A blog on issues affecting Australia's newsagents, media and small business generally. More ...

Optimism

If you think closing your newsagency or your retail shop for good is the only option …

I get it. Sometimes, the road ahead can have so many obstacles and the air is so heavy with fog that a pathway can be hard to find.

In the Aussie newsagency channel you can collect a ton of obstacles and feel surrounded by fog if you are drawn to the end is near talk and have your business rooted deep in the past for our channel.

If you feel like closing is your only option, I am writing this for you.

Stop. Collect data – your sales data, your financial situation information, local economic circumstances. Gather all the facts together, and go over them – not the emotion, the hearsay – stick to the evidence, the facts.

Usually, in the evidence, there is opportunity. The challenge is that often opportunities cannot be seen because of the noise of obstacles and fog. That’s why I say stop, get your evidence and sit with that.

My hope is that in your evidence there is sufficient opportunity to find a path forward for the business, and for you.

Turning a situation away from closing is my only option can only come about by one or a mix of:

  • attracting new shoppers
  • getting existing shoppers purchasing more
  • making more from some of what you sell
  • reducing costs

It’s pretty simple when you read the list. The hard part is the action, that’s where retailers can get stuck. I mean, attracting new shoppers is difficult, especially in small business where the levers we can pull are limited.

The best way to attract new shoppers in any local retail business is to introduce a completely new product category, to represent it well in-store and to pitch it appropriately on social media.

Your existing suppliers won’t have helpful advice in this area because they are your existing suppliers. You have to look outside your current pool of advice and influencers and look outside what people know your shop for. Choose a category that is fun, appealing and for sure traffic-generating. Ideally, it will be something not easily found locally, something that interests you. That last bit is important because one way to drive traffic for a new category is to be a bit of a local expert.

I get that it may be challenging to find the energy and money to make things work with a new category. If the survival of your business matters you’ll find a way.

The best way to get existing shoppers spending more is through a smart loyalty mechanic and having a shop people enjoy.

The best way to make more from what you sell is by charging more or buying better, or both. Don’t go crazy. A modest increase in GP% could work wonders.

Key to the success of any turnaround is starting on the road early, before fog and debris block the past. It’s important to all of us who own businesses to be looking well ahead, over the horizon, cultivating assets we can deploy when we think change may be needed.

Before I leave the topic I want to touch on reducing costs. That’s a common approach to saving a business. While it could help, rarely in my experience have I seen reducing costs alone be enough to save a business. Sure, it can be in the mix, but it alone is not enough. And the truth is that a well run business has trimmed costs already.

If you think closing your newsagency is the only option, reach out. There are plenty of us in the newsagency channel who will listen, and offer advice if you’d like it.

You are not alone.

Mark Fletcher
mark@towersystems.com.au mark@newsxpress.com.au
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-fletcher-tower/

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Newsagency challenges

Finding happiness in your retail newsagency business

2021 has been some year for sure, packed with challenges, things that can make your retail business less enjoyable than you hoped.

I am grateful through my work to see retail in many situations and, over time, have learnt from these businesses and the people in them.

There is no doubt for me about the value of being happy in retail. But, it’s not something you can decide to feel. It’s not a switch you can flick.

Finding happiness in retail takes planning and engagement throughout the business. While it does sound like work, it is also about respecting the business and that there will always be challenges, and knowing that being happy can help you get through them.

Here are my tips for finding, nurturing and managing happiness in a local retail shop:

Have good data. Yeah, I know this is a boring topic for many. But as a POS software company with decades of experience we know the value of good data. Good data is your rock. Build on a rock and life is, for sure, good. Good data will make you happier because your decisions will be better, and by better we mean you’ll make more money, and that will make you happier.

Be in control. Stop getting pushed around. If a supplier pushes something on your, use your data to deal in the facts. This, too, will make you happier. Facts matter. Any time someone says fro this or that ask for evidenced preferably in your business data. yes, we are still banking on about the value of good business data.

Price for margin. Maximise when you can.

Price for turn. You can’t bank a gross profit percentage until you sell something. So, price to turn, and bank dollars.

Lean on others. Spread the load, share the responsibility. Hire well. Train well. rely on the team to help you and this will make them happier, you happier and the business a happier place overall.

Set your narrative. In social media posts, stories you share in the business and in your marketing set the tone, set the narrative to be positive, happy and optimistic. This will encourage others to do this too. Own your narrative and own your happiness.

Of course, there is way more everyday practical stuff too: happy music paying, happy window displays, happy product displays, featuring happy products, samples, taste tests, games, fun events, giveaways, competitions … all these things and more can make the shop transactionally happy, which is good, too.

Happiness is good for business and all who interact with it.

Good luck. Now, get out there and smile. 😃

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Management tip

Advice for small business retailers on making their own Covid support package

I am tired of the news reports about businesses doing it tough through Covid and calls for government support. I get that asking someone else to give you cash feels like an easy answer, but it’s not the answer.

Covid has been with us long enough for us to be able to deal better with it and the associated challenges ourselves, long enough for us to have our own plan. It will be here long into the future, too. We knew a pandemic was coming, just like we know that extraordinary disruption from climate change is coming, hell, it’s already here for too many.

Here is what we know, and have known for well over a year.

How people shop, when people shop and where people shop has changed fundamentally. Online has grown and continues to grow. People shop more with purpose now. There is less browsing. More people work from home permanently. What interests people has changed. People think more about the future now. People are less physically connected now, and more connected as a result. Australian made is more interesting to shoppers now. Shopping local counts for more than it used to. Tech barriers from before have been overcome: think QR codes, click and collect and the number of people shopping online for the first time.

These are some of the changes Covid has brought our way and in each of these is opportunity. While some business owners ask governments for cash to deal with today, it’s tomorrow that will really challenge as what Covid has kicked off and pushed forward will not u-turn.

We need to make our own Covid support package as it is this package that will be more useful to us in the future.

  • Expand sources of revenue. Carry products and services that attract people who have not shopped with you before. Expanding your shopper reach insulates your business.
  • Smooth the peaks. Look at your key business data points: sales by product category, sales by supplier, sales by staff member. Look at the peaks in these and if they are considerably higher than average, lift others so you are less reliant on the peaks.
  • Expand your sales points. Having only the in-store sales counter as a sale point is a risk. Make sure you are online through your own website, on eBay and on social media so people can purchase where they want. Selling to people you will never see is key.
  • Nurture loyalty. Run an easily understood loyalty program that differentiates your business.
  • Chase efficiency. Efficient shopper visits have more items in the basket. Develop a strategy for driving this. It starts with understanding your current position.
  • Entrench in the community. Supporting the community groups that support you is good for business. Doing this in a consistent and mutually understood way delivers benefits that can insulate the business when rocky roads present.
  • Be frugal. Covid has taught us the value of having money in the bank. The trimmed roster, reduced inventory in the back room, lower overheads, early settlement discount taken … they all free cash that can be banked for when you will need it.
  • Reduce debt. Every additional dollar you pay off business debt is a saving greater than the dollar itself.
  • Look for the pivot. Keep asking yourself what if this or what if that. Think about pivot opportunities in those situations. Always have a pivot move or two and, if it makes sense, pivot early, ahead of the need.
  • And, have your shop reflect how people shop now: make it easier, safer, serving quick shopping, packaging bundles, offer browsing without touching.

By being actively engaged in these and allied areas in your business you can create your own insulation against the challenges of Covid or similar. These suggestions and others they trigger make up  your own made Covid support package.

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Management tip

Join me in a look at the Q4 2020 performance of 5 regional newsagency businesses – demonstrating core health of our channel

Here is a video of a discussion I had yesterday exploring the impact newsXpress has on member businesses. we look at the performance over the last quarter of last year compared to the same period in 2019.

There is much more that could be shared, including even greater successes as well as a more gradual detail. Think of this video as the start of a conversation abut the difference an engaged marketing group can make with engaged newsagents keen for change.

I am sharing this video to show the great success regional newsagents have made for themselves, to celebrate it and to reflect how far each of these businesses has transformed from what we used to think of as newsagencies.

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Newsagency management

Do you really want business to get back to the way it was?

This is a serious question.

Do you really want business to get back to the way it was?

Business back the way it was represents no change, no learning from the last 8 months, no reflection on what Covid normal may look like, no consideration of societal change.

Whether we like it or not, things have changed.

  • More businesses will allow more people to work from home, long after Covid, because of what they learned through Covid.
  • More businesses will continue with less the in-person engagement with their customers learned through Covid long after Covid is dealt with.
  • More businesses will sell to new people they discovered during Covid long after Covid.
  • Plenty of businesses and individuals who cut costs during Covid will continue with a tighter focus on cash.
  • Plenty of people who have worked from home will want to keep working from home.

Businesses that have benefited from these and similar Covid related changes will want that experience to continue rather than getting back to the way business was.

To me, the calls for business to get back to how it was are regressive. The future is always in front of us, never behind.

This is why I think that the businesses that have a good Covid are the ones best positioned for a brighter 2021 and beyond. They are most likely the businesses run by people who have not complained and moaned their way through Covid.

I get the calls to open up, get the economy moving and the like. However, for plenty, their economy has been moving. This is especially true in regional and rural Australia as well as in the high street.

It’s critical that all retailers are focussed on the (cliché alert) new normal of more people working from home, less CBD / business centre foot traffic, more online sales and the associated changes in what sells and when. That is where good business will be found, in those areas of change, not back the way things were.

The year presents us excellent opportunities for embracing change, leveraging what we have learnt since March this year and rapidly leaning into what we see emerge as I expect the pace of change to increase. This will be a consequence of Covid, what people have themselves learned through Covid and also a consequence of the Covid recession.

No, I am not looking for business to go back the way it was, I’m too busy looking to the future, which does look exciting.

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Newsagency management

That the economy is in recession does not have to mean doom and gloom

News platforms are bursting with stories about the recession Australia is now in. There are the headline stories based on the numbers and the personal stories of people losing their businesses and homes.

It is easy to get drawn into the doom and gloom news cycle. Unfortunately, news outlets think bad news drives clicks, and, so, they run the stories.

In our local communities, I think it is helpful that we act against feeding the doom and gloom stories. It is helpful that we do nothing to negatively impact consumer confidence.

My suggestion is: focus on what has been working for you in 2020, present as business as usual, bring in new product, change displays, host in-store events, be active on social media, play happy music, run competitions, be a good local retailer.

It is these types of activities that distance your business from negative perceptions relating to the recession.

Yes, this is a tough time. Worrying about it being a tough time will not help you move through it.

You can’t control that there is a recession.

You can control what your business does. That has to be the focus.

I have been through two recessions in business. Each was different. This time around it is expected to be worse because of the global Covid situation. The reality is that for many newsagents, there are elements of Covid that help your businesses. In many newsagencies, revenue is up in 2020 so far. This is good news.

Be attuned to opportunity. Also, keep a low profile as no one likes a bragger during times of adversity.

Sure, the economy is in recession. I’m sure that in plenty of newsagency businesses there is plenty of good news.

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Newsagency opportunities

How the Space X / NASA mission boosted online sales for newsagents

Here is a video from inside the Space X rocket when the NASA astronauts explain their choice of travel companion, Tremor, a Ty Flippable.

We have Tremor in store and online and from early Sunday morning sales have been excellent. Hundreds and hundreds of Tremor sold in 48 hours. Companies ordering, 10, 15 and more in a purchase at $24.99 each. Plus, people buying other things in the transaction too, as well as people going online, not buying Tremor, and buying other items instead.

Plenty have gone online and bought Tremor for click and collect – so as to not miss out.

One store alone did more than $1,500.00 in revenue.

What has happened over the last 48 hours with Tremor is an example of the value of being online with more than 85% of purchases being from shoppers not local to the stores fulfilling – it also demonstrates the value of multiple small business retailers working together, pooling inventory for a scale few retailers can match.

Now, watch the video of how this all started Sunday morning.

Here’s one of several promotional videos released:

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Newsagency management

Perspective on recent retail closure announcements in Australia and how newsagents could react

We’ve all seen the headlines, because news outlets tend to like the drama of retail closures and challenges. Terms like retail apocalypse and retail armageddon have appeared in stories in recent weeks on the back of a series of challenging news about retail.

News outlets are quick to run stories forecasting doom and gloom. Often, the stories skate close to the surface without much analysis as to the reasons for closures. This bothers me as understanding the details can be helpful for context, and for mental health for those in retail.

Here are some of the stories from this year with notes from me offering context:

Harris Scarfe is closing 21 stores. They have been in trouble before. It is a second tier department store with  modest critical mass. It found it hard to be competitive in a marketplace;axe that does not favour depatrment stores. I think their problems are due to department stores overall being in trouble and that they are a small group and therefore less able to weather changing times.

EB Games is closing 19 stores as a first step in an international review of physical store retail. I expect there will be more closures. There has been a fundamental shift in how games are sold. {physical stores are not as important as they used to be.

Bardot is closing 58 stores. This is a fashion brand that has not maintained relevance.

Curious Planet is planning on closing 63 stores. Ever since they list the Australian geographic branding the future has been in doubt.

Jeanswest is in administration and is reportedly likely to close 146 stores. Jeanswest sells discount jeans. The biggest group of jeans consumers are looking for more engaged brands than Jeanswest offers. Their differentiation was minimal. They as a business had not kept with the times.

Bose is closing 119 stores. They have figured out the commercial benefits of direct online engagement. Offering a 30 day no questions asked money back guarantee and costing shipping and other challenges, the company will make more money by closing 199 stores (leases, labour etc) and investing some of that into stronger online marketing.

The Bose move is what we should expect to see more of from international brands consumers trust. They will make more from direct relationships. We have plenty more to discuss in this topic is people are interested.

Rather than being drawn to the doom and gloom, which is a natural human response on reading reports like these, our time and energy is better spent on ensuring our retail businesses are relevant today.

How do we do that?

Yeah, it is the million dollar question … for which there is no one size fits all answer for every situation.

Here are some tips that I do know work:

Be the boss. It’s your business. You choose what you sell, who works there, how the business looks and how the business is marketed. Make those decisions like you are in charge.

Be relevant to today’s shopper. It’s likely the shopper is not like you. Too many stores stock what the owners and staff like. That is not a model for the future.

Be different. The more your shop looks like others the less it will stand out.

Provide solutions. It is much harder to convince someone to buy something they do not need, do not like, do not want or do not understand. It is much easier to get them to buy what they like, want, need or understand.

Embrace change. Know that what works today will be different tomorrow.

Treat data as cash. Small business retailers are notoriously bad at managing data. This leads to poor business decisions, which put businesses at risk. Treat data as a valuable asset and make better decisions as a result.

Sure there is tough news out there about retail. There is plenty of good news too.

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newsagency of the future

Grateful for good stories from ‘newsagents’

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.

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newsagency of the future

Retail turnaround tips for newsagents experiencing flat sales – small business retail advice

In May 2010, I posted Retail turnaround tips for newsagents experiencing flat sales. This was a post in response to reported flat retail sales.

We are at that place today. retail sales are flat. There is plenty of bad news being reported.

Here is an updated version of that 2010 post…

If your retail sales are flat and you are doing the same things today that you have been doing for the last year it is not good enough.

Business will not come to you. You have to go out and find it – often through a series of small steps as opposed to a big bold move. You have to obsess about presenting a compelling offer to everyone walking through your door.

Price is not a point of difference.  Shoppers expect us to be expensive. That has been shown in plenty of consumer surveys. Railing against this is a challenge. We can do this for some categories and at seasons but not across the board.

Being unique differentiates. The mix requirements of our shingle make that a challenge.

Here are some tips for retailer newsagents on responding to flat sales:

  • Refresh your head. Work out what you want for your business and those who rely on it. Make a plan. Live the plan. Success is in your hands.
  • Lock the office door. Only rarely do you make retail sales from the office. The shop floor is where the action is. Play there.
  • Refresh what you sell.
  • Refresh the counter. Many newsagency counters look the same, boring, what you see in other stores. Create something different and fresh. Take everything off and rebuild the counter with the purpose of selling product on impulse. Make strategic choices. Your counter should NOT look like a newsagency counter.
  • Refresh the window. Tell a story. have fun. Cause people to stop and look.
  • Refresh the shop. Change change and change. Move departments and categories. Make the shop feel fresh to regular customers and to your team. Make strategic choices about what products go where. Use dump bins for specials. Place impulse products next to high traffic products. Once you have undertaken the big moves, create a plan for continual change each week. Change shows that the business is a, living and breathing thing. It can make the shop appealing to new visitors. Newsagents who don’ change their business reinforce that the model is a retail dinosaur.
  • Refresh the team. Let your team know than business is tough. Ask for their ideas. Take some time out of the business to relax over a meal or drink or some other social activity (mini golf, go kart racing, fishing, bushwalking) and share an adventure outside the business. Sometimes getting away like this can get creative juices flowing about changes which can be made back at the business.
  • Ask suppliers for help. If your business is slow it is likely that your suppliers are finding it slow too. Ask them for some good value deals – not the stock they can’t sell but the stock they have plenty of and which sells well.
  • Lure customers back. Look at the top selling items in your businesses. Create a strategy for getting these customers back. Create a small flyer offering a discount on something if they come back in, say, a couple of days. Do this leveraging your top traffic products.
  • Create events. Give people more reasons to visit your shop other than to specifically buy something.
  • Use social media properly. be your platform for marketing.
  • Connect with the community. Go to community clubs and offer a discount to members and a rebate back to the club for business their marketing efforts on your behalf deliver. This is easy to setup and manage. The more people you have in the community saying to their friends that they should shop with you the better.
  • Ode to you. Run a competiton to find the best poem which reflects why your business is important to the local community. Get the finalists in to read them live and get your customers to vote. Maybe the local newspaper will run the winner?
  • Crazy ideas. Think outside the norm. Nude day has been done so has the underpants idea where customers get a discount for shopping only wearing underwear.

Stop talking about it. Yes, retail is tough. Talking about will not improve your situation. Doing something is better than talk.

Change is oxygen to any retail business regardless of its current sales health. Doing nothing in tough times will make the tough times tougher for you.

Personally, I am optimistic about the future for newsagents … that is from 2010. It is true today.

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Newsagency management

The revised gift to card revenue ratio for indie retail newsagents

There was a time when newsagents would aim for a dollar in gift revenue for every dollar in card revenue. Back then, cards pulled shoppers and gifts were the add on.

Today, there are engaged newsagents who achieve a gift to card revenue ration of 2:1 and 3:1. That is, they are easily achieving $2 in gift revenue for every $1 in card revenue. I think this is the starting point benchmark for gift to card revenue. Anything above that is bonus.

I have seen data this week from several different newsagency businesses, city and country, achieving gift revenue of more than $175,000 a year with card revenue sitting at $80,000 and with both growing.

Growth is the other piece of this. Growing gift sales sets you up for terrific growth in card sales. North in both good margin categories can provide a GP$ base that helps the business deal with rising lease and  labour costs.

We make our own success.

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Newsagency management

Inspiration

I talk with newsagents every day in all sorts of situations. This clip of past of a speech by actor ohn Krasinski at Brown University, which came upon win my Twitter feed, speaks, I think, to the challenges many newsagents face today. I hope you find it interesting. Oh, by the way, the full speech is online too.


I especially love these quotes…

Remember to be scared.

Take chances, fail big, and take chan yes again.

Before you do something special, just do something.

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Optimism

Gifts are not what they used to be, and that is a good thing

There was a time when gifts were easy to stock for newsagents. There were wholesalers who offered access to spinners and packs that fit with the key seasons as it is those seasons that we all focussed on for ur gift stories through then year.

That all started to change ten or so years ago. Slowly, the gift opportunity evolved to a point today where plenty of newsagents do not purchase season specific gifts, leaving that space to discount variety and other similar mass retail businesses, including c-stores, which are playing more and more in this space.

Gifts today are more carefully purchased by newsagents in the space, to appeal to unique local interests or to use as a lure to a specific and valuable demographic for the business. Often, the best gifts are those you would never expect to see in a newsagency. In my own situation, I put pursuit of a demographic ahead of season and other factors s that can provide buying guidance that is ore useful than some hard and fast rule on price.

In my experience, terrific gifts today come from suppliers who to not make calls on retailers as that means you are less likely to have another local retailer following you, or at least not following you as easily as if they spoke to the same rep visiting the town.

The short version of this is that the days of mediocre cheap gifts as the standard in newsagencies has passed. We now see less of the forks bent into art for guys and colourful oven mitts or gaudy soap packs for ladies. We see more short run products, locally made products and higher priced art like pieces … that you would never have seen in a newsagency a few years ago.

The gift space is strong and have plenty of opportunity to get stronger. I am optimistic about this category for our channel.

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Gifts

This is a true story of new traffic and sales growth in newsagency businesses

It happened last week and this week in newsXpress businesses across Australia. This exclusive range just about sold out in ten days, eight weeks before payment is due.

Let me show you a photo of the products. Then, I will explain what newsXpress did to make this a success for local shops and outline why any retailer in any location could have this success.

These products are called Ty Slides. Ty Inc. in the US decided to release them to Australia. Ty Warner, the founder of the company, loves small business and since newsXpress is their best Australian retail channel, we were given exclusivity.

We launched the opportunity to members in May, explaining what we would do to support the launch, to make it a success. Some newsXpress members ordered one pack for around $500.00 wile plenty ordered two and three packs.

The stock arrived in store at the start of November. We sprung into action with a terrific social media campaign.

newsXpress members started selling out of all stock within 24 hours. More than half all sales were online, with all online orders going to shoppers whop were not local to the supplying business.

Some newsXpress members reported more than $1,000.00 in online sales in a day.

Today, fourteen days since launch, many of our stores are close to selling out. They have banked the takings, eight weeks before they have to pay for the stock.

This is what a good marketing group does … it sources terrific product, educates business owners and staff as to context, drives shoppers to the shop our online and helps turn the sock into cash well ahead of the bill being due.

Best of all, a good marketing group helps you find new shoppers.

A good marketing group can only do this with an integrated and proven web and social media platforms.

This is a valuable differentiation for newsXpress.

The Ty Slide stampede for stock also brought people who purchased plenty of other Ty product from our awesome local newsXpress shop connected website.

Call newsXpress National Sales Manager Peter Francis on 0423 298 020 or email him on peter@newsxpress.com.au. 

  • See how our multi-layered web strategy delivers new traffic revenue to engaged newsXpress members.
  • Explore our strategic planning that offers options outside the traditional newsagency channel.
  • Hear how low cost shop floor changes are driving deeper and more valuable baskets.

We have one goal: to help you make your businesses more valuable (to you) and enjoyable (for you) to run.

PS. There will be some reading this who will say these products will never sell in their shop. The thing is, today, with online, you cannot say that as online customers are not local. We have solid evidence that proves that.

PPS. I joined newsXpress in 2005. Prior to that my newsagency was with nextra for some years and Newspower for some years. Joining newsXpress gave me genuinely fresh opportunities that I was glad to access back then. I own three newsagencies today, walking in your shoes.

Footnote: I am Managing Director of newsXpress Pty Ltd.

14 likes
Newsagency management

Ideas to help you turn off, relax and get creative

Coming up with fresh ideas to move your retail business forward can be a challenge. Sometimes, retailers and retail managers experience a block, like writer’s block.

The ideas here are designed to help you clear this blockage and tap into fresh ideas for your retail business. By engaging in activities far removed from the retail business you give your brain a chance to process a challenge subconsciously.

Turn off, relax, unwind and find fresh business ideas:

  1. Turn your mobile phone off and go and see a movie from your favourite genre.
  2. Go to a music concert for a group you love. Let your hair down. Sing along at the top of your lungs.
  3. Go to a comedy show. Laugh out loud.
  4. Go for a walk in the forest. A long walk. Touch nature. Sit a while and soak it all in.
  5. Go and sit in front of water, preferably an ocean and look out to the horizon.
  6. Lie on your back at night time and look up to the stars. Think about out there and the bigger universe.
  7. Shut yourself in a dark room and put on your favourite music and sing along.
  8. Try yoga, even if you have never done it before.
  9. Try a sensory deprivation tank.
  10. Light some incense, put on some relaxing music and meditate inwardly, shutting out the world.
  11. Have a therapeutic massage.
  12. Exercise at the gym, run or swim. Work up a sweat and get lost in exercise.
  13. Read a novel from cover to cover without interruption. Choose a work of fiction you are more likely to get lost in.
  14. Do yard work, things you have been putting off for a long time.
  15. Go for a long drive, away from work and home. Get to somewhere you have never been before.
  16. Have a romantic dinner with your partner at a place where you have never been before.
  17. Cook a complex meal that you have never cooked before.
  18. Bake a cake you have never cooked before.
  19. Take an unexpected day off and treat yourself to guilty pleasures.
  20. Buy some lunch and sit outside your retail store, across the mall or across the road and eat.
  21. Write a fictional short story.

These ideas are about you getting lost in experiences which are unrelated to your business. By getting lost, ideas have a better opportunity of surfacing, solutions have a better opportunity of making their way out.

Scheduling time to nurture yourself with ideas like those noted above could help you become more productive and creating for the business.

While the activities should be enjoyable, the business stands to benefit from greater creativity and more focused mental energy.

Have fun and let the great ideas roll!

22 likes
Newsagency management

How to attract new shoppers to your newsagency business

New shopper traffic is vital to every retail business for if all you see is the same shoppers then necessary growth will not be achieved and growth is necessary with rent, wages and overheads increasing every year.

The big question is how to attract new shoppers?

There is no easy answer. In fact, it is hard work. It is also work that is not unique to our channel. All retailers have to do this work, every day.

In my own  businesses, the question we ask every day is what are we doing today to attract new shoppers to our shop. This question is not posed to distract us from maintaining what we do and remaining also focussed on the valuable core of the business.

All of this is a preamble to one example of attracting new shoppers. This is what we are doing in one of my shops right now. This shop is in a big Westfield centre. we have a big Harry Potter display;ay with products from multiple suppliers.

We chose Harry Potter because we know that Australians do hundreds of thousands of Google searches every month for Harry Potter products, information and other reasons.

So, on the lease line, facing into the mall, we established this display. Right away it was a hit. People walking across, and shopping. Here is that display, from Saturday morning:

Video: May 19, 2018.

Now, for those who look for any reason to nit-pick: I am not saying this is a destination idea. Nor am I saying you must do this. Nor am I saying that this display is all you do. Nor am I saying this will work everywhere.

This Harry Potter display is an example of an approach, an approach that is working in my business and plenty ours, an approach whereby we leverage a popular brand to attract new shoppers.

Some brand, character and licence focussed ideas work better than others. The key is trying new things, every few weeks. Constant motion is a core message here. Acting based on real and current data about what people are looking for is also key.

I am fortunate to have access to search data thanks to a commercial service I pay to access.

Now, some will wonder – what does Harry Potter have to do with being a newsagency business. Nothing really, but that does not matter. The channel the business identifies with is not as relevant today to what we choose to sell compared to a new years ago.

The new traffic attracted is valuable as these shoppers browse the business and purchase in addition to the category that attracted them to the shop.

The model of acting to attract new shoppers is the key message here. In the newsagency channel especially I see it as mission critical.

16 likes
Newsagency management

Inspiration…

A perfect song can help you process business challenges and see through them to opportunities on the other side. It can motivate you to see things you might otherwise miss.

I have a collection of ‘perfect songs’, including this one. It is from a movie, Sunshine on Leith, which is a feature film build aroud the songs of The Proclaimers.

I like this video because it is a modern take on a song from twenty years ago. The modern take makes the (relatively) old song relevant to today and that is what many of us are doing in our businesses.

I also like the video because it is a community coming together to celebrate. Shot in Edinburgh in 2013, what you see in the video was shot after the film was completed. The team felt the original ending was a bit small so they approached the financiers for £500,000 to shoot this bigger new ending. Key to it was bringing in the community and what is what makes it special.

To me, this video reflects making something old relevant to today and the value and thrill of working together. I hope you like it.

10 likes
newsagency of the future

Inspiration

Inspiration can come in many forms. Speaking at the opening of the newsXpress conference in Melbourne last week I shared this video as a moment of inspiration.

The video was shot at a backers workshop for the now hit movie, The Greatest Showman. A backers workshop is where songs and / or scenes from a movie or piece of theatre are performed to get financial backers on board.

If you watch the first part you get the context in a brief interview. Keala Settle, the performer, was nervous about stepping out from the podium and there, at around 1:47 into the video she does it. Over the next couple of minutes Keala expresses herself through the song in a way that reaches amazing new heights, being very much in the moment … bringing to the song something that it is a privilege to see.  This moment of breaking free, to realise awesome potential, is what we I hope for all small business owners.

The performance speaks to me and the emotion of running our businesses as we navigate extraordinary changes, confront tough challenges and together try things outside our comfort zone. It is relevant to newsagents as we break further free from tradition and realise the potential of our own businesses in our own situations.

I hope you find it inspiring too…

15 likes
Optimism
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