This photo shows a tweet from Kikki.K yesterday pitching Father’s Day gift items. Note the use of yellow. This connects with their current yellow window display that I wrote about here on the weekend.
The tweet is a good example of consistency in marketing, especially consistency of a focussed pitch from the shop to social media. This helps leverage the investment in a themed promotion.
Note: it is Father’s Day in the US on June 21.
Two suppliers have mentioned that they have been told WH Smith is close to adding between 20 and 25 newsagency locations to its Australian store fleet. That is the extent of the information – so no clarity whether the new rooftops are through acquisition or store openings.
Another supplier mentioned losing considerable business as a result of acquisition by WH Smith as the company had its own sources for products usually supplied by this supplier. They were left with considerable staccato shift.
Winter is here. It’s months before the next major traffic generating season. Now more than ever we need to make our businesses appealing. This week I’ll share some tips.
Practical ideas to warm up your newsagency this winter with sunshine.
Winter can give people the blues. These ideas are about pushing back on that, having fun and running your business differently this season to others.
Newspaper subscriptions in the US are important as shown in the tweet about what Arthur Sulzberger, Publisher of the New York Times said at the World News Congress this week. That growth in subscriptions from 5% – 10% 20 years ago to over 50% now is extraordinary.
Subscriptions are vital to newspapers. They provide the best opportunity for migration to digital. While retailers are not in that model, newspaper publishers need to serve their needs first. This push also puts the needs of journalism ahead of ours and I am fine with that.
We need to be accepting on this transition as it will happen regardless of anything we can influence.
Newsagents offering a gift wrapping service may find this report from the US Consumer Reports interesting. What they note about major US retailers charging for the service is also true in Australia.
If your service is free, now could be the time to reconsider.
Finding fans is tough for indie musicians as they don’t have the support of the marketing machines of massive labels to drive airplay and attract fans. Their success comes from many small steps, plenty of ‘local’ activity. The same is true for us small business newsagents in our competition with supermarkets and others who sell what we sell but in a mass way.
I was thinking about this just now when I saw this tweet from south-west London indie band Elephant & Castles following a small item in the UK music magazine NME:
We got some @NME love this week. Read it the old fashioned way from your newsagents. Thanks @NME_Radar @JonHatchman
I love their support of newsagents.
Their success will come from many small steps – lots of playing gigs in small locations, getting their name out fan by fan. It’s true for us. Greater success for us will come from many small steps attracting shoppers for unique and special interests.
The challenge for our channel is that we have many newsagents who have not had to do this and here they are toward the end of their time owning a business having to learn new skills and reinvent their businesses. That is a difference between many newsagents and indie musicians – for the indie musician they are starting out and stepping into their challenges of their own accord.
I know I am getting a bit off track here. The point I want to make is we can be successful if we rely on many small steps for our success rather than fewer big things. Like the indie band playing many gigs to find their success.
I have been looking at retail businesses in the US this week and have noticed several with 2016 calendars out on the shop floor. While this feels too early to me, they say it is common with special interest higher-priced calendars like this art range.
We put our calendars out in August and now I am wondering if that is a bit late for some titles such as those imported (like this range) at least.
I have added more dates for the Newsagency of the Future 2015 workshop series:
I promise a challenging and worthwhile couple of ours together as we explore what we know, what might be and what we can do about it.
Newsagents and others involved in newspaper distribution in South Australia are hearing reports that the Adelaide Advertiser will cease its print edition on one or more days of the week in response the financial return on those days.
One source is reportedly a representative Advertiser Newspapers who has spoken with newsagents.
While I expect such a move to happen, not only in Adelaide but elsewhere in Australia where the economics demand, I note we have heard this report previously and News Corp. denied it previously. I mention it today as the report is fresh from this week and I thought people would like to know.
Winter is here. It’s months before the next major traffic generating season. Now more than ever we need to make our businesses appealing. This week I’ll share some tips.
Practical ideas to warm up your newsagency this winter with optimism.
This idea is hard as it is more about mindset and storytelling than anything else.
The optimism in our businesses starts with us.
We are promoting the 3D Create and Print partwork launch with this display on the lease line, facing into the mall.
The display is capped with a 3D printer provided by the publisher through Gordon and Gotch as part of a newsXpress promotion for this launch. The items in the front of the were created in-store using the printer.
The 3D printer and the printed items add good theatre to support the launch.
This partwork launch is an excellent opportunity for our channel to connect with 3D printing, making is more relevant to those into this as a hobbyist. I am running a facebook promotion to reach way outside the shop to attract shoppers who could be interested in 3D printing and locking in for this series.
I appreciate there are challenges with partwork supply. Almost every time I track this down the source of the problem is the publisher and not the distributor.
I remain a supporter of partworks in part because of the traffic they generate through TV and other campaigns.
I am seeing more newspaper publishers offering more aggressive offers for digital access. The latest in this push from The New York Times being promoted through Twitter. I signed up and sure enough I have free digital access for eight weeks.
I declined the 99c offer to extend out to 12 weeks as I want to see what they do at the end of 8 weeks.
Publishers are on a race to the bottom with these offers. This is why discussions about other models to fund professional journalism are vital. A health democracy depends on strong independent journalism. The financial model at the core of this for more than 100 years has collapsed.
Mark Latham loves to goad people into debate. This is what Fairfax pays him for from his op-ed pieces in the Australian Financial Review.
Latham was wrong in his column on the weekend when he wrote:
Self-evidently, if small businesses were any good they would’t be small. They would be big monstrous things with massive levels of profit, employment and economic grunt.
A good business owner, large or small, spreads risk. The best way to do this is across many revenue points (customers or products). Businesses relying on one big revenue generator carry a huge risk as do economies – look at the doom and gloom forecasts for Australia flowing from the mining downturn.
Our economy will be stronger from 10,000 small businesses with combined revenue equal to one large national business.
While I am no economist, I suspect and economy will benefit more from many small businesses than one big business generating the same revenue. Here’s why:
Latham goads further with:
Small businesses, in effect, are the garden gnomes of the modern economy – purely ornamental and totally dispensable.
I don’t think Mark Latham actually believes this. If he does he is an ignorant small business bigot, he ought to work in some small businesses and see the world from here. He should see first hand local community engagement that is unique to small business. he ought to spend time in the office and see first-hand the economic value from wages paid, suppliers paid, rent paid, profits made. Sure, most small businesses make only slim profits – but does that matter? I know many small business owners who are not in business to get financially rich – their businesses make them personally rich.
I’ve owned my software company for 34 years and my retail newsagency business for 19 years. Both businesses have been and continue to be considerably more than ornamental for me, all who have worked in them and all who have done business with them.
The best business success in large and small businesses is that which comes from many small steps as it is this success which will be more sustainable. The same is true for an economy. Australia will benefit from more small businesses not fewer. They do not need massive handouts, only the occasional reaffirming encouragement like the instant asset write off in the latest federal budget.
While I appreciate Fairfax runs Latham’s pieces to encourage debate, in this piece on small business he offended a business community that is vital to Australia.
Winter is here. It’s months before the next major traffic generating season. Now more than ever we need to make our businesses appealing. This week I’ll share some tips.
Practical ideas to warm up your newsagency this winter with laughter.
All simple ideas focussed on the fun and positive and to help people forget it is winter.
Prior to the last federal election I commented about the small business policy of the Greens compared to the major parties. I felt the policy of the Greens was better. I still do.
I reconsidered this recently following the federal budget small business initiatives. It is interesting to see what the Greens proposed and what the government has subsequently announced.
For all their attacking of the Greens, the federal government has borrowed heavily from the policy work done by the Greens. I would have like to see the government acknowledge this.
We had a great May with revenue up 7% on the back of excellent growth in May 2014 over 2013. Everyday counter card (birth to death) sales were up 25% of an excellent base, gifts up 25% – now 33% of cards, plush up 63% – not close to 50% of cards, toys up 340% off a good base – it was a stellar month.
Our focus on gross profit has continued to work with good growth there as higher margin items are in more baskets.
These results are from many small steps which is the way I like it. I don’t want success from one big single move as that is risky for the business. I prefer many small steps that feed into each other and compound to create the result I am writing about here.
I am writing about the results here to encourage newsagents to look at their year on year results, to share them and to know that we can grow our businesses and make them more valuable.
How did you do in May?
While being in a shopping centre has its benefits, it also has its challenges – such as when an anchor tenant departs. The troubled Top Ryde shopping centre in Sydney is to lose Myer as reported recently. With Coles and Kmart taking the Myer space the traffic mix and frequency of visit will change.
Independent retailers in shopping centres are there for the ride in many respects, hoping the majors work and bring in a traffic mix off of which they can benefit.
Join me on June 20 in Cairns for a Newsagency of the Future workshop. I promise a challenging, insightful and worthwhile couple of ours together as we explore what we know, what might be and what we can do about it.
Access to this workshop is free. Book here.
It can be tough staying healthy while running a business, especially in these days of lean overheads. Eating on the run and lack of exercise can damage our bodies and impact negatively on our businesses.
I struggle with my weight and have been able to stabilise this by walking at least 8km a day. I got a Fitbit in January 2013 and this changed how I get exercise. It measures steps, stairs and distance. As long as I do 10,000 steps a day I know I’m doing okay even if I make some (necessary) poor food choices.
While I understand some reading this wills they don;t have time to walk for an hour a day, I’d disagree. For your health you can make the time. I do. I walk in time slices. Usually for 30 minutes at lunchtime and for 40 minutes at the end of the day making business calls.
I find that a daily walking target works better for me than exercise a few times a week. That said, I know of newsagents who exercise in the back room, play golf three or four times a week, are un a running group and swim in a group activity.
Health experts say daily exercise is vital for your mental health – so the benefits go beyond physical health. Here is another reason we need to take care of ourselves.
I am writing about this today to encourage newsagents to talk about how they exercise to encourage others.
If you are a Fitbit user and want to connect and taunt me click here for my profile.
Winter is here. It’s months before the next major traffic generating season. Now more than ever we need to make our businesses appealing. This week I’ll share some tips.
Practical ideas to warm up your newsagency this winter with sound.
Sound alone probably won’t do it so consider some in-store VM to connect with your sound activities.
Things are publicly nasty between Fairfax and News if this piece in The Australian is anything to go by. That this report is not behind a paywall speaks to the intensity of the rivalry.
Click here to see an excellent newsletter from GNS management. I share the link here with permission.
I say the newsletter is terrific because of the depth of information presented, the outlining of strategies for the business and the openness of the communication itself. The newsletter is full of facts.
GNS is a victim of considerable ill-informed gossip by newsagent suppliers and newsagents. Given the business is owned by newsagents, newsagents ought to take more care with this asset.
Winter is here. It’s months before the next major traffic generating season. Now more than ever we need to make our businesses appealing. This week I’ll share some tips.
Practical ideas to warm up your newsagency this winter with colour.
Yeah, some of these ideas are ridiculous. My hope is that in the ridiculousness you find ideas of your own for bringing colour to your newsagency this winter.
