Thinking about rewarding your team at this time of year

Little treats can make big differences to the morale of your team and how they work for you and interact with your customers - in the long-term this will mean more goodwill, trade and sales for you.

I have worked for many retail organisations, big and small; worked with retailers in an advisory role and run my own retail business.  Where you have people working for you, their morale implants heavily on their commitment to worm and their interactions with your customers. Approaching Christmas is a time where employers often look at rewarding their teams in various ways. I have experienced the following-

*10% of a weekly wage as a bonus. This smacks of a lack of inspiration and thought and unfairly penalises part-time and weekend-only team members

*a choice from a pre-set list of gifts. This takes a little more organisation, but can have the "wow" effect if the gifts are of a good quality.

*a team night out. This will have the added bonus of some team building, but each out for situations arising from too much alcohol.

*a day off work paid for Christmas shopping. The idea is great, but often the time just gets mixed up with annual leave. Try to mix it with a shopping voucher or an afternoon tea at a nice tea room in the local town to ensure it's fully enjoyed for what it's supposed to be.

*a box of chocolates, a box of biscuits or a bottle of wine. This can start to go down the same route as the money route at the top of the list.

In sure that all you inventive entrepreneurs can come up with really great ways of celebrating your teams contribution at this time of year, and inspiring them to greater things in the future.

Don't manage by pieces of paper - look at your customers

I know it can sometimes be difficult to let go of measures and just spend time in your retail establishment with customers and colleagues, but this is probably where your best results will come from. I know of many retail chains that look heavily at results, KPI's, scorecards or whatever they classify them, but solely managing by this method is dangerous and does NOT guarantee the best results.

Take a national retail company that I have worked for, as usual they will reman nameless.  Their focus and passion on the measures mean that their store management teams are rarely in the shop floor, and as a consequence, rarely spend time with customers and colleagues.

They are pressured from above to control costs (result is no toilet rolls in the staff toilets.)

They are pressured from above to control staffing costs (result is jobs are left undone and staff morale is through the floor.). 

They are pressured from above to hit certain sales targets in certain categories (result is other areas are completely ignored.)

They are pressured from above to get a certain number of customer feedback forms (result is that many are forged.)

They are pressured from above to respond to Head Office requests (result is that the management tam fear being away from their emails for too long.)

The end result is that there is a huge disjoint between management and the team (even more profound in stores with an experienced team.)

Consider the opposite - a manager or management team that spend their time on the shop floor, that are empowered to see what is important to their customers and colleagues and where the whole team feel as though they are pulling in the same direction.

Now how refreshing will that be?

Small Business Saturday 6th December

Saturday 6th December is Small Business Saturday so make sure you plan ahead to promote the fact. Mentions on your website, social media presence, in your shop and in conversation with your customers will help to make it as successful as possible. It's great timing that close to Christmas so plan ahead - I've seen some local shops advertising competitions, prize draws, free gift wrapping and others. This is a great way to lock in the trade at this time of year, and even steal a march on some of the chains and multiples by getting your customers to buy early from you, rather than later from them.

Understanding gross margin will drive your business forward

Marks & Spencer unsurprisingly followed other retailers in announcing disappointing results this week and, at least partly, blaming it on the weather-

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/business-29911371

I have stated before in my blog that retailers have more than one trick up their sleeves and that cold weather doesn't decimate sales.

Marks & Spencer have now seen 13 consecutive drops in clothing sales, so there's much more to this than just a bit of unseasonal weather. The positive news from this is the increase in gross margin on their products.

If this is at too simple a level them forgive me, but gross margin is selling price minus buying cost. When you improve this, it can enable all sorts of changes to your business that you want to happen. Even if total profits are falling, an increase in gross thin means that you are working less hard for you money. If every transaction through the till brings you more profit every time, then it frees up cost for other expenditure or allows you to put money aside a rainy day.

It all boils down to the fact that you make your money from less transactions, less customers and potentially less staff. All of the time-consuming effort that makesyou  money also costs you money.

Looking at this as an entrepreneurs, you need to look at what profit ypu expect to make on every item you sell. I have seen independent clothing retailers have two sets of numbers in their price labels. The first is the price, the second (in a disguised format) is the lowest price they would consider if a customer wanted to haggle over prices or want a discount for multiple purchases. If you know what you want from each product then you know what products are worth the effort if youskr them yourself, or which products are worth the price at the wholesalers.

It is the start of every other calculation you make for your business and a clear understanding of this will drive your business forward.

Recruiters - cast the net wider

OIt's no secret that I live in the North East of England and I have a bias towards the North East of England when it comes to business and opportunities.

However, I feel that recruiters need to look further afield and cast the net wider when it comes to looking got potential recruits and new talent fof their business.  Even when they are looking for new staff for their London and South East operations, they need to consider a recruitment drive amongst the underemployed masses in other parts I've the country - especially the North East of England.

I have worked with so many people in the North East that could or would walk into a job on any profession in London. It is a sad fact that a huge member of graduates and experienced employees are employed beneath their talents in the North, North East and North west of England in particular.

A government policy to spread the talent across the regions will make a massive difference to each if the regions and the people who live there. A commitment to resolving this North/South divide in jobs and salary will make a massive difference at next year's election.

Unseasonable weather needent mean a huge drip in sales

A short share today - I'm just reading about Next warning that the good weather has hot their sales and cost them a potential £25m in lost profits.

I'd like to point out that Next and other retailers still can make money in good weather as well as bad. They may gave sold off a lot of Summer stock in their last sale but it's unlikely that their customers will have been shopping for swimwear instead of winter coats - the weather hasn't been that good!

Retailers have analysts galore to loom at all sorts of trends from weather to the harvests of the produce they sell, so it's unlikely that the recent good weather will have been totally unpredicted.

The stock that all retailers, especially the local entrepreneurial type I envisage reading this blog, have sat in stockrooms or storage will get its turn when the weather does eventually turns cold (it will, it's the UK.) It's just ensuring that you are ready to trade 100% when this happens.

Stsrt to make sure that you can access this stock at short notice, that it's listed on your main and mobile websites and that it's available now via Click &Collect if not already in store. It's by having these conrngemcies in pomace, and by having great conversations with your customers that you will be in the optim position to reap the rewards when the template is right.

If your retail unit is affected by the weather via what stock you carry, then stay tuned to the medium and long range forecasts, as they can and will give you an indicator of the general trading conditions you are likely to face, and give you pointers on how to react.

New recruits? Are you prepared?

How to organise yourself ready for new recruits

The lead-in time needs to be balanced-

Not so short that you're not ready for your new recruits when they start.

Not so long that the good ones find something else in the meantime.

I've seen so many new recruits work for weeks on end without uniform and name badges after starting. You will know what you want then to wear and how you want your people to present themselves to your customers. In advance if the start date, have all of this ready.

Send details through to your new recruit - dress standards, punctuality expectations - all the things that you want them to be ready for. Don't get the initially important bits (the customer-facing parts) lost in the weight of an employee handbook or contract or terms and conditions. Send this separately, via email, to your recruit a little while before they start and invite any questions in advance of the start date.

The first day should include all of the compliance bits that you need to get out of the way, so you can then concentrate on getting your new starter out there and learning the ropes. A great way to do this is to have them buddied up with an experiences member of the team, or members of the team. Get them working with the experts in each area, so they can learn from the best and have a great point of contact for any questions or learning needs.

All in all, a rounded approach with some guidance from many people, and you being ready to receive the new starters and inspire them will be the best wag forward.

A short note on inspiration

You can be inspired in all sorts of ways by all sorts of people.  Some of my inspirations are as follows-

Music
I love the music of Hootie and the Blowfish, and their lead singer Darius Rucker.  They can be found all over You Tube, but they also have a jukebox on their website-

http://www.hootie.com/internal.asp?catID=21218#content

I also love the music of Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chili Peppers and David Gray.

Art
I love all types of art and have been to many art museums in cities all over the World.  My favourite artist is Mark Rothko.  I don't get into the whole modern art debate, I just like his paintings-

Television

I think that TV is starting to take over from the movies as the premium entertainment vehicle of it's genre. Recent programmes that have caught my attention include True Detective, Hannibal and the recent Dr Who

series have been excellent.  My favourite show has just finished airing in the UK, it's the US version of The Office.  The characters had more depth and more time to develop than the UK predecessor, and the programme was witty, funny and hugely entertaining every single week.




I think that originality and creativity runs through the likes I have for all of these things, and I hope that shows in my work. How about you?