myRetailer.ca

Successful businesses define themselves. They know who they are, who they serve and focus entirely on both.

I recently had a discussion with a fellow garden centre retailer (Dutch Growers – Regina) who told me that he is no longer in the garden centre business. Instead he describes his store as a women’s store. With this focus, he runs every part of his business to cater to women, even to the point that he has drastically expanded and changed his product mix in recent years. This garden centre sells clothing, hats, even jewellery!

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Small businesses will lead road to recovery

“I think small-business owners are going to help lead us through the recession and into a recovery because small-business owners can very quickly adjust their plans”

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One country is serious about helping small business

Small businesses are the backbone of this country and are of vital importance to the economy. They are just as important, if not more important than large multi-nationals when it comes to reviving an economy.This will come as good news to many entrepreneurs.

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Why keep up marketing and PR in down times?

Companies that maintain marketing efforts through a recessionary time will always recover faster and stronger than those businesses that do not

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9 Surefire Ways to Get Blogs to Cover Your Business

Blogs have leveled the playing field in the media business.  On the production side, blogs make it possible for anyone to publish content.   Meanwhile, for those seeking coverage, blogs have developed into an ecosystem where there are hundreds of thousands of specialized media outlets, creating unprecedented opportunity to get your business’ story in front of the right people.

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Green market keeps growing

“The organic market is growing exponentially,” he said. Organic retail sales have been growing at a 20% clip in recent years, compared with the average pace of conventional product growth of 1% to 2%.

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New produce sticker is smarter, smaller

“For consumers it means much greater speed passing through the checkout counter,” he says. “No more [clerks] looking through product lists manually to find prices. They can all be scanned in seconds.”

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• how is your retail website doing for conversions? Check out a list of the best http://bit.ly/X9s98 #
• We always knew this – finally, proof! RT @onestepretail: Shopping survy Prsnl refrals more influntal than blogs http://tinyurl.com/qpbu88 #
• promising stats in Canadian Retail ecomm from Emarketer http://bit.ly/USOvp #

Staying motivated is difficult even in the best of economic times. I suspect many of your staff members count on you each day for their motivation. So that begs the question – “Where do you find your motivation?”

I was recently speaking to a group of business students at the Atlantic Business College. During the Q&A, I was asked by one of the attendees where I found my motivation and how I stay motivated each day.

As I’ve mentioned in an earlier posting, a true entrepreneur is motivated by challenges and creating opportunities. But how can you stay motivated, especially when things are tough, and you never seem to get a break? Here are a five strategies and sources of motivation that work for me.

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When you ensure your customers have everything they need before checking out, you’re doing them an enormous favour (not to mention in increasing your Average Ticket Size).

In our stores this spring, our entire team has been attending our spring training sessions. Recently, during a session, we had a great discussion about selling additional items to customers and how it was truly a service to them.

At my stores, our company purpose is to find solutions that provide enjoyment, relaxation and a sense of pride to our customers. Customer service is our number one value. Our staff knows that when we are serving a customer, we must always remember our purpose and do everything we can in order to ensure success for our customers. Most often, that means suggesting other items that will ensure that they are successful and get the most out of their purchase.

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