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5 Common Issues Growing Retail Businesses Don't Expect · The Resilient Retail Game Plan - retail insights, retail trends and best practices

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If your business looks successful on paper, but feels far harder than it should
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behind the scenes, then this episode is for you. Over the years,
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I've worked with hundreds of established product businesses and the same five
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problems come up again and again. These are not beginner mistakes,
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but these are things that show up once you've got momentum and
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you've grown a business. Today, I want to talk you through those five
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issues and how I help founders fix them inside my retail by
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design program. Welcome to the Resilient Retail game
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plan. Hi, I'm Catherine Edley and in the next few minutes you're about to get
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powerful real world retail strategies from insights shared both
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from my guests and myself, backed up by my 25 years
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in the retail industry. Keep listening to learn how to grow a thriving,
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profitable product business. Let's jump in with this latest
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episode.
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So the first issue that I see is people whose
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businesses are working but they feel chaotic. What
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this looks like is constant reacting and firefighting. There's
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no breathing space to think strategically. They're making
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decisions under pressure and everything feels
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urgent. Now, interestingly enough, these businesses,
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they are often really, really fun, really driven
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business owners. And one of the things that's almost happened is that
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they've slightly become a victim of their own success. They've got
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loads and loads of really exciting projects going, they're getting
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invited to lots of different things, they are getting lots of different
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opportunities to put their business out there or to
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collaborate with different people. And basically they're generating
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a huge amount of interest and excitement. But
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whereas that is something that works really super well in the early days, once they
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get a bit bigger, it suddenly starts to feel really, really
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stre.
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So in terms of what's really going on here, often I find that people who
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feel very chaotic, very stretched
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thin, chasing lots of different things, they have got no clear
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foundations generally in place to help them anchor decisions. And they've
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also just got more opportunities than they've actually got
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capacity to deliver on. So what we actually
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do, generally speaking, if someone comes to me and we're talking about
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lots and lots of exciting things, lots and lots of different opportunities, often
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what I encourage them to do is to really strip back all of
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the noise and to deep dive into what is actually happening.
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So for example, we've probably all as business owners
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had an invite to an in person networking event
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or even to contribute to a podcast or do
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a collaboration with another business. And again, at the beginning you are
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really trying to understand what works and who's already
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got a connection with Your customer. And you're trying to do a lot of
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different things. You're trying lots of different product types, you're
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trying lots of different types of messaging, you might be trying lots
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of different social media platforms, for example.
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You're basically just doing everything you can to put your business out there and
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to really try and reach as many people as possible. But at a
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certain point, that desire, that need to push through
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and to get your business out in front of as many people as possible, that
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actually tips over from being something that is a
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benefit to being something that can start pulling you back or getting
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in the way, you can start becoming the bottleneck in the business. Because
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a lot of the time these types of opportunities will rely on you as the
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founder. And then all of a sudden the kind of
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day to day the bread and butter of the business can start suffering. So when
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people come to me with this type of issue, what I suggest that we do
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is we sit down and we go over their numbers. We work
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out what is actually making a difference. So we would look at, for
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example, the most important sales channel. Where is
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most of your sales coming from? We'll look at which marketing
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activities are actually having the biggest impact. We will
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also have a look at if they've done collaborations.
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Another way I see this manifest itself is they're selling across, you know, 10 different
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platforms, but yet probably of those,
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seven or eight even are just extra work. And
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so it's a question of going through, identifying essentially
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the fundamentals. Where are the sales, where are the profits, where do
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we need to lean into? And also where can
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we pull back from? And I think one of the hardest parts
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about this is that we all have a belief that more is better and
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that if you say no to an opportunity, that means that we're going to be
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missing out. But it's just really remembering that
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we are not going to be able to get everything done. So focus.
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Identifying the key things in the business that we really need to be spending
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our time on can make a huge difference and also
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energizing you versus what's draining your attention sometimes as well.
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It's about identifying, okay, I want to do one thing like this a
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quarter, but I'm not going to be doing something like this every week. That's especially
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important if you doing things to really boost your business
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profile. It can feel really hard to think actually, am I
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going to be missing out if I don't do this. But then sometimes we have
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to look at what is it costing you to be constantly running around and
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not Unprioritized. So a lot of the time with this, it's about
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getting your priorities right.
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The second reason people come to me is because they say things like
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I don't really trust my numbers. Lots of people will say that
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they don't really like to look at their numbers, they don't really like spreadsheets.
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Sometimes people have come to me because they've worked with somebody else who's created something
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for them, but they don't really understand it and they don't really understand how
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to work with it. Again, they might have an accountant who's told them some
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things, but they don't really know how to apply it to their business.
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So this can manifest itself in cash flow issues. Turnover looking
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healthy, but cash feeling really tight, not understanding where it comes from.
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Stock can be something that they feel like they're really guessing with
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and they're maybe not really sure which reports to look at or
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maybe they're second guessing them and potentially making
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decisions based on instinct alone in terms of what's really going
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on here. Usually this is about the fact they've got access
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to data, but they don't really know. Most
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importantly, the clear link between the data and the
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decisions. So there's no loop in their business that's allowing them to
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take a look at their numbers and then act on them. As I was talking
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about in the retail sales game plan in a session recently, the
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three Rs you want to record, you want to review
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and you want to refine. So basically making sure that you're clear on what
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your numbers are, what they're telling you, and then you can take actions off the
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base of that. In terms of how I help,
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I am a big believer in meeting people where they are and finding ways that
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work for for them. People often don't like
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certain styles of spreadsheets or they need to see the information in a way
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that makes sense for them. So I will work with people to find. Does it
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need to be more visual? Does it need to
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be a report that they can see on Shopify? Is it a
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spreadsheet that we've mapped out together? But the first thing
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that I will do is identify which numbers they really need to look at
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versus the noise that they can ignore. How to understand
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what's going on in the business quickly and easily, how to set goals
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so that they know what they're aiming for and how to turn the information
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into action as opposed to feeling overwhelmed.
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So again, it is about honing in on the things that matter so
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that you can move forward.
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The third issue is
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that people often feel like they're busy all the time, but they're not
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moving forward. So this is really related the same issue
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around the business feeling chaotic. Again. This can
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be about the fact that there are too many
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things going on. There could be too many products that they're trying to bring in,
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they're selling on too many different places, they're doing too many different
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marketing activities without understanding which one is really driving the business
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forward. But the other thing that
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I would look at in this particular case is where I'm busy all the time
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and not moving forward is I actually will often get people to do
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time tracking. So there are plugins that you can use
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or a notebook. I will get them to map out
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their time for me, help me understand what it is that they're actually
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doing and that is really, really beneficial for a few different reasons.
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First up, I work with quite a few people who are time restricted.
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So not everybody has a full 40 hour working week to
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devote to their business. I work with lots of people who have caring
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responsibilities, whether that's small children or other
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relatives. I have people who are working
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part time, sometimes even full time, or they just have
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certain snippets of time that they can work on the business.
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It's especially important if you've got restricted time to really
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understand how to use it effectively. So one of the things that I will
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do is I'll start by time tracking. I'll start understanding what it is that they're
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actually spending their time on. This also has the benefit of helping
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understand where they need to deprioritize. For example,
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are they trying to do something that isn't actually impacting things? And then it
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also starts helping us map out where they might need more support.
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So what are they doing? What impact is that having on them personally?
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And therefore what support do they need to bring in? One of
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the things that's really beneficial for that is helping people with
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just understanding what they can drop and what they can rearrange. Some people
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work really well with time blocking to say I'm going to spend all Monday
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doing my marketing and Tuesday afternoons going to be product
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development, whatever it might be. Some people absolutely cannot work like that.
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They just know that they're not going to do the time blocking. But there are
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other things that can be really beneficial in terms of checklists or
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things that they can go through to make sure that they're covering everything in
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terms of actually working out whether or not what
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they're doing is worthwhile it's also something that comes out of time tracking,
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understanding what it is that's taking up all of your time and how you can
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use that time more effectively.
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Issue number four, I hear this all the time is that everything
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sits in my head. I hear this so many times. It's such
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a common theme when I talk to people. They
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are unable to delegate as effectively as they'd like
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because they are the bottleneck for decisions. It feels really
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risky to delegate because they don't have clear processes. No one else is
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seeing the full picture. And then the emotional and mental load starts
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to feel really, really heavy because they're the only people who see the full thing.
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A lot of the time this comes from that idea
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of what got me here isn't going to be what gets me there. And it's
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because when you first start out, you absolutely have to be scrappy.
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You have to be able to turn your hand to almost anything. You have to
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be able to wear lots of hats. It's a real mark of how people get
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to that first six figure stage is by just diving in,
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getting things done and being able to, as I said, turn their
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hand to everything, just make it all happen themselves until the business
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gets to the point where they then become the bottleneck. Everything's in their
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head. And if you went on holiday for a month, then the whole thing
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would fall apart. So often that's to do
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with just organic growth with no structure
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being put into place. This is something that I work with a lot of people
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on and it's all about then starting to map out
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what's living in your head and what needs to come out of your
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head and get down on to some kind of documentation.
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It could be a trello board, it could be laminated checklists
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for your team to make sure that they're all doing the same thing. It could
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be a series of tutorials that you
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video yourself doing on your computer so that you can start handing things off.
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But if you've got everything in your head, it can feel really, really overwhelming and
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it can be hard to know where to start. So one of the things that
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we do is we work out over the six months that we work together. How
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are you going to start handing various different pieces off? We do it piece by
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piece. We look at who can help you as well. Because sometimes you're not
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the best person to create those training documents. Sometimes you want your team
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to start creating some training documents so you can see what they think they're
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doing, make sure that they're on the right path, but then also get the support
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so that you're not the one having to create absolutely everything from scratch.
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A lot of this is about putting into place some structure to
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help you move to that next level where you can actually
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take some time off, for example, and step away. For me personally
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as a consultant, to be able to work with someone who's then able to take
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a two week holiday in August where they could never take time off
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before because they've put that structure in place, they've trained their team,
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they've got that all around them to support them. That is a
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hugely rewarding feeling. And for me that is a real mark of success for
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the program. So I'm here to help as a strategic
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partner to help you really understand what you need to map
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out, work out and define what support is actually
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needed in your business and help reduce that decision fatigue and
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second guessing. I've worked with a lot of people to help them, for example,
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recruit, bring in the right role, help them identify what that
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role is, what they need in the business, and also with
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the benefit of being able to help them model what they can support
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financially. Can you pay an additional
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wage for this type of support and if you do
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decide to go ahead with that, what expectations you need to have on your sales
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increasing in order to cover that additional cost. So there's a lot of work
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that we can do there in order to get things straightened out and
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you as the founder to be carrying less in your head.
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The fifth issue that I hear is, is that people
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say this business doesn't fit my life anymore. I've fallen out of love with
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my business. Sometimes people come to me and that will be the reason that they
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want to join Retail by Design is because they believe in the business, but
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something isn't right. They feel that they've had success, but
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somehow it is not sitting right with them. It
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feels misaligned or unsustainable. They may be even
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starting to feel a little bit trapped. Maybe they're starting to wonder
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are they on the right path and they would like to step back,
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have a look and think about where do I want this to go?
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What's my five year vision? What am I actually trying to do with this business?
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What are the bits that feel really difficult and awkward? Can we work our
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way around them? Is it rewarding you financially enough? Are there any
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adjustments that we need to make there? This is something that
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again, it's a big question, but it's the great thing about Retail by
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Design is that we have got the time and we have got the space to
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for you to really think those thoughts, to talk to other people
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who maybe have been through similar things or asking themselves similar
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questions, to get support from our mindset coach
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to make sure that you really understand the numbers, the fundamentals with
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the Ask doctor so that you know that
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you're on the right path and you've got all of the information
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that you need to make the decision. Because I am a really big
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believer in this idea that there isn't a one size fits all
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version of success. For some people, what success looks like is going
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to be completely different from what success looks like for somebody else.
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And yet we're almost all told the same thing in terms of what success
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should look like. And it can be quite confusing and quite demoralizing for
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people who say, do you know what? I've actually done this, but I don't feel
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good about it and I don't know why. So we have time to examine that,
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to dig into the bits that you are passionate about, to understand
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where the things are that are maybe wearing you down, maybe
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identifying what support you might need to overcome those and basically
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helping you fall back in love with your business and create
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it again in the image that you want in aligned
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with what you believe success should look like and makes it more rewarding
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for you, both emotionally but also financially as well.
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If that's something that is contributing to the way that you're feeling
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about the business. These problems are incredibly common. If
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you're listening to any of these and feel like they resonate, then
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this doesn't mean that you're failing. It means that you've outgrown
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the level where you are running this on instinct.
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And what you need instead is some structure. And structure can
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feel like a scary word or something that might sound like it's going to
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be restrictive, but I honestly believe that having a structure
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that is designed with you in mind as the founder, that will help give you
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freedom. So this is exactly the work as well that
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we do inside Retail by Design. We have our 10th cohort for
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retail by Design will be kicking off shortly in the next couple of weeks. Do
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head over to resilient retailclub.com take a look. And why not
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book in a call. It is a very relaxed opportunity to tell me more about
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what's going on in your business. Tell me if any of these resonated or what
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resonated with you or what's going on for you. And if it feels like the
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right fit, I'll tell you you more about retail by design. Thanks so much for
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listening, and I'll see you next week.