If you run a retail operation, chances are that you spend over 2,500 hours in your business, every year. A very serious question, how many of those hours do you devote to achieving rather than to simply doing?

How can you find the answer if you don’t know the question?

Fact –  your business can be more profitable. It can also be a much more interesting way to spend your day. What you need to do is put a whole lot more emphasis on what you achieve and less on what you do. Without some knowledge of your particular operation I cannot offer specific solutions or opportunities. What I can do is help guide you to the answer by clearly identifying the questions:

What do your customers see when they walk into your store?

Complacency and the comfort of the familiar will be your biggest challenge. When you go to work tomorrow, park a few blocks away and walk to your store front. What does your store front say about your business? Now clear up the clutter –  expired notices, manufacturer’s stickers, out-of-date trading hours. When was the last time you changed your window display? Your store front is your 24/7 advertisement –  what is it saying?

How can I improve my message and customer appeal?

Now here’s how to clean up your image and project a much clearer message to your customers. Place a black dot on a piece of white paper –  it’s simple, it has impact, everyone will know what it is, the message is clear. Now, cover the same paper in black dots and what do you get –  a grey piece of paper. The simplicity and impact have been lost. Using the Black Dot Rule, less is always more.

How do I reduce stock, improve my range and increase cash flow?

Apply the 80-20 rule to everything that you do – believe me, it works.

Fact – 20 per cent of the products you sell generates 80 per cent of your profits. Without knowing your business I am confident that this rule will apply. So, let’s see what we can do to reduce stocks of the other 80 per cent of your range, which ultimately will release that much needed cash.

During recent years you will have increased your inventory by adding new products. But, how many products have you eliminated during the same period?
If a product has not sold in the last month, sell it off at cost and don’t reorder.

Of this 80 per cent, many products will be very slow sellers. So why are you keeping shelves full? Sure, your suppliers are happy, but you should either order less frequently or reduce the size of your order.

A few years back we took a section within our stores and reduced the range of products by 24 per cent. Cash flow improved but so did sales. We were amazed and had to find out why. When our research came back, it indicated that our customers thought we had actually increased the selection of products. We had turned a grey piece of paper into a Black Dot. And I have been applying that rule ever since.

How can I add a little life and excitement to my store?

Easy, just be a little livelier and exciting. Start to see your store through your customer’s eyes.

Smarten up your store front and change your window display at least once every month. Clear the clutter from the cash desk and regularly change the products that you display near the cash register.

Promoting your business is a diverse topic worthy of an article all its own, but the real point is to look for opportunities to promote. When was the last time that you asked your suppliers for promotional support? You may be surprised by their response.

How can I survive if my margin reduces?

If there is one black dot that I hope you will remember it is this “20 per cent of nothing is still nothing.” Many retailers seem to disagree, but I would much rather sell three products at a margin of seven per cent than one of that product at 20 per cent. I am not proposing that you become a discount operation, but I am suggesting that the protection of an imaginary per-cent margin has much less value than the generation of cash.

Retail is a hard business but it can also be exciting. Even today I find it impossible to walk into a store without looking for ways to improve that operation. There really is no place for complacency in retail. If you address the questions that I have set, then you will add a little excitement to your day and maybe a little more profit, too.

In tough economic times such as now, leaders and employees are constantly being tested. Staff often succumb to worry and anxiety that can erode morale and productivity across an organization. Frederic stresses the importance of an “egoless” culture, in which staff feel comfortable engaging with senior management to discuss their concerns, as well as regular and open communication to ensure staff understand the Big Picture and appreciate the reasons behind the tough decisions. He touches on the calibre of leadership that is required to maintain morale and ensure a company “stays the course” in challenging times.

“The reason I choose to work with women is because when my Mom was 54-years-old, my Dad passed away suddenly,” says Rice. “My Mom was a housewife and Dad was a truck driver. There was no big life insurance payout, no big bank accounts or RRSPs. Mom was responsible for my brother and I and we watched her struggle to find work and when she did she worked long hours at multiple jobs just to make ends meet.”

When Rice began work as a financial advisor in 1994, he decided to help other women avoid his mother’s situation. He set out to educate women through wealth seminars on how to create a sound financial plan to protect themselves and their families.

Since then, Rice’s reputation as a reliable and trusted advisor among many women business owners and others, has steadily grown. He continues to grow his business by providing customized investment solutions to women business owners. His efforts have earned him distinctions such as an Ottawa Business Journal Forty under 40 award.

Rice credits his success to several best practices applicable to any business seeking to establish itself:

• Identify a clearly defined market that you can dominate.
• Engage with prospective customers in that market to understand their needs and tailor what you have to offer accordingly
• Seek out or create venues that allow you to demonstrate your expertise and provide something of value to your target audience to encourage their interest in becoming clients/customers

“Word of mouth, networking and my charity work have been critical to securing a stable client base,” Rice says. “But building long-term client relationships and earning referrals depends solely on the level of service you provide. In my business, I’m known for my ability to listen carefully, and fully understand the client’s needs, concerns and goals. I create investment plans that are easy to understand and simple to follow. Busy people like it when an advisor makes it easy for them.”

The marketing techniques Rice has used to capture this niche market fall into three areas:

1) Develop a Website. Rice understood that business owners are very busy and wear many hats. His web presence allows a new client to go online and do her own research about himself and Raymond James Ltd. so that when he sits down with the client to talk about her personal financial situation, she is already comfortable working with him and the Raymond James organization.

2) Be Involved in the Community. Getting out in the community and being involved in the issues and causes that he cares about has been a great way for Rice to network and meet people.

3) Create Your Own Community. Rice created in 2004 the Women in Business Owners IDEX (Ideas Exchange Forum). A guest speaker will address a small gathering of six to 14 other women to share her experiences and teach at least one relevant skill in a relaxed atmosphere that encourages networking. Topics have ranged from how to dress for success, time management, to proper networking and etiquette techniques.

Rice says his exclusive focus on women business owners has been very rewarding in more ways than money and business.

“Strong relationships, friendships and loyal clients have developed as a result and added more meaning to my life … My business is more holistic now because I help people to grow their businesses through networking and referral AND I grow their investments so they can focus their energy on business and other more important things like family and community work.”

“We knew we had to proactively re-engage with existing customers and expand our outreach efforts to get traction with different groups we hadn’t sold to before,” Larter says. “And we had to go looking where prospects were likely to be. That meant going beyond advertising and promotion in traditional outlets such as newspapers and radio to engaging in two-way conversations with our target audience through social media outlets such as Facebook.”

There is no denying the strategy has demanded significant time, effort and commitment from staff, but Parlez Wireless is seeing the results. The key has been keeping the team involved.

“Transparency is key in engaging team members,” Larter says. “I have taken the time to share with them how the business is doing, and ask for feedback on how to impact sales and minimize costs. We win as a team and we lose as a team, so in order for the overall plan to be successful and work, the team has to be involved.  They may not always like the decisions that are being made, but at least they understand why they are being made.”

Her team’s efforts to promote the business and grow revenues have focused on three key areas:

Sell more to your existing client base

“When the market is soft, it is easier to sell to people who have already experienced your service,” says Larter. “We chose to actively contact clients who had made purchases two years prior and invited them back to our location with a special offer.”

To build this database, Parlez Wireless as a policy asks clients for all their relevant contact information. This information is used for programs such as one in which people are notified when a warranty is up or they have the option to renew a contract.

“We started this outreach program with an incentive to get people to come back to our specific location to buy,” Larter says. “We opted to do this instead of spending the dollars on advertising. This way our ROI is guaranteed and our clients benefit from that spend.”

Sell to a different group

“We realized that if we relied on retail consumers only we were at risk, so we embarked upon a new program to sell to other businesses,” Larter says. “This created opportunities for us to sell one-on-many versus one-on-one.”

To support this strategy, Parlez Wireless created a new part-time position focused exclusively on outbound sales. This sales person was responsible for going out in the community and door knocking to try and garner new business.

“We offered free services such as complimentary annual bill assessments, number portability, set up of e-mail on Blackberry devices, in-store or on-site training, single point of contact for all account needs, and bilingual service and support,” Larter says. “This initiative has gone from one day a week to a full-time position.”

Utilize Social Media

Larter is quick to emphasize the value of social media as a marketing tool that can be used to grow a business and a brand for free.

“Social media is fun, free and happening,” she says. “We spent more time focusing on being present in areas such as Twitter and Facebook, updating our website to include a blog, and focusing on delivering quality information to our clients via email.”

This “quality information” includes insights into new products and applications, software upgrades on existing products, and tips and tricks on how to better utilize a technology purchase.

“Clients regularly talk about us – praise our service on both of these mediums unsolicited. They just do it because of the relationship we have built with them,” Larter says. 

“You can read our blog and product page to see what we write about. I also blog at LisaLarter.com and have a lot of clients who read my updates regularly.”

While the use of social media has certainly increased Parlez Wireless’ visibility, more importantly, it has grown revenues.

“We’ve enjoyed incremental sales growth and even created a wait list for new products before they have launched,” says Larter. “We have utilized social media for recruiting, sharing updates with our clients and announcing special promotions and contests … We have also used search functions to find key words that our clients might be talking about in order to position ourselves as experts in our market.”

In 1980, Murray left the construction and renovation industry and went to work with his uncle, who operated the Town Cobbler, a shoe and luggage repair business with nine local locations. When Murray’s uncle sold the business in 1986, the Greenbergs struck out on their own and founded Capital City Luggage.

Murray made the leap into business ownership without the benefit of any formal training or experience beyond what he had picked up from working with his uncle. But while he will modestly shrug off his role in the Capital City Luggage’s success as a case of “flying by the seat of my pants,” the business’s longevity has clearly stemmed from a firm focus on the fundamentals.

Adapt to the market

In the early years, Capital City Luggage served as a repair center for all the major airlines and department stores in Ottawa and the surrounding area. But as times changed and a number of airlines folded, the business was forced to change and adapt. While it still offers repair services, retail now drives 85 to 90 per cent of Capital City Luggage’s business.

Adaptability has been key. Murray says the ability to change and adjust, or lack thereof, has made the difference between success and failure for the neighbouring shops he has seen come and go over the years. Formal training and education in how to run a business, while valuable, is no guarantee of success.

Know your customer

For any retail business, Murray says, the key is having a well-defined profile of your target customer.

“When we set out to expand the retail side of the business, we had to consider what audience we were going to target,” says Murray. “Whether it’s based on age, income level or travel habits, we had to be sure we were providing the right product lines, price points and services that would cater to their specific tastes and preferences.”

And answering these questions does not require costly and complicated market research and demographic analysis, he adds. “All it takes is just paying attention to what people are looking or ask for when they come into the store.”

Pay as you go

Throughout the challenges of shifting markets and repositioning the business around retail, the Greenbergs maintained a strict pay-as-you-go philosophy. Early on, Murray approached a bank for financing but was turned down. From that moment on, he vowed never to go back and instead relied on stringent cash-flow management to support the business.

“We’ve always operated this business on the principle of living within your means,” he says. “Don’t spend what you haven’t got.”

Regularly promote

Murray is also a firm believer in a program of regular and consistent advertising to promote the business and maintain consumer awareness. For years, print advertising in local newspapers was sufficient. But as time wore on and newspapers faced more competition from television and the Internet, Capital City Luggage saw less return from the investment, despite trying different approaches such as providing cut-out coupons or engaging in hard-sell campaigns with time-limited offers.

The Greenbergs responded by transitioning to advertising on local television and have been pleased by the results.

“You have to promote your business and make sure the dollars you’re spending are getting results,” Murray says. “On a regular basis step back and take a hard look at what you’re doing and whether or not it is bringing business in the door. If not, stop doing it and try something else.”

Fresh challenges

In recent years, the Wellington West area has undergone a dramatic facelift that has seen what was once a tired old neighbourhood revitalized into a vibrant retail strip with plenty of character.

But while this kind of transition can boost a retail area by attracting a whole new audience of shoppers from other parts of the city, it does come with short-term challenges that can, and have, driven many businesses into the grave.

The street is in the midst of a three-year construction project that causes traffic jams and makes it difficult for visitors to find parking or even a particular store. Capital City Luggage responded to this challenge in a number of ways, starting with its window display.

“Few stores put much effort into an effective front window display any more,” says Murray. “But for us it made a huge difference.”

The store embraced the construction theme with a series of attractive window displays developed by a relative with relevant experience. Not only did this pull in shoppers, it also brought in the construction workers themselves.

Offering outstanding customer service has been more important than ever. Capital City Luggage gave up its reserved staff parking out back to customers, while staff went the extra mile to assist customers navigate the street disruption and carry out purchases out to their car. Staff members have even parked customers’ cars for them.

“It’s simple,” says Murray. “Treat customers like human beings. Treat them like you would like to be treated yourself.”

Despite the construction headaches, business remains strong, and while the Greenbergs can attribute this to their efforts to promote the business and ensure the customer is well served, Murray feels it also comes from having been a part of the community for so long.

“There is a sense of community here,” he says. “Residents in the area want to support local business.”