I am grateful for the opportunity over the last two weeks to have met with many newsXpress members as part of a series of member meetings around the country.
While most newsXpress member meetings focus on business strategy discussion, business development opportunities, product category training and related topics, this series of meetings has been about checking in with newsXpress business owners, to understand business performance, local economic factors and more, to listen.
I am particularly grateful for the good news stories shared so far at these meetings. newsXpress members sharing with other newsXpress members local success stories from the small to the large. So many good news stories, each encouraging optimism.
- There is the story about the newsXpress member who started a personal craft project to help them deal with a challenging personal situation. While it did help with that, it also resulted in a unique locally made product shoppers are loving, something through which the business differentiates even today, long after the personal project commenced.
- There is the story about a business confronted by high operating costs and a poorly negotiated lease from before they joined newsXpress. Following a carefully structured process, they were able to achieve a beneficial reduction rent. They also were able to cut the cost of insurance, labour costs and EFTPOS costs. Combined, the lower costs were the encouragement the business needed to set path on a brighter future.
- There is the story about the business in a small country town that was facing a tough challenge from a local gift shop that was copying every move they made. They embraced the training and opportunity of social media and a year later they succeeded in what had become a challenging competitive battle.While the closure of another small business is not a good story, it is good news for the newsxpress business.
- There is the story about the business confronted by a shrinking town and diminishing relevance because of challenges with core newsagency lines. With support and encouragement and based one research they introduced a completely new product category and through this attracted new shoppers. Two years on, that category is delivering a third of their revenue and providing oxygen for their business.
- There is the story of the newsagent who embraced advice to be more local by connecting with local makers and introducing their products in the store. The result was more shoppers, local and from further afield, shopping for the local products – on the back of the local markets promoting the business to their own social media followers.
These are five of the many stories I have heard over the last couple of weeks. Stories of encouragement from success and optimism about the value of pursuit of change.
While many of the stories I have heard do not fit comfortably under the old newsagency shingle, they fit comfortably within each business to which they relate. Kudos to those retailers involved.
Good news stories are good. I am glad newsXpress is part of them.