. Those tools are going to make your vision for the future real. You’re going to wield them in the service of cementing your market share and expanding it.
What do you want to change?
Another interesting thing about failure, is that it presents us with issues about our approach, making those issues much clearer and thus, manageable.
Now’s the time to take stock. What went well last year? Give yourself a pat on the back for everything you did that successfully supported growth. But don’t let that stop you from looking at what you want and need to change.
Maybe you’ve been hesitating about staff training and enhancement. Maybe you’ve been reluctant to hire new people, or let other staff go (it’s not fun).
In every brick-and-mortar, there’s a stubborn issue (or an array of them) that’s within your power to address. Taking the bull by the horns and fixing what needs to be fixed takes vision and courage.
Get it done.
Hold yourself accountable.
As the owner of your business, the buck stops with you. Your employees may not care enough about their jobs. Your suppliers may deliver late. But who can change the impact of these realities?
You can.
Let employees go who aren’t interested in helping you sell goods. Diversify your supply chain, or find new suppliers, entirely. Ultimately, you’re completely responsible for the health of your retail store. Don’t pretend a slump in sales is the fault of inept suppliers or disengaged staff. Fix the problem and move forward.
You’re the boss and you’re accountable.
One of the most important gifts you can give yourself is the gift of being honest with yourself. When you can be honest about your approach and your response to challenges, you can grow your retail sales and win.
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