The best advice for local small business retailers today

There is a ton of advice out there for retailers, especially local small business retailers. A lot of it, like this post, is unsolicited, not sought out. Some of it is paid for.

This advice we share today is practical, everyday, suitable for any time of retail business but especially focussed on and curated for local indie small business retail – the businesses that are usually family owned and run, the businesses competing with big businesses in the trenches daily.

Let’s get to it. Here is our practical advice that we know works in any situation.

• Make every day your pay day. The value of your business today is what you make today, not what you dream of selling it for in the future. Make every decision on that basis.
• Chase new traffic, new customers, new business, fresh eyes every day. The more reasons for which you attract shoppers, the more sustainable your business.
• Convenience is not a future for indie retailers. Convenience retail in Australia is owned by big businesses with deep pockets, which which you cannot compete.
• Location does not matter as much as it used to – if you have a good online strategy.
• Don’t be your barrier to success. Too often I see local small business retailers decide against something for their business that will work.
• Size doesn’t matter. Some of the most successful newsagency businesses in Australia today are small. Size is irrelevant.
• Location dosen’t matter. Some of the most successful newsagencies in Australia are regional and rural.
• The shingle doesn’t matter. The newsagency shingle is irrelevant to what you can achieve.
• Only you can save you. No supplier, no association can save your business, only you can.
• Choose to be a retailer, not an agent. the two are quite different. One makes you the driver of your success while the other tethers you to the success of others. Agents take a clip or a percentage from a transaction while retailers make their own success. Agents could be parcel pick-up places, lottery shops, businesses providing a service on behalf of other businesses.

These are headline tips designed to get you thinking about your business. They are designed to be challenging and disruptive. They come from our retail experience and the retail experience of plenty of our POS software customers.