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Cash in on Changing Seasons and the Back to School Rush

As retailers, we need to take advantage of opportunities every chance we get. This means exploiting the change of seasons and the change of mindsets in our customers.

At least once a month, you should be asking “What’s on my customer’s minds right now?” Right now, it’s back to school time for most Canadian families. With back to school in mind, take some time to think of what can your business do to tap into the existing mindset of your customers. Staples Business Depot probably does this better than any other business. Their “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” advertising(seen above) jingles that play on TV and on radio stations across the country are taping into what’s top of mind right now on all parent’s minds. This is clever marketing.

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The best way to plan for the quarter is to get AWAY from your business.

I’ve heard this from Gazelles and others as well – you can get tied up working on the day to day inside your business, or you can work on building, growing, and improving your business – that happens from the outside.

Strategic thinking and planning should happen every three months. It’s now almost September – we’re approaching our last quarter; have you taken time out to reflect on the year to date and plan for the next three months?

Verne Harnish, CEO of Gazelles, is a huge advocate of yearly planning, quarterly strategic meetings and more. He preaches that every company must enter into the market place with a plan, a plan that is reviewed and updated every quarter.

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As a leader of a company, it is very important that you take the time to recharge your batteries from time to time. Without a strong, focused and energized leader, a company cannot thrive. However as an entrepreneur and small business manager, you often work more hours than anyone else. That’s okay, but you have to remember to have some downtime as well.

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Weather affects sales and revenues in nearly all retail and service based businesses. Great weather brings people out but poor weather will keep people at home indoors.

June-July has been challenging in the eastern part of Canada weather-wise. As a result, I’ve spoken to many business owners who are struggling with sales right now.

When discussing the weather with a few members of my team recently, I remembered a saying from my mother – “You can never control what other people do, you can only control how you react to it.” That made me think about the current weather conditions – “We can’t control Mother Nature, we can only control how we react to her.”

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Getting into Quarterly Meeting Rhythms and habits that will keep you on track

Follow through on strategy and goal setting with regular quarterly meetings.

As we now pass the 6 month mark, the second half of the year becomes increasingly important to ensure we meet our targets. Assuming you set out plans and objectives for your company this year (as we talked about in earlier postings), now is we the time to get together with your team, your managers, or just yourself to see how you are making out compared to your targets. (more…)