Latest / The Resilient Retail Game Plan - retail insights, retail trends and best practices / Retail Planning 2026: Why a Mid-Year Check-In Beats Starting Over in January
Transcript
- 0:00Catherine: In this episode, we are going to delve into how you recap the
- 0:02first half of the year to make sure that you hit your goals in the second half.
- 0:07Welcome to the Resilient Retail Game Plan.
- 0:10I'm Catherine Erdly, and this podcast is here to share retail industry
- 0:13trends, insights, and best practises.
- 0:15For you, the retailer who's serious about building something that lasts.
- 0:23We are coming up fast on the end of the first half of the year, but if that
- 0:27fills you with dread, then don't panic.
- 0:29In this episode, we're gonna be talking through why midyear beats the
- 0:331st of January, because we have real data now, not just a theory about how
- 0:37the year's gonna go, and then we're also gonna be looking at how you get
- 0:40clarity on what happened in the first half of the year, as well as put
- 0:44together a plan for the second half.
- 0:46Stay tuned.
- 0:47And also a reminder that this episode comes with a free downloadable resource.
- 0:53Head to resilientretailclub.com/recap and get your free download with an outline
- 0:58for how you can recap your first half of the year and make a plan for the second.
- 1:03So in this episode, we are going to dive deep into how you actually take
- 1:07some time to step back, take a look at the first half of the year, and
- 1:12use that information to springboard into a successful second half.
- 1:17And what I love to do with this process, and this is a process that
- 1:20I've used in my membership group in courses and with clients over and
- 1:24over again, is I like to start by looking back and then look forward.
- 1:29So by looking back, let's go all the way back to the beginning of the year.
- 1:33Now, I hope based on everything that I've talked about on the podcast or any
- 1:37of my programmes that you've been in, that you took the time at the beginning
- 1:40of the year to set yourself some goals.
- 1:43So at the end of the first half, this is the perfect time to go get those goals out
- 1:48of wherever you've stashed them, whatever dark digital corner you've put them
- 1:51in, or which desk drawer you've put your notebook, pull them out and take a look.
- 1:55Do you remember what those goals were?
- 1:58Did you set a sales goal, a revenue target?
- 2:01Did you have personal income goals or did you have maybe some non-financial goals?
- 2:05So things like wanting to launch a new product, a new stockist,
- 2:09or learn even a new skill.
- 2:11And this is the perfect opportunity for you to think without blame or without
- 2:16self-recrimination and to figure out how much of this you've actually achieved.
- 2:21Be honest.
- 2:22But to be fair, some goals shift because circumstances
- 2:26shift not because you failed.
- 2:28I certainly talk to a lot of people who had big goals for the year
- 2:32and then because of something that happened to them in their personal
- 2:35life or personal circumstances or maybe just some big change that
- 2:39happened in the business, they've just had to start again from scratch.
- 2:42Or they'll really take this point in the year as a great point for
- 2:46them to look at moving forward.
- 2:50Once you've pulled out those goals, now is the perfect opportunity for you without
- 2:54any self recrimination or self blame to actually take a look and see how much of
- 2:59your goals you have actually achieved.
- 3:02You need to be honest, but do be fair to yourself as well.
- 3:06If you've had major circumstances that have changed in the business or perhaps
- 3:10even in your personal life, then this is not the time to beat yourself up about it.
- 3:14But it's a good opportunity for you to take a look at those goals that you
- 3:17set and decide how much you've actually done and also what goals still matter.
- 3:22I do this myself in my own business and sometimes something that seemed like it
- 3:27was a high priority in the first half has actually I've moved on, or I've come
- 3:31up with different ideas for what I wanna do, and it no longer feels like this is
- 3:34a goal that's aligned with my business.
- 3:36And that's absolutely fine.
- 3:37So let's talk about the numbers for a little bit.
- 3:40What are the numbers that you really want to look into at the end of the first half?
- 3:44Well, I would suggest that you quite simply look at your total sales, so
- 3:49all of the sales that you've taken up till now to the end of June, from the
- 3:52beginning of January, and have a look at where they're versus your plan.
- 3:56Now, you may not have set yourself a plan.
- 3:59If you didn't, that's fine.
- 4:00Although I do strongly recommend setting plans for lots of reasons, but you
- 4:04could also look for example, at last year or even just get a general sense
- 4:08of how you feel about that number.
- 4:10Is that number ahead of where you thought it would be?
- 4:13Is it behind or is it on track, and why do you think that is?
- 4:17I think the most important thing when we are looking at numbers and we're
- 4:19looking at recapping your business, we really want to make sure that we
- 4:23are taking the opportunity to not just think about what the numbers
- 4:28are, but why you think they happened.
- 4:29So for example, let's say you've had a brilliant first half.
- 4:33You have taken twice as much money as you thought you were going to take.
- 4:37Why not?
- 4:38Who knows that may have happened.
- 4:40If that's the case, do take the time just to get really
- 4:43clear on why you think that is.
- 4:45Is it because actually you launched a new product and it's done brilliantly well?
- 4:50Is it, for example, that you've made a major investment into your email
- 4:53marketing and that's really paid off?
- 4:55Is it that you've had a really fruitful collaboration with an
- 4:59influencer or somebody like that?
- 5:01What is it do you think that has really helped you?
- 5:04Or on the other hand, is it a number of different things?
- 5:07Knowing why you've been successful is as useful as, or more useful
- 5:12than just looking at the numbers.
- 5:14And equally, if you feel like it hasn't really worked out the way that
- 5:18you wanted it to, or maybe you're under where you'd like to be versus plan or
- 5:21for last year, this is your opportunity to think about the why there too.
- 5:25Now this, it's even more important than when you're looking at when sales are up.
- 5:30It's even more important than ever for you to not be overly harsh on yourself.
- 5:33This is not about making you feel terrible, but it's about
- 5:37you understanding what happened.
- 5:39Is it, for example, you went on holiday during a busy time of the
- 5:43year and you had to shut the shop.
- 5:45So that's had a really big impact.
- 5:47Is it that you've struggled with personal situations, something that's
- 5:51happened in your life that you know means that you haven't been as focused?
- 5:54Or maybe it's you've had a really difficult team member
- 5:57or footfall's been down, or customers have been spending less.
- 6:01There are so many different things that it could be, but the key thing
- 6:04here is to be curious and inquisitive, but not to make yourself feel worse.
- 6:10You can also delve into what's actually been selling or not selling.
- 6:15In an ideal world, you would have a look over the last six months
- 6:18and find out what are the top five items that you've sold by value?
- 6:22Because sales value, that's money in, which is always really important.
- 6:28But also you might look at units.
- 6:30So how many units have you sold?
- 6:32Unit best sellers are useful to attract as well as value best sellers because
- 6:37they're an indication of what your customer is choosing on a regular basis.
- 6:41So it's really important for you to understand what the units are as well.
- 6:45If you've been tracking your cost prices correctly, you'll also be able
- 6:49to pull out the best sellers in terms of your profit, which is another
- 6:53thing that is interesting to look at.
- 6:55But if all you can get is your top best sellers by value, then
- 6:58that's still really useful too.
- 7:01And if they're not the same, if your best sellers by sales volume are not
- 7:04the same as your best sellers by profit.
- 7:06That's also another interesting thing to know because that suggests that
- 7:09you can make a real difference to your profit margin by actually improving
- 7:13the prices on some of the things.
- 7:15Sell the best.
- 7:17So this is a really great opportunity for you to step back.
- 7:21And again, what I would really strongly recommend is that you don't
- 7:23just look at which were the best sellers, but you ask yourself why?
- 7:28Why do you think they were best sellers?
- 7:29Is it because they were a certain price point that your customer liked?
- 7:33Was your customer really into a certain type of product?
- 7:37Did you just get lucky because it was on trend?
- 7:40Did you find that all of the items that were certain colour
- 7:44or a certain fragrance, were they the ones that really performed?
- 7:47What is it that you can pull from that data?
- 7:50And if you've got a wide product range, you may well want to pull even your top
- 7:5410 or maybe even 20 or 50, but really understand the best sellers, the ones
- 7:59that were really driving the sales.
- 8:00What does that actually tell you about your business and about your customer?
- 8:04As well as looking at your best sellers.
- 8:06You can also look at what I call the dead weight audit.
- 8:09In other words, what did you not sell so much of?
- 8:12Definitely have a look and see if there are any products that
- 8:14sold zero in the last six months that you currently have stock of.
- 8:19This is something that honestly, if you've sold zero of something in six
- 8:24months, you definitely wanna consider definitely, definitely not buying
- 8:28it again, but maybe even discounting it or something to get it moving.
- 8:32You also wanna think about are there any items that you actually
- 8:35bought and they may be sold.
- 8:37Okay, but they were disappointing.
- 8:39Worse.
- 8:39Sellers are almost harder to calculate than your best sellers
- 8:42because there's lots of different ways that you can look at something.
- 8:45But typically I tend to look at the things with the lowest sales, with
- 8:48the highest amount of stock value behind them so that you can really
- 8:51understand where your money's tied up and where things aren't moving.
- 8:55And just like for the best sellers, when it comes to your worst sellers, you really
- 9:00wanna take some time to think about why.
- 9:02Why do you think people didn't like it?
- 9:03Is it something that they used to like that it's moved on?
- 9:06Is there more competition in this particular area?
- 9:09Does somebody else close to you start selling this and
- 9:11you think it's impacted sales?
- 9:13Or could it just be one of those things where you bought something
- 9:16you thought was gonna be fantastic and frankly, it turned out not to be.
- 9:20It happens to everybody.
- 9:22So if that's happened to you, don't feel bad about it.
- 9:25Don't decide that it means that you're terrible at what you do,
- 9:27but just think about how you can take that learning and move on.
- 9:33Other things that it's good to look at.
- 9:34Conversion rate is something that I reckon should be looked at once a month,
- 9:39but definitely at six month point, you wanna be seeing how is your conversion
- 9:42rate doing and how is it shifting?
- 9:44So your conversion rate is the number of purchases made compared
- 9:47to the number of visitors.
- 9:49You can track it very easily online.
- 9:50It's one of the key figures you'll see on most dashboards for
- 9:54e-commerce brands and in store.
- 9:56You can actually also do a conversion calculation if you can count the
- 10:00number of people coming in compared to the number of transactions.
- 10:03If it's something that you don't track continuously in store, maybe
- 10:07do a little test just to see how your conversion rate is doing, and
- 10:11that can be very informative as well.
- 10:14Average order value is something that, again, I think should
- 10:16be looked at once a month.
- 10:18But again, at the six month point, you can see how does your
- 10:21average order value compare?
- 10:22Is it going up?
- 10:23Is it going down?
- 10:24What's going on with that?
- 10:26Has anything shifted since January?
- 10:28Have a look at your sales channels.
- 10:29If you sell in more than one sales channel, many people sell across
- 10:34websites and their own stores.
- 10:36They might also sell at wholesale, they might sell on
- 10:39Etsy, not on the High Street.
- 10:40Many, many other different channels that you could be selling on.
- 10:43So do take a moment to have a look and actually analyse, which
- 10:47is your best sales channel.
- 10:49Is it still the same?
- 10:50Has it shifted?
- 10:51How are the different channels doing?
- 10:53Did everything perform in the same way in the first half or did you
- 10:56have some channels that were actually doing brilliantly and other ones
- 10:59that aren't doing so well?
- 11:01Are you still investing in the channel that's actually driving results,
- 11:04or are you defaulting to habits?
- 11:05So for example, you might have seen huge growth in one particular area,
- 11:09but you realise actually you still think of it as a small channel.
- 11:12You don't really give it as much time and attention as you should,
- 11:15and therefore that's giving you good direction for what you should
- 11:17be looking at for the second half.
- 11:20Social media is something else that you can take a look at.
- 11:22And if you haven't done a bit of a social media audit recently, then I do recommend
- 11:26doing it at the halfway point, not as a vanity metric, but more as a signal.
- 11:31What is working?
- 11:33What are you seeing that works?
- 11:35What types of posts are you getting any reaction to?
- 11:38Do people respond when you show up and talk on your stories, but you don't
- 11:41get much interaction on your feed?
- 11:43Are you still posting for the audience you had in January
- 11:46or the one that you have now?
- 11:48You don't have to have all the answers, but it can be really
- 11:51informative to go into, say, Instagram and look at some of your metrics.
- 11:55Look at the last six months and see what posts had the most shares, what
- 11:59posts had the most saves, what posts had the most interactions, and see if
- 12:03you can track what posts were driving.
- 12:07Traffic to your website.
- 12:08When you look at any peaks of sales that you had online, for example,
- 12:12or even when you had peaks in store, can you match any of that back to
- 12:16social media content that you put out?
- 12:18This is a great opportunity for you to just make sure that you are
- 12:21leaning into the formats and the subjects and the type of content that
- 12:25your customers are responding to.
- 12:27A relationship audit is a great thing to do, especially at the halfway point,
- 12:32and the relationship audit is really all about anybody who you work with.
- 12:36It could be your suppliers, it could be people that you collaborate with.
- 12:39It could be stockists if you're a wholesale brand who moved
- 12:43the needle and who cost you more energy than they returned.
- 12:48Many of us have a lot of issues with couriers, for example.
- 12:52How are you doing with your courier relationship?
- 12:55Are you happy with it?
- 12:55Do you feel secure going in towards the second half?
- 12:59And the same with your stockists, your collaborators, your suppliers.
- 13:03These are all relationships that you want them to be firm before
- 13:06you go into the second half.
- 13:07So if you've got any questions about anybody or there's anything that
- 13:10you'd like to change in terms of service providers or things that you
- 13:13wanna invest in, then now's the time.
- 13:17We've talked about the numbers.
- 13:18I'd like to talk a little bit more about some of the kind of more subjective parts
- 13:22of analysing your business performance.
- 13:25The first thing is to make sure you celebrate your wins.
- 13:28So I call this section what worked and what didn't.
- 13:30So first of all, we want to make sure you take some time to
- 13:34actually name your wins out loud.
- 13:37Don't rush past them.
- 13:39Small business owners we're absolutely terrible at having a huge achievement
- 13:43and then brushing straight past it and onto the next thing, or
- 13:47beating ourselves up that we haven't achieved something else as well.
- 13:51So make sure that at this point in the review, you are actually taking
- 13:54the time to really sit into what your strengths are, what you did well, what
- 13:58you achieved, and did you even think this was possible a couple of years ago.
- 14:03If you looked at the business, would you have believed everything
- 14:05that you've achieved now?
- 14:07Then I'd ask you to think about what genuinely added value, either
- 14:11time, money, energy, or all three.
- 14:13What were some things that you did either inside the business or even for
- 14:17yourself that supported the business?
- 14:19For example, look at healthy eating or exercising in a way that supported you
- 14:25as a business owner that really helped.
- 14:26That could be something that has worked really well.
- 14:28Do you have a great new team member?
- 14:30Did you start a new marketing tactic that's worked brilliantly
- 14:33or take on a new supplier?
- 14:35What has it been that actually worked well and made the business better?
- 14:39Being able to identify those things and lean into them is really important.
- 14:43And then what flat out didn't work?
- 14:45Be really specific, not vague.
- 14:47If there are things that you brought in that didn't sell, list it out.
- 14:51If there are troublesome employees that really cost you a lot of time,
- 14:54effort, and energy, then list those out.
- 14:56Again, this is not about beating yourself up, it's about identifying what didn't
- 15:00work and what you don't wanna repeat.
- 15:02What I'd do differently, question.
- 15:04This is your second half strategy.
- 15:06Hiding in plain sight.
- 15:08You can almost take what you would start, stop, or continue from the
- 15:11first half, and think about what you therefore would do for the second half.
- 15:15So what do you wanna start doing in the second half?
- 15:19What you wanna stop doing and what you want to double down on?
- 15:22That can be a really good way to just get some quick, clear direction as to
- 15:26what you wanna do for the second half.
- 15:29And then just have a think about how the business feels right now.
- 15:32Now, it may seem like an odd thing to say, to talk about feelings in a episode that's
- 15:37mostly about numbers, but I definitely think that we all need to be building
- 15:42businesses that feel right for us.
- 15:43So pay attention to where the energy is, what you've been
- 15:46enjoying and where it isn't.
- 15:47If something feels off, then get specific about what kind of off it feels like.
- 15:53Is it circumstantial?
- 15:54For example, you love what you do, but you wish you paid yourself
- 15:57more, or you're just exhausted?
- 16:00Or is it directional, which is a nagging feeling that you've drifted from
- 16:04what you originally set out to build?
- 16:05Or is it worry?
- 16:07I call these the 3:00 AM thoughts that feel catastrophic in the dark,
- 16:11but look different in the daytime.
- 16:13I actually really like a SWOT analysis as an emotional clearing
- 16:17exercise, not just a strategy tool.
- 16:20SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats.
- 16:23It's the kind of thing that people set you as second round interview tasks to
- 16:27do about a business, or it's the kind of thing that you do in business school
- 16:30when you're looking at case studies.
- 16:32But I also think that it's a perfect opportunity for you as a business
- 16:35owner to really reflect where you're at right now and a 20-minute SWOT.
- 16:39You know, set yourself a timer.
- 16:41Get yourself a piece of A4 paper, fold it in half, fold it in half.
- 16:44Again, get yourself four quadrants.
- 16:46Write strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats on it,
- 16:49and then just start brain dumping.
- 16:51You can also, I often tell people to write areas of
- 16:55improvement instead of weaknesses.
- 16:57If you don't like really pondering your own weaknesses too much.
- 17:01So under strengths, you're gonna list out everything that you're genuinely
- 17:04good at and how you're using it.
- 17:07So strengths typically refer to when you're using this in a business
- 17:10context as internal strengths, internal advantages that a business has.
- 17:15So think about what you do well, what your business does well, what your team
- 17:18does well, what you are really happy with, what makes you really pleased.
- 17:22When you think about the business weaknesses or areas of improvement,
- 17:28do you already know needs fixing?
- 17:30What are things that you internally when it comes to the business,
- 17:33you think could be done better?
- 17:35And again, really, really important to not let this be like something
- 17:38that you do that makes you feel really bad about yourself.
- 17:41Opportunities.
- 17:43So these are the external things.
- 17:44So what's sitting right in front of you that you haven't acted on yet?
- 17:48What are some things that you could be doing in the business
- 17:51that, or maybe interesting you?
- 17:53Areas of direction, new product types, new channels that you could go for.
- 17:58What are some things that you could do to help you grow and threats?
- 18:02This is where the 3:00 AM thoughts go get them outta your head and onto paper.
- 18:07This is a way for you to really just brainstorm everything that you have
- 18:12in your head that is making you feel uncomfortable or you're worried about.
- 18:16And sometimes just writing all down really helps.
- 18:18And these are the external threats, external factors that
- 18:21you think could have an impact on your business over the next year.
- 18:25Another great exercise if we're talking about the emotional connection is what
- 18:28I call the 20 year interview exercise.
- 18:31If you were interviewed in 20 years about this business, what
- 18:33would you want to be saying?
- 18:35And are you on a path that leads there or have you gone off course?
- 18:38So for example, some people might say, in 20 years time, I'll talk about how I
- 18:43exited this business after successfully running it for several years and I
- 18:47handed it off to somebody else and I really got a lot of value out of it,
- 18:51the time that I was running it, but I was happy to say goodbye when I did.
- 18:54Some people in their 20 year interview will say, I went on to build this to be
- 18:57a household name and a high street brand that was recognised across the country.
- 19:02All of those things are completely acceptable.
- 19:05I mean, everyone has their own vision of what they want it to be,
- 19:08and some people will say, I'm still running my business because I run
- 19:11it around my life and my family.
- 19:13And that's always the way I want it to be.
- 19:14It's never the main thing I focus on, but it's always there and it's
- 19:17always given me joy and satisfaction.
- 19:20Who knows what your 20 year interview will be, but taking some time to think about
- 19:23it, especially if you felt like there's something off, can help you identify if
- 19:27you're moving in the right direction.
- 19:31So now let's talk about refocusing for half two.
- 19:33So we've really looked at the first half.
- 19:35We've thought about how it made us feel and we've thought about ourselves and
- 19:38where we're at as a business owner.
- 19:40But now for the second half, we're gonna set an actual number.
- 19:44You may have the sales goal from January.
- 19:47You might have set yourself a goal for the full year.
- 19:49If you haven't, then I definitely recommend that you set yourself an
- 19:53actual number that you wanna achieve.
- 19:55If you set yourself a goal in January and you're way off it either way over
- 19:58or way under, you may wanna adjust it.
- 20:00Set yourself a new goal for the second half that feels more realistic.
- 20:04And then also, what are your two or three non-financial goals for the second half?
- 20:09So for example, you might want to launch a new product or to
- 20:12start a new selling channel.
- 20:15It may be something like a project in the business, like you want
- 20:18to have a new website, or who knows what else it might be.
- 20:22But think about what your key opportunities are, or things that you'd
- 20:26like to really work on in the second half.
- 20:28And then key dates, planning, map out what's coming and
- 20:31whether you're ready for it.
- 20:31If Christmas is your biggest trading period, you need to start that plan.
- 20:34Now, think about when you're ordering your product, when the stock's coming
- 20:37in, if it's already ordered, your marketing plan, wholesale deadlines,
- 20:41if you're selling at wholesale.
- 20:43And then what other key trading dates launches or seasons apply to
- 20:46your business in the second half?
- 20:48Work backwards from those dates.
- 20:49What needs to happen and by when.
- 20:51Revisit any other goals you might have from January.
- 20:54Are you keeping them, adjusting them or replacing them entirely?
- 20:58And then write yourself a sentence.
- 20:59By December 31st, I will have make it concrete.
- 21:03So that could be, for example, by the 31st of January, I made it
- 21:07through Christmas without getting the flu and without burning out.
- 21:10And I'm really happy to have balanced things really well this year.
- 21:14Or you might say, by the 31st of December, I have reached this financial goal.
- 21:18Whatever it might be.
- 21:19It gives you a really clear intention for the second half.
- 21:23So think about what you wanna do next.
- 21:25Make sure that you list out not everything that you wanna do, but what
- 21:29needs to be done in the third quarter, and what can we move to the fourth.
- 21:32So make yourself a list of what you wanna have ready to go for.
- 21:36If you do, for example, a third quarter check in.
- 21:41So that is your homework.
- 21:43Don't forget, if you want to get all of this in a downloadable format,
- 21:45you can go to resilientretailclub.com/recap and you'll have a PDF
- 21:49which will let you do your own first half recap and your second half plan.
- 21:55But make sure you at least write down your second half sales goal and
- 21:59what's your main goal that you want to achieve by the end of the year?
- 22:01Write that down today, not tomorrow.
- 22:03And why not head over to Instagram at Resilient Retail Club?
- 22:06Drop me a note or send me an email at catherine@resilientretailclub.com
- 22:09and lemme know what your thoughts are, what you're aiming for in the second
- 22:13half of the year, and set yourself your tasks, but don't overwhelm yourself.
- 22:18Make sure that you have just a couple of things you're gonna work on in
- 22:21the third quarter to make sure you're building towards your full year goal.
- 22:26Thank you so much for listening.
- 22:27Don't forget to like, follow, or subscribe to be the first
- 22:30to know about each new episode.
- 22:32And don't forget to head over to resilientretailclub.com/recap to get your own
- 22:36version of this as a handy PDF that lets you do your own business check in.