Archive for the ‘Challenge’ Category

Extreme retailing: Location, Location, Location

Monday, May 2nd, 2011

store front design

store front design

What can you do if your shops location isn’t A1, or you’ve got some location challenges ?

Maybe the town centre has moved away from your location over time, if an anchor store moves, it can displace shoppers, maybe stores around you have closed leaving your store a bit isolated on your street or maybe your store had other advantages that outweigh the drawback of the location.

Basically the nearer the epicentre of town your business is, the more expensive the rent will be. Cheaper rents apply to A2 locations, or those up or down stairs, around corners or with obstacles of some kind in their way.

A rule of thumb for working out your costs is that the more you save on location, the more you’ll have to spend on advertising.

So what can you do to promote your store if you have a location challenge? Firstly, you have to be a bit more inventive. People generally feel uncomfortable entering a store where it is not obvious (for location reasons) what they’re going to find, so if your store is up or down some stairs, in a back street or has some other location disadvantage then take a look at the following ideas which we’ve tried and tested over the past 15 years in our store.

1. A good tip is to have something cheap like cards for example just inside the doorway because if people feel uncomfortable getting into your store, they’ll always be able to buy a card. This takes away the barrier to entry.

2. Props: for example put tables and chairs outside (without looking like a cafe) any other props will do too. Preferably oversized props to draw attention to your products.

3. Hand made signage that is regularly updated. I’m thinking of chalkboards here – easy to write on and update and you don’t have to be an art graduate to do this.

4. Clean and spotless exterior

5. Flower garlands (in season)

6. Balloons – filled with helium – check them regularly otherwise they can look a bit sorry for themselves.

7. Flowerpots – with plants that are colourful and alive and healthy – the bigger and more vibrant the better.

8. Statues / Artwork – securely fastened – again the bigger and more vibrant the better – subject to planning permission, local by-way rules.

9. A boards (Check that these are allowed by your local council)

10. Signage – can you put brand names that you stock up on the shop sign – if so this takes selling to the second stage as known brands help to establish credibility.

11. Lighting – fairy lights, overhead lighting, pools of lights, coloured lights (avoiding red for obvious reasons) but coloured lights in a dull area attract attention.

12. Sound – can you pipe through music from your store into the street (at a low level) so people can hear what is going on inside.

13. Leaflets – showing what your store is about – with trial offers ?

14. Signs – saying things like “need help with the stairs, your pram, etc, Please ring this bell for assistance.”

15. Have a welcome mat or entrance carpet

16. Publish pictures of the interior of your store on the exterior along with recommendations or reviews you’ve received from the press and satisfied customers.

17. Have a video playing outside the store, showing what’s going on inside.

18. Bunting or flags – if appropriate – anything that moves in the wind and attracts attention.

19. Canopy – can you make the most of a negative feature and really dress up the entrance to your shop – a vivid canopy would stand out in an otherwise dull street.

20. Use your security shutters to advertise your business even when you’re closed !

To all of you reading this with wonderful shop fronts and lots of window display space, spare a thought for those of us in a scheduled ancient monument where the only use for the windows is to shoot arrows from…..

We’d love to hear any tips that you’ve tried if, like us, you retail from an unusual store…

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Posted in Challenge, Uncategorized, marketing, retailers tools | No Comments »

Retail sales worst for 15 years

Tuesday, April 12th, 2011

banging-your-head-against-a-wallRetail sales fell in March by the biggest margin since records began, according to new figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC).

The BRC said that total sales during the month were down around 1.9 per cent when compared with the same month last year. This represented the worst performance since 1996, when the survey was started. Factors such as the late Easter impact these figures but its not really easy to say how much?

Like for like sales were 3.5 per cent lower than the previous year which is the worst like for like performance since 2005. So nothing to celebrate there for retailers.

Meanwhile online sales remained quite resilient. They were up by 7.5 per cent, which in other fields would be a rocking increase, but this is still lower than the 10.4 per cent increase registered in February. So in real terms its not good news.

The late Easter is partly to blame for the figures according to the BRC, but this alone is not enough to explain the poor performance of retail.

Instead, analysts have suggested that rising prices, the coalition’s VAT increase, and real-terms wage cuts for many workers are likely to be the cause. Basically knocking consumer confidence if not into the ground, at least into a wooded area.

Stephen Robertson, Director General, British Retail Consortium, said:
“This is the worst drop in total sales since we first collected these figures in 1995. Non-food retailers were particularly hard-hit. This is strong evidence of the pressure customers and traders are under. This year’s later Easter is a factor but this fall goes way beyond anything that can be explained by that alone.

“Uncomfortably high inflation and low wage growth have produced the first year-on-year fall in disposable incomes for thirty years. Mounting fuel and utility costs, falling house prices, higher VAT and the prospect of more tax rises and job losses left people unwilling to spend unless they really had to. These pressures aren’t going away and the arrival of higher National Insurance is likely to compound them in the immediate future.

“The next interest rate decision is a difficult balancing act for the Bank of England but, for now, supporting our weak economy must be the priority. Inflation is coming mainly from temporary and external price shocks - VAT, world commodity prices and the weak pound - not wage or consumer-driven increases. Increasing interest rates would do more harm than good.”

Helen Dickinson, Head of Retail, KPMG, said:
“The food sector suffered in the month due to Easter purchasing falling into March last year, thus impacting the overall results. However, beyond this the trend continues in a marked downward direction: non-food continues to struggle, with big-ticket and home-related sectors again being the hardest hit. We have seen an emergence of new, lower spending patterns since the middle of January, which are currently continuing to trend downwards. Many retailers will not be able to sustain this ongoing weakness in demand beyond the short term and are hoping for some good news around the extended bank holiday period and a feel-good factor driven by the royal wedding.”

where, I hear you ask, is the good news ? The short answer is that there isn’t any - apart from three bank holidays that may get shoppers back onto the high street, but even these three days aren’t magical days that can make up for the lack of confidence and disposable income, so while we have sunshine, daffodils and longer evenings, all of which are long overdue, we don’t sadly have any good news for retailers… yet !

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Posted in Bad news, Challenge, Easter, Emerging trends, Sales, Uncategorized, consumer trends, recession | No Comments »

Forward motion….

Sunday, February 13th, 2011

Going forward

Going forward

So we’re sliding into February, but most of us are still gingerly feeling our way into the New Year, apprehensive about what it’s going to bring. The good news is scant, there’s job cuts, price rises on just about everything, and the weather is miserable and damp, nothing exciting to really put a spring in your step.

If your New Year’s resolutions have already taken a bit of a beating, how about looking forward into 2011 and putting some forward motion into it.
What’s forward motion? Well, It’s basically movement towards something – the something is up to you. Towards a goal, or an opportunity or a decision, the movement is the important part. This year looks like the big toughie for retail, so faced with a choice of staying where we are and doing what we’ve always done, we just have to keep moving forward. Choose forward motion !

Of course, forward motion might not always be the best choice, obviously you’re going to make a few duff decisions along the way, but at least you’ll be making them. In our frantically paced world with so much information readily available, it’s still hard to get all the information we need to make a secure decision, so we agonise over the details. In reality our gut decisions are usually the right ones, but they’re hard to justify.

The more choices we have the harder it is to make a decision. So I’m advocating that it’s better to make the best possible decision you can with the information you have available, comfortable in the knowledge that if you’ve stuffed it up this time, you can choose something else next time.

When in doubt… choose forward motion !

There’s so much information available, that ultimately it just becomes a personal choice of what to focus on. Why focus on the negatives, which are often exaggerated, instead of the positives?
There are two main reasons. Firstly, we tend to focus on the sensational and the dangerous. One sensational anecdote about a store robbery or completely outrageous customer, outweighs a year’s worth of “I went to work and it was pretty much the same as usual.”

Secondly, choosing to focus on the negatives gives everyone else an excuse not to pursue big dreams and goals either.
There are plenty of people who’ll feed your fears and worries, but really, often they’re talking more about themselves and their lives than what’s good for you…. Psychologists call this a process of projecting, ie they project their fears onto you, but the double whammy is that this keeps you in your place and ultimately reaffirms their view again because you didn’t move on either !

If you’re looking for an excuse not to do something, you really don’t have to look far. Playing it safe is not usually a mockable choice - Everyone understands it.
But all things considered, good things can come from bad experiences too, in fact that’s often where we learn the most.

So, if you’re still prevaricating and pontificating on why you can’t change anything in 2011, just consider the following success stories

• Leo Tolstoy wrote War and Peace while living in a small house with his wife and thirteen children. Yes, that’s thirteen children !

• Walt Disney was a failed, bankrupt, small-time advertisement man before he came up with Mickey and friends.

• J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter whilst on the dole. Her first book was rejected by twelve publishers.

• e.e. cumming’s first book of poetry was rejected by fifteen publishers. He self-published it, and well, you know the rest…

• Abraham Lincoln lost multiple jobs, went bankrupt, and failed in numerous bids for public office before being sworn in as the 16th President of the United States.

• Mary Anne Evans living in truly sexist times, had to change her pen name to George Eliot, whereupon she became one of the most beloved English novelists of all time.

Dissatisfaction with something, such as your shop or your accountant for example isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Dissatisfaction can be a force for change.

Dissatisfaction results “from contemplating what falls short of our wishes or expectations” The funny thing here is that we’ve all got these wishes or expectations but we don’t usually acknowledge them, maybe we’re not even aware of them.

So, my next question, to keep the forward motion, well, in motion really, is :

What are you working on?

Hopefully, you’re working on something that’s big, that’s going to take you to the next level, that gets you excited, so excited that you can’t wait to tell everyone about it.

No matter what your work is, no matter what you do, there’s a way to create a project that has you buzzing with excitement about it, where something big, fun and new that might make a difference is just around the corner….

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Posted in Challenge, Change, Knowledge, Positive mental attitude, Strategy, Uncategorized, game, goals, learning, negativity, recession, retailers, screw it up | No Comments »

Happy New Year ! Happy New Strategies

Saturday, January 15th, 2011

colourful-hatsWell hello 2011,

So, however 2010 turned out for you, now that the tinsel is packed away, and the fridge is full of green healthy food, its time to turn our attention to 2011. As Einstein (or Franklin, depending on who you believe) wrote, “if you keep doing the same thing, you’ll keep getting the same result “ he also put some insanity in the answer, but it’s the new year, so we’re going to keep things a bit more positive here.

So the big question is what are you going to do this year to get a different result ?

Well firstly, start from the assumption that you’re probably the worlds worst boss ? Yes, you ! Even if you’re not self-employed, your boss is you. You manage your thoughts, your responses, your to do list and your career success. So, have you been doing a good job ?

There are few good books on being a good manager. Fewer still on managing yourself. But in these tumultuous times, it’s hard to think of a more essential skillset to learn, or a more essential person to invest in !

Looking back even 10 years, retailing was easy. There wasn’t too much competition, people actually came into town then, (they also had some money here and there) as long as you put up a sign, and had some stock, you were pretty much guaranteed to make some money, but it’s just not that easy anymore. Now, you need to be an accountant, a stylist, a merchandiser, you need to have strong leadership skills, be an astute buyer and negotiator, technologically proficient and with a penchant for hard work.

Now, along with the skill mix of a chameleon, you also need to be communicating your vision, marketing like crazy and in constant communication with your customers and potential customers, using all methods open to you, that’s facebook, twitter and blogging (among other things)

If anyone out there is thinking to themselves – I seem to be working harder and harder and doing more and more for less and less, then you are not crazy, that is indeed what is going on here.
Time management and personal effectiveness has been sideswiped by new media. In a world where we can all be plugged in all of the time, the old principles for success are getting a beating.
But if small business owners and entrepreneurs started businesses to have more time with their family, and enjoy the time here on planet earth, so how come we’re all blogging, tweeting and liking peoples facebook pages all day and night, how do we get back on track with our goals?

Since we all have the same time allotted to us, its got to be down to how we use it … makes logical sense huh ? So what can we do about it?

Well, the nice, simple answer is to stop. Focus some attention on these time management principles and re-adjust.

Stephen Covey, in his best selling book, the 7 habits of highly effective people, stated the importance of putting first things first. ie, plan, prioritise and complete your weekly to do list based on importance rather than urgency !

Pareto’s principle (aka the 80/20 rule)is widely quoted, but not so widely applied. Its a generalisation, of course, but the point is that only a couple of the tasks on your to do list are really going to make a difference to your business…. and you know which ones they are !

Meanwhile, Parkinson’s Law states that “a task will swell in perceived importance and complexity in relation to the time allotted for its completion”
So, the lesson here is that good enough is often good enoug ! It doesn’t have to be perfect – use the time you free up on not achieving perfection to do something that’ll really help your business.

So with all the free time you’re going to have with your new effective ways of working, here’s a couple of thoughts to swill around for 2011….

Most businesses look like other businesses,( it makes it easy for our brains to categorise them), so one coffee shop for example looks pretty much like another, but here’s the contraditiction - You can’t stand out if you fit in!

So therefore the decision about which part of your business isn’t going to fit in is probably the most important and innovative one you can make !

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The A-Z of successful retail !

Monday, October 25th, 2010

the A to Z of retail

the A to Z of retail

The face of retail has changed so much over the past few years. So I’ve come up with my own A to Z for successful independent retailing.

A is for Advertising: Whether you consider it an enhanced form of communication or merely manipulation, most of us consider it necessary for our businesses. In fact, I could write a whole article just on advertising come to think of it…

B is for Budgets: I’m on safer ground here. If you don’t have a budget then you might get a nasty shock. This happens when you haven’t done your sums right, and it turns out that all your profit is tied up in your stock room !

C is for Credit: Be nice to your suppliers and you can negotiate favourable credit terms.

D is for Define your niche: Ok, so I’ve pulled that one a bit, but if you don’t define your niche you can end up chasing any opportunity that presents itself, which often results in a mismatch of styles, stock and confused customers.
E is for Employees: Sooner or later you’re going to have some. Start off with contracts and write everything down – this will save you a lot of heartache.

F is for fashion: Also known as trends. It is the cyclical law of nature that as things go up, they come down. Fashion reinvents itself each and every season. While giftware doesn’t follow quite so rapidly, it can still become obsolete, so read magazines, visit tradeshows and generally do anything else that can keep you up to date with what’s going on in your market.

G is for Gift Vouchers: A fabulous way for happy customers to let family and friends know what they’d like from your store.

H is for Happy face: There’s nothing worse than a miserable face behind the counter. Be pleasant and make sure that your staff are. Why not employ a mystery shopper to independently grade your service. Remember that most people leave a business because they just don’t feel valued or recognised.

I is for Infectious enthusiasm: Yours specifically ! To lead a team you must be enthusiastic. If you have no team and its just you and the customers then you still need to be enthusiastic (see previous letter)

J is for Just looking: You’re going to hear that a lot ! Rather than asking the age old dumb question – “Do you need any help?” Perhaps you could instead ask a better question – such as, for example – Have you seen our new collection of X….? At the very least you won’t get the just looking answer.

K is for keyword search: In our technological age, make sure your store comes up under your chosen keywords.

L is for Loss prevention: People will try to steal from you – Don’t make it easy. Look for blind spots and instill good security habits as a key part of your staff training.

M is for Marketing : Marketing is anything and everything you do to promote your business.

N is for Newsletter: A great tool for communicating with your customers, reminding them that you’re still there, that you have new stock in and putting a more human face on your business.

O is for Operations Manual: You’ll definitely need one of these as soon as you have your first employee, you’ll notice that they don’t do things like you do…! That’s why you need the operations manual – it says how things should be done, in which order, when and by who.

P is for Price: The all important question, how much to charge? My tuppence worth is that someone will always undercut you, so unless you are a pound shop, it’s worth defining other areas as the USP for your business – service, stock, knowledge, design for example.

Q is for Quest: Q is a hard one ! I chose Quest because I see it as a positive word, a go getting word. Quest implies striving, searching and constant improvement.

R is for Relationships: With your suppliers, your staff, the local council, the local media, and the wine bottle when its not going so good ! Invest some time and make them as good as possible (with the exception of the wine bottle!)

S is for Sales: Selling is a combination of art and science. Time invested in studying the psychology of selling is never wasted. Remember to sell benefits, not products, and always answer the oldest question “What’s in it for me?”

T is for Technology: You can’t avoid it. So you might as well take a few courses and work out what tasks you need technology to do for you.

U is for Uniform: Are you going to have one or are you confident that everyone else shares your good taste and style ?

V is for vision: Think about it, articulate it, print it and make a bit deal about it !

X is for Xtra: Ok, I stretched that one a bit. But every self employed person I know does more than a bit extra. Extra hours, extra jobs, extra learning, extra training. you get the idea.

Y is for You: the one that generates the vision, the standards and delivers on it !

Z is for Zero Tolerance: To anything that falls below standard, it’s so easy to slide as standards slip imperceptibly, but standards are what set businesses apart

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Posted in Challenge, Customers, Emerging trends, Independent retailers, Uncategorized, learning, marketing, motivation, success, vision | No Comments »

Google me business cards…

Sunday, August 9th, 2009

Just Google me...

Just Google me...

I love this simplistic business card from designer Ji Lee the creative director of Google Creative Lab in NY.

Its simply the coolest card i’ve seen.

Which got me thinking… what would you have to do to be the first person or business that came up with your name in a google search - answers on a postcard please.

OK, so as the creative director of Google creatives Ji was probably already in the running, but for us ordinary folk, what would we have to do to stand out?

Build a website, maintain a blog, win an award, court some publicity?

I’m guessing some kind of mix of all of those, but wouldn’t it be fabulous to simply hand this out at your business card - assuming of course that there’s nothing on the world wide web that you’d mind your customers seeing…?

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Posted in Blogs, Building a media profile, Challenge, Publicity, pr | No Comments »

Adriaaaaaaaaaaaaan ……!

Monday, June 15th, 2009

Don't give up....

Don't give up....

I love Rocky Balboa ! I admit it.

Not the last movies but the earliest ones, where he’s young and hungry and the iconic moment when he shouts Adriaaaaaaan ! Ah, iconic cinema moments (and I’m a girl !)

So what do I love about Rocky? Simple, he doesn’t give up – He’s a survivor, and he keeps pushing through when all the odds are against him, but he’s totally determined and victory is sweeter because everything was against him !

Is there a bigger icon of triumph over adversity ?  I don’t think so !

So many times in life we get kicked in the bum and its hard to pick ourselves up time after time and remember what we started the damn business for in the first place…..?

To be our own bosses ….

To sell beautiful things we love ….

To set our own hours ….

To create something ….

Whatever your reason was, come Monday mornings it’s sometimes hard to hold onto the dream, so this is for everyone that doesn’t give in, that keeps pushing, learning new stuff when they feel a hundred years old, sorting out staff dilemmas and schedules, finding new suppliers, creating new displays and generally motivating everyone around them and keeping the spark alive.

Lets celebrate that we’re all still here !

Its enough of a reason, we don’t need fireworks and a band, lets just acknowledge that we’re fighters (maybe not as fierce as Rocky) but with the same determination !

Admit it now, how many of you have got “eye of the tiger” on your gym i-pod mix… I thought so !

In case you’re in need of a little pick me up this Monday morning… here’s the words to Eye of the Tiger to get you in the mood for a totally kicking week !

Risin’ up, back on the street
Did my time, took my chances
Went the distance, now I’m back on my feet
Just a man and his will to survive

So many times, it happens too fast
You change your passion for glory
Don’t lose your grip on the dreams of the past
You must fight just to keep them alive

It’s the eye of the tiger, it’s the cream of the fight
Risin’ up to the challenge of our rival
And the last known survivor stalks his prey in the night
And he’s watchin’ us all in the eye of the tiger

Survivor, Eye of the Tiger

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Posted in Challenge, Passion, success | No Comments »

What’s your story in 6 words…?

Thursday, May 7th, 2009

What's your story in 6 words...?

What's your story in 6 words...?

Apropos of absolutely nothing… just because we’ve been having so much fun with this on linkedin and triiibes, here’s a kinda off beat blog post for you….

Legend has it that Hemingway was once challenged to write a story in only six words. His response?

“For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”

Starting in 2006, SMITH Magazine re-ignited the recountre by asking readers for their own six-word memoirs. They sent in short life stories in droves, from the bittersweet (“Cursed with cancer, blessed with friends”) and poignant (“I still make coffee for two”) to the inspirational (“Business school? Bah! Pop music? Hurrah”) and hilarious (“I like big butts, can’t lie”).

My question is : What would yours be…?

Mine is : still curious about people and stuff.

You can see the video that sparked all this off just here….

http://vimeo.com/335019

As we’ve been throwing this back and forth across the internet - several people have sent through their business stories - it seems to me that this is a new twist on the elevator speech, which was supposed to take one minute, and more succinct that Twitter at 140 characters.

Just 6 words to describe the vision, mission and whole ethos of your business …..

Can you do it….?

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Posted in Challenge, Questions to ask, Stories | No Comments »

What kind of story is your shop…?

Monday, April 27th, 2009

What kind of story is your shop?

What kind of story is your shop?

Recently, we’ve been going through a few changes in our business, some pleasant, some, shall we say not so pleasant. As a small business and talking to other retailers i realise that we are not alone in some of the dramas that befall us.

One of the biggest hurdles to get over is staff leaving (or being asked to leave) In a small business where everyone knows everything about everyone, and emotions can run high, its easy to get caught up in all the emotion.

But what if its all a story? The story of your business ! What kind of story would it be? Is it an epic drama, with lots of adventure, or a fireside ramble through familiar territory. A cookbook or a thriller? Is there espionage and a plucky heroine?

When staff leave us, its easy to be upset about it, but what if we chose to see it as the close of a chapter, or a space for some new narrators to come in. After all no-one is irreplaceable, people will come and people will go and that’s the long and short of it… But if you were to choose what kind of story would you choose.

Sometimes its not whats happening to us thats important, its what we make it mean, and standing back and seeing it as all a chapter in the story might make it a bit less personal…?

So, Chapter one, the beginning, high hopes, new shopfittings and excitement.

Chapter two, settling in, slight change in direction, taking on staff

Chapter three, the website adventure

Chapter four, getting down and dirty with social media…

I leave the rest up to you… I’d like to think of my shops as an adventure story, complete with choppy waters to overcome (rise in rent and rates, and some shoplifters for good measure) a villain or two (I’m undecided on them as yet) a quest and a community to welcome us back….

As John Lennon said, “you may say I’m a dreamer….” but it beats the heck out of sitting back and feeling sorry for yourself, and if life really is what we make it, then we might as well make it a fun adventure….

Now I only need to convince my staff …….

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Posted in Challenge, Change, Stories | 2 Comments »

Words create our world !

Wednesday, April 8th, 2009

Don't go on a rant fest - Get peeved instead !

Don't go on a rant fest - Get peeved instead !

Words are powerful, they enable us to describe our world, how we see it and what we’re looking at, without words we couldn’t have a shared experience. Just think, instead of this word recession we could be calling it a woobleding, or a shizkayump. Would we feel different if we had to read about a wobble in the woobleding each morning, or a shift in the shizkayump? I think we just might

We are lucky in the UK that we have such a rich language, with many layers of description and finesse. But we must be careful because the words we use shape our world…. Literally. We should be careful lest we conform to Lily Tomlin’s view that “man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain!”

So, taking the process right back to the start, it all begins with thinking. We don’t feel then think. We think then allocate sensations to the thought process, which we then call feelings. So if you consistently tell yourself that you’re tired – you’ll start yawning and you’ll feel tired.

So the key is to stand guard on your vocabulary, I got thinking about this after a recent post on the Springfair trading talk blog. The post was about these tough times we’re in, and while I’m no Ostrich, I think there’s a danger in assigning labels. For instance the word tough, implies difficult, aggressive and unfavourable conditions.

I prefer the term “challenging” which implies something altogether more thought provoking and with some positive connotations. The dictionary describes a challenge as:
1. Calling for full use of one’s abilities or resources in a difficult but stimulating effort:
2. Absorbing; intriguing:

I believe that we would feel different about our situation if faced with a challenging time, rather than a tough time. A challenging time is one where you start to really use your head, you get creative. You look for inspiration. You are thrown down a challenge, whilst you merely suffer a tough time ! Tough implies that its bigger than you, harder than you and you’d best cower away, while challenge implies ingenuity, spirit and smart thinking…

You could argue that this is just semantics, and in a way it is, but words really do create our world – I’ll prove it to you….

Next time you’re really really mad about something, don’t have a rant fest, call in the perspective police and when asked what’s up – say “ I’m really really peeved ! ” You see, even the word is funny, it’s impossible to say this word and still be mad, you have to stop and smile.

When someone asks you how you are today, don’t give our usual British dumb answer of “I’m ok” or “I’m good” or “It hasn’t happened yet” or “still here” “hanging in” or any of that dumbness that’s just a waste of good vowels.

Try (for one day) answering “I’m absolutely brilliant! “ “Fabulous” “Wicked, top of the world – marvellous, magic, any variation of this that suits you in particular…. And tell me you don’t feel better…..! Watch your vocabulary it can literally dictate what kind of a day you’re going to have – words create our world – make sure yours is a fun and zingy one

In fact, here’s my challenge to you today, come up with 10 zingy words that make you smile when you say them, and make sure you use them in conversation with customers…. Try it, go on, it’ll be fun !

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Posted in Challenge, Indepedent retailer, Positive mental attitude, negativity, recession | No Comments »