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Knowing When Your Retail Business Is Ready To Expand · The Resilient Retail Game Plan - retail insights, retail trends and best practices

• 0:00
  It's easy to want to grow.
• 0:01
  Knowing when it's the right time is the hard part.
• 0:04
  Deciding to open another store isn't just about finding the right unit or
• 0:08
  having the confidence to take the leap.
• 0:10
  It's about knowing whether the business you have now is actually
• 0:13
  ready to support what comes next.
• 0:39
  Today I'm joined by Sarah Holmes, a multiple shop owner in northeast
• 0:43
  Scotland who's grown from one store, pencil me in to two csca, and then
• 0:49
  from two to three task in hand.
• 0:51
  And what I really wanted to explore with Sarah isn't just what she did,
• 0:55
  but how she knew it was the right time.
• 0:57
  In this conversation, we are unpacking how you figure out whether adding another
• 1:01
  shop makes sense for your business.
• 1:03
  How buying changes when you're buying for more than one store, and the practical
• 1:07
  things you need to be thinking about as you move from running a single
• 1:10
  shop to managing multiple locations.
• 1:13
  So if you are listening with one shop and thinking, could there be more?
• 1:17
  Or you are already juggling more than one and want to make it feel simpler,
• 1:20
  you'll get a lot from this episode.
• 1:22
  Or if you've ever considered opening a bricks and mortar
• 1:24
  store in the first place.
• 1:28
  Sarah, so starting 2026 with three shops.
• 1:34
  do you wanna just tell us the story about how you went from one shop to three?
• 1:36
  Yeah.
• 1:37
  So one shop number one was born just outta a complete love of stationary.
• 1:41
  And wanting to get outta a like, corporate toxic workplace, that old
• 1:45
  tale that we've heard so many times.
• 1:47
  So that's where Penn came from.
• 1:49
  Wasn't so much a gap in the market or anything strategic.
• 1:52
  it was just, I really want to be a shopkeeper and this is what I like
• 1:55
  buying and what I'm passionate about.
• 1:56
  So let's see if that'll transcribe.
• 1:58
  Which is cool 'cause it's 10 years old this year, so that's obviously,
• 2:02
  uh, linking in with some people.
• 2:03
  Shop number two, which is Sea Gear, so that's three years old.
• 2:06
  This year it's two doors up for pencil me in.
• 2:08
  So it was a bit more of a strategic move.
• 2:10
  I had like a vain idea that I wanted another shop and I did a
• 2:14
  business growth course with one of the universities up here part-time.
• 2:18
  And, and I used having a second shop as like the project.
• 2:21
  And it did actually come out as something viable.
• 2:23
  So I was like, oh wow.
• 2:24
  Cool.
• 2:25
  So we kind of got on with that because, you know, where I was
• 2:27
  going to the trade shows and I'm seeing all of this other product
• 2:30
  that is not available where I live.
• 2:33
  So I was like, okay, we could open a second shop.
• 2:35
  It's exactly the same customer base, so we've already got that customer base.
• 2:38
  It's quite low risk, obviously the money you're paying into it, but
• 2:41
  I was like, it's worth a gamble.
• 2:43
  So that felt like it was a much, much more of a business move.
• 2:46
  And also I feel like having more shops in the location gives
• 2:50
  people more reason to visit.
• 2:52
  like locally where we were, a lot of the premises were being used for hospitality.
• 2:56
  And I'm kind of of the opinion that you would go to a town if it had like
• 3:00
  five shops or one cafe you wanna go to.
• 3:02
  You wouldn't necessarily go to a town that had five different
• 3:03
  cafes because you're not
• 3:05
  probably gonna go to five different places to eat.
• 3:07
  So the more shops, more interesting shops, the better.
• 3:10
  So we snapped it up and open seas here and that's been going great guns, and it's
• 3:14
  now kind of washing its face shall we say.
• 3:17
  And it's really handy being right next, like right next door.
• 3:20
  Yeah, for sure.
• 3:21
  And is it, and presumably it's more than of a, that's the gifting
• 3:24
  side
• 3:25
  So it's home and gift.
• 3:26
  Yeah, pretty much.
• 3:27
  I had wanted to do much more sort of home hardware, utility side of things,
• 3:33
  but very much the feedback from the customers that were coming in was
• 3:36
  they were really excited about having a new gift store and I was like, oh.
• 3:40
  So we have very much led into that, but still with kind of our values at the core.
• 3:45
  But we stock the brush, a really big great brush collection there
• 3:49
  and that has been a bit of a passion of mine alongside stationery.
• 3:53
  So shop number three, we've been trying to work towards for a while 'cause I
• 3:57
  wanted to create a brush door, and we missed out on, there's not very many
• 4:01
  other small units we're in Elgin.
• 4:03
  And I was kind of hoping to get another small unit near those three.
• 4:07
  And then we would just pulled the brushes out, went hardware in
• 4:09
  there, and that would've been a nice little state of Holmes Village.
• 4:12
  Hella on your hide?
• 4:13
  Wash.
• 4:16
  Got a dream.
• 4:17
  Got a dream.
• 4:19
  but we just couldn't get a unit.
• 4:21
  So the end of August, I've recently moved to a town in northeast called Naan.
• 4:26
  so I moved here in the spring and then I saw a shop become available at the end of
• 4:30
  August that's been vacant for 15 years.
• 4:33
  Oh
• 4:33
  the guy had been selling it but didn't really wanna sell it type situation.
• 4:36
  Yeah.
• 4:37
  But eventually did sell it, and then person that's bought it with
• 4:40
  the flat upstairs didn't want the shop, so they were leasing it out.
• 4:43
  Now I actually looked at the shop in 2022 when we were looking
• 4:47
  for C Scare, so I was like, oh.
• 4:49
  And it's a huge space, so it's way bigger than either of the other shops.
• 4:54
  So I was like, it's quite a bit bigger than what I was thinking, but it
• 4:56
  would give me that brush up dreams.
• 4:59
  so that's, we've gone in with a niche of brushes there at task at hand.
• 5:02
  That's shop number three.
• 5:04
  So it opened on the 8th of November, so it was busting a gut
• 5:08
  to get that open so we could make the most of the Christmas trade.
• 5:11
  Yes.
• 5:12
  Uh, I loved all of the content you did on social around that.
• 5:15
  You were like, let's see if I could open this shop in 28 days or something like
• 5:19
  I like regretted having to like record it all and then edit it all
• 5:23
  because it was like so hardcore.
• 5:25
  there is a bit of a gap in the market in there and for that type of shop, and
• 5:29
  that's has matched the feedback that we've had so far, which is really great.
• 5:32
  So I I'm really positive about how that's kind of opened and how that's going.
• 5:35
  But obviously quarter one is always a complete unknown and
• 5:38
  very quiet, which we're kind of living through at the moment.
• 5:41
  So we'll see how that goes.
• 5:42
  What's important here isn't the number of shops, it's the pacing.
• 5:46
  Each step only happened once.
• 5:48
  The previous one had proved it could stand on its own in approach.
• 5:52
  That is all about discipline, not caution.
• 5:55
  how far is Ner from Elgin?
• 5:57
  Like how far are the shops apart from each other now?
• 5:59
  it's about a 30, 35 minute drive on the main road that kind of connects everything
• 6:03
  up here or like 25 minutes on the train.
• 6:05
  So it kind of far enough away to be a different customer base, but also
• 6:08
  close enough that people from our existing customers in Elgan would come
• 6:12
  through to for the day and vice versa.
• 6:14
  And on the run up.
• 6:15
  Had opening a lot of people from then went to Elgin to see our other stores
• 6:20
  to see kind of what it was about.
• 6:22
  And, and a lot of people in there already knew of us at Pennsylvania as well.
• 6:26
  So that was great.
• 6:27
  Sort of reputation wise.
• 6:29
  But RN is a very touristy town, so there's got a huge big holiday park.
• 6:32
  There's lots of holiday lets here.
• 6:34
  So we've got an incredible beach.
• 6:35
  lots of great things.
• 6:37
  So I'm really interested how that's gonna pan out in the summer.
• 6:40
  And how busy we could be over that time and what those
• 6:43
  people will wanna buy as well.
• 6:45
  So yeah, I'm intrigued to see how that's gonna go.
• 6:48
  This is the part of growth that gets skipped in most success stories.
• 6:51
  You don't feel relief when you open.
• 6:54
  You feel exposure.
• 6:55
  You've made the call, spent the money gone public, and now the
• 6:59
  business has to back you up.
• 7:00
  Being able to tolerate that phase is a real skill that Sarah
• 7:03
  obviously has in abundance.
• 7:06
  how does that compare to Elgin then?
• 7:07
  How tourist does Elgin get?
• 7:09
  So Elgan is touristy, so, we're on the sort of cusp of space, which is one of
• 7:14
  the biggest whiskey regions in Scotland.
• 7:16
  So you get a lot of whiskey tourists.
• 7:17
  we're also on the other side of Elgin is the Murray Coast, which is very touristy.
• 7:22
  It's still a bit of an unknown holiday destination.
• 7:25
  It's also quite difficult to get here due to the road networks.
• 7:28
  Like there's hardly Joel Caries or there's no more ways.
• 7:31
  it could be a lot more popular.
• 7:33
  So it is touristy, but mainly we do find that it's a lot of people that come here
• 7:37
  every year on holiday and therefore they will come in, like there'll be an annual
• 7:41
  visit into pen to get some stationary, that sort of thing, which is lovely.
• 7:46
  Yeah, near is much more the tourist destination because we're closer to
• 7:49
  Inverness, which is the Highland capital.
• 7:51
  So it's like 20 minute drive from there.
• 7:53
  So people come here for the beach.
• 7:55
  You know, the ice cream tacos.
• 7:57
  Yeah.
• 7:57
  It's got a good reputation.
• 7:58
  So we're hoping to jump into that a little bit.
• 8:01
  This is where multi-location retail stops being.
• 8:03
  Theoretical distance changes, how often people visit tourism changes,
• 8:08
  why they visit, and once those things are different, the shops
• 8:11
  can't all play the same role.
• 8:13
  Trying to force.
• 8:14
  That is where friction creeps in.
• 8:18
  Once you move beyond one location, clarity matters more than creativity.
• 8:22
  Each shop needs a job to do, not just in your head, but in the customers.
• 8:26
  Without that, you don't get growth.
• 8:28
  You get dilution.
• 8:30
  There are two real growth skills underneath this.
• 8:32
  The first is clarity, being clear on why people come into your shop and giving
• 8:36
  them a reason to show up that isn't just I fancy to browse because browsing
• 8:40
  on its own doesn't pay the rent, and it certainly doesn't support growth.
• 8:45
  The second is learning how to grow through testing.
• 8:48
  When you add a new location, you're taking on something new and the
• 8:51
  skill is starting with a hypothesis, testing it deliberately and paying
• 8:54
  attention to what actually happens.
• 8:57
  That's how expansion becomes a learning engine rather than a drain.
• 9:01
  You test.
• 9:02
  You learn and you feed what works back into the rest of the business.
• 9:06
  So growth strengthens you instead of stretching you thin.
• 9:10
  I managed, stationery and art for paper chase and that
• 9:13
  included, they had these big.
• 9:15
  On the flagship stores.
• 9:17
  They had Totten Court Road, Glasgow, Manchester, and they
• 9:20
  had these huge art sections.
• 9:21
  So,
• 9:22
  I used to shop the one in Manchester, so I'm very with
• 9:25
  exactly what you're talking about.
• 9:27
  Yeah.
• 9:27
  arts is really wild because it's so, there's just so many different things,
• 9:33
  you know, so, so it's like, yeah.
• 9:34
  Finding is kind of like.
• 9:37
  There's so different niches.
• 9:38
  It's kind of working out which one you want to go into, because you
• 9:42
  can, you can fill a whole floor, a giant floor like that, right?
• 9:45
  It's so,
• 9:46
  So it's kind of touching it too hard on,
• 9:51
  This is a useful reality.
• 9:54
  Check Art supplies is one of those categories where you could buy more
• 9:57
  and more, add more ranges, talk about it endlessly, and still feel like
• 10:02
  you've barely scratched the surface.
• 10:04
  The way you avoid spreading yourself too thin isn't by trying to stock everything,
• 10:08
  it's by taking a point of view.
• 10:10
  Because the real power in a category like art supplies isn't volume.
• 10:14
  It's creation.
• 10:15
  Deciding which part of the category you're gonna be known for, and being
• 10:18
  confident enough to say no to the rest.
• 10:21
  so you've had a starting point then.
• 10:23
  So when you started with the third store, it was like this opening stock package,
• 10:26
  as we would call it, back when I worked in big retailers, you know, that was
• 10:29
  kind of fairly predetermined, right?
• 10:31
  Because you knew you wanted to go with the brushes that was like the bit that
• 10:36
  you built it around the utility and then you were able to call on the data
• 10:39
  that you had from the other two stores to pull in the bestsellers there.
• 10:43
  is it more gender neutral, would you say, than the other two shops?
• 10:46
  I mean, sea gear's very more feminine because it's, you know, it's got socks
• 10:50
  and, and gloves and all stuff going on.
• 10:54
  I actually wanted CC to be quite gender neutral, but that's just
• 10:56
  not what the customer wanted and you have to lean into that.
• 10:59
  But there's, I feel like that's already covered in nrn.
• 11:02
  So I don't need to go into that.
• 11:04
  So it's kind of, it's really driving to give NRN something different,
• 11:08
  but also to give my elgan customers a reason to come over and like, see
• 11:12
  what we're doing differently here.
• 11:14
  we've got trade shows coming up.
• 11:16
  That's going to be the exciting part is now see, because I haven't been to
• 11:19
  a changeable since we Oh, open task or even thought about opening it.
• 11:24
  So it's like, okay, what can I go and get now that's gonna even
• 11:27
  improve that, that shop even more.
• 11:30
  but like on the brushes, I went down, so the distributor for the brushes, they have
• 11:34
  their own brush shot in Burford and the
• 11:36
  Cowa, and they're now making a bit of a move on TikTok,
• 11:40
  which is really interesting.
• 11:42
  They've got the best presenter for it or genuine anyone to
• 11:45
  look up brush shop on TikTok.
• 11:47
  So I, I went down and went to visit the shop so I could see exactly how they were
• 11:51
  retailing it, because obviously I've seen how they wholesale it, but I was like,
• 11:55
  I need to see how you're retailing this.
• 11:57
  and the space is quite small, but it was really great to go
• 11:59
  in, see what's happening, and we've kind of taken inspiration
• 12:03
  from that for a little bit of it.
• 12:05
  Um.
• 12:05
  And then also find out what they're doing as a business for their
• 12:08
  marketing, which then also impacts on kind of how I will market my side of
• 12:13
  things and with the brushes, because we're hoping to be the brush shop.
• 12:17
  So Pennsylvania is known as the pencil shop,
• 12:19
  and we're hoping to take tasks to be the brush shop.
• 12:22
  And, and we've actually, you know, we've bought the domain of the brush hub.
• 12:25
  I've had that for about 18 months down.
• 12:27
  So we're hoping to play on that and, and work that into a bit of a niche Locally
• 12:31
  is kind of in the north of Scotland.
• 12:33
  Positioning isn't about vibe, it's about expectation.
• 12:37
  Before a customer even touches a product, they've already decided
• 12:40
  what You're good for that decision.
• 12:42
  Shapes, trust, frequency, and spend, especially once you're
• 12:45
  running more than one shop.
• 12:47
  when you talked about them going for it on TikTok, are they using this, the physical
• 12:51
  retail space for their presenting?
• 12:53
  it's really good.
• 12:54
  I urge you to go like,
• 12:56
  cleaning content
• 12:57
  yeah.
• 12:57
  Oh yeah, massively.
• 12:58
  so Victoria who works in the shop, is from the Cowa and she's lovely, a bit
• 13:03
  posh, and she just presents so well.
• 13:07
  Different brushes and is to talk about them because she's got
• 13:09
  so much experience with them.
• 13:10
  So, no, it's, it's a great watch.
• 13:13
  that was one of my retail trends for the years, the whole shopping and
• 13:16
  as entertainment and I think that, that, that's really interesting.
• 13:19
  This is where retailer marketing stop being separate.
• 13:21
  If the shop itself is part of the story, you're not constantly chasing attention.
• 13:26
  You're building familiarity and familiarity is what brings people back.
• 13:34
  Trade shows are dangerous when you're growing.
• 13:35
  And why is that?
• 13:36
  It's because everything feels possible and possibility unchecked
• 13:40
  gets expensive very quickly.
• 13:43
  so let's talk about trade shows a little bit then, because I wanted
• 13:46
  to dig into kind of when you go into a trade show, which can be quite
• 13:49
  overwhelming, and you're seeing all of these different products.
• 13:52
  It sounds like you have a really clear, almost filter in your head,
• 13:56
  like, that's a pencil me product.
• 13:58
  That's a CCARE product.
• 13:59
  That is a task in hand product.
• 14:00
  Do you find that because you've almost got this theme for each shop, that it does
• 14:05
  make it pretty straightforward or do you see products that you think, oh, actually
• 14:08
  I think this could work in all three.
• 14:09
  How do you even organize that
• 14:12
  I kind of can just look at a product and think, okay, that'll work well
• 14:14
  across probably task and CC for example.
• 14:18
  We're not putting anything pink or lilac into task.
• 14:23
  There's a lot of female stationery that sells brilliantly, but.
• 14:28
  we went through Pennsylvania the other day and cleared eye that works
• 14:30
  with me and we were like, we need to get back a little bit to the utility
• 14:36
  function of stationary and making sure that everything is very useful.
• 14:40
  And 'cause sometimes it can be easy when you're trying to fill the shop
• 14:42
  for Christmas to get a bit ry a little bit into, oh yeah, let's get
• 14:46
  that because it'll be good for this.
• 14:48
  But then it just hasn't sold at all
• 14:51
  and it's just like, okay, did we merchandise that?
• 14:53
  Right?
• 14:53
  So.
• 14:54
  Before we do the trade shows, 'cause obviously January there's so many
• 14:58
  to, go to we usually do a walkthrough round all the shops and say this is
• 15:03
  how we want to develop this area.
• 15:05
  Or it would be really good if we had a new collection or a new type of
• 15:07
  product that would fill this area because it's been quite awkward
• 15:10
  to merchandise, which is an issue.
• 15:11
  We've got csco right now.
• 15:13
  So we kind of walk around and there there's obvious things
• 15:16
  that you know, you're gonna buy.
• 15:17
  Like, I'm gonna go to the brush stand and see what's new for 2026,
• 15:20
  that sort of thing.
• 15:21
  And you do go to see people, you know, sell well for you and you
• 15:24
  say, okay, what what have you got?
• 15:25
  That's new because it's so great to be able to bring in, this is new from
• 15:29
  this person, this is new, et cetera.
• 15:31
  Because that's obviously makes good content and good reason for your
• 15:34
  customers to come in to see new things.
• 15:36
  And yeah, sometimes it is as boring as like walking the show lane for lane to
• 15:41
  say, you know what, is there anything that we've missed here that could work?
• 15:45
  interested to see how that's gonna work for Task in Hand, like we're
• 15:48
  really interested in bringing in Traveler's Company, which is quite a
• 15:52
  sort of niche stationary collection.
• 15:53
  And you have to apply to Stock to them and send the pictures of
• 15:57
  your store and stuff like that.
• 15:58
  So we're looking at that and we're like, okay, we're definitely
• 16:01
  gonna bring that task in hand.
• 16:02
  Do we bring it in at Pen Some in as well?
• 16:04
  And it's kind of just seeing if it's gonna be right for the customer.
• 16:08
  Good.
• 16:08
  Buying isn't just about having a good eye.
• 16:11
  It's about having a strong filter and being comfortable walking past
• 16:15
  things that don't earn their place on your shelves So you kind of
• 16:18
  start with the, what's missing?
• 16:21
  I mean, how much do you dig into the data for it, or is it more about
• 16:24
  like the kind of sense of walking the floor and what you've experienced
• 16:29
  I, I usually have a look, especially at the end of December, I have a look at like
• 16:32
  who our top brands were, and then I look at where our sales were, and then I look
• 16:37
  at how much space they've got in store
• 16:39
  and I say, okay, well if that was such a great seller, if
• 16:42
  I gave it a bit more space.
• 16:44
  Would we sell more of it?
• 16:45
  And like, are we able to experiment in that way?
• 16:48
  So for example, at task in hand, 25% of our sales are coming from brushes.
• 16:53
  I'm planning to expand that anyway, but it's just like, okay, well let's go and
• 16:55
  look at what we can expand that with.
• 16:58
  And then what also joins in with that product.
• 17:01
  What else?
• 17:01
  Because we've got a pick and mix table of brushes and it's just like,
• 17:05
  well, what other products could also be on this pick and mix table?
• 17:07
  Because it's not just brushes, it could be other household stuff too.
• 17:10
  And then, you know, soaps at Seas, gear sell really well.
• 17:13
  So it's like, okay, what if we gave over another shelf and
• 17:16
  just filled that with soap?
• 17:18
  would that increase our sales?
• 17:19
  Would they stay the same?
• 17:20
  So there's a lot bit of experimenting that'll probably
• 17:22
  go on,
• 17:23
  in the sort of first three, four months of the year, you know, your.
• 17:27
  Checking that that's not gonna be too much a cash risk as well.
• 17:31
  So you don't wanna put too much money into something.
• 17:33
  So it's not just that balance of let's experiment here, let's experiment there.
• 17:37
  So yeah, we do try and look at the data.
• 17:39
  Sometimes, you know, you've been doing it a long time, you just get a gut
• 17:43
  feeling for, this will do really well.
• 17:45
  And then we, we kind of go for it.
• 17:47
  You know, roughly what you want to, we used to do an exercise
• 17:50
  sand, something similar.
• 17:51
  It was called grow, maintain Decline, which is basically where
• 17:54
  we would go through each category and we would say, we wanna grow
• 17:57
  this, maintain this, decline this.
• 17:58
  So, you know, you might go through it and say, right, we want to grow
• 18:01
  brushes, maintain cards, but decline.
• 18:04
  You know, if you had to set another product area that just hadn't
• 18:07
  worked so well, and then you kind of know where your focuses are.
• 18:10
  You know who your best brands are.
• 18:11
  So that's pretty straightforward.
• 18:12
  You go and see them if they're at the shows, right.
• 18:15
  and then I suppose you're just then almost like waiting for that lightning
• 18:18
  strike if you're gonna walk up and down and then say, oh, actually, I,
• 18:22
  I hadn't even thought of that, but this is this amazing thing that, that
• 18:26
  I just know was gonna work perfectly.
• 18:28
  I mean at the start of every month.
• 18:30
  I pretty much look at all of our bestsellers across the shops, and then
• 18:33
  I think, okay, what needs topped up?
• 18:35
  And make sure that that's in.
• 18:36
  And I think for certainly these first three, four months of the year,
• 18:40
  it's really important to have your bestsellers in because that's, it's
• 18:44
  probably gonna be your regular local customers that know what you stock that
• 18:48
  are gonna be coming in, and you want to make sure you've got what they need.
• 18:51
  And then.
• 18:53
  You can experiment a little bit more because we've got a little
• 18:55
  bit more football footfall.
• 18:56
  And then at
• 18:57
  Christmas, at Christmas, I always feel like I need to find the thing,
• 19:01
  Mm.
• 19:03
  the golden star.
• 19:06
  so you know, we go, we go Harrogate in July and we go to talk September
• 19:11
  and we're always there like, what's it, what's it gonna be?
• 19:14
  And we did hit on a couple of things this year, but we got them in a
• 19:17
  little bit late, so I'm like, okay, I need to be nailing that this year.
• 19:21
  Obviously there was a bit of a distraction last year with opening the new shop,
• 19:24
  yeah, but this, like we've reflected on last year and I was like, we
• 19:26
  need to go in earlier on Christmas.
• 19:29
  Like Christmas trees were going up middle of beginning of November, middle
• 19:32
  of November, and I'm like, if you don't have your decorations out now in October.
• 19:36
  you, you don't really sell any decorations in December at all.
• 19:39
  'cause all the trees are up unless someone's buying maybe one for a gift.
• 19:42
  But decoration sales are now heavily in October, November, and we were just
• 19:46
  a little bit slow I felt last year.
• 19:49
  But that can all be changed for this year.
• 19:50
  We still had a, a great sales period, but I was
• 19:53
  like, I thought I, I think we could do a little bit better.
• 19:57
  The more that people try and split the cost of Christmas.
• 19:59
  I think that's the other thing as well, is that they start a bit
• 20:01
  earlier and they sort of squirrel some, a few bits away earlier on.
• 20:04
  So if you've got it, it doesn't have to be your main focus, but if it's there,
• 20:08
  especially if they're picking things up.
• 20:10
  when you're buying for more than one shop.
• 20:11
  Mistakes don't stay small.
• 20:13
  They replicate, they tie up cash.
• 20:15
  They steal space from what actually works.
• 20:18
  That's why data isn't about being corporate.
• 20:20
  It's about protecting your business.
• 20:23
  This is the moment where growth gets uncomfortable, because scaling
• 20:27
  usually means letting go of the things that made you feel safe.
• 20:30
  Like being everywhere, checking everything, holding
• 20:32
  it all together yourself.
• 20:34
  You have to make an identity shift and start thinking about systems
• 20:38
  instead of you as the control.
• 20:40
  Otherwise, you risk becoming the bottleneck.
• 20:43
  So I'd love to ask you about multiple locations because this is something
• 20:49
  that when I talk to people, I talk, you know, I work with a lot of
• 20:51
  bricks and mortar stores and some of them have multiple locations.
• 20:55
  Some people are in.
• 20:56
  One location and would like to open another, but I would say that
• 20:59
  the kind of biggest blocker is the kind of loss of control when
• 21:04
  you are in your store every day.
• 21:06
  Then going to basically, you know, obviously it's about being able to
• 21:10
  put your trust in your uh, team.
• 21:12
  Interestingly, I spoke to Bird the co-founder of Bird and Blend Tea,
• 21:16
  who've now got about 35 stores or something, and he said The hardest
• 21:20
  store is your second, because.
• 21:22
  It's like once you've had two, you know, you've proven that you can run
• 21:26
  one without you being there every day.
• 21:27
  So the rest of them seem easier, but I'd love to just know your thoughts
• 21:30
  having gone from one to two and then two to three, you know, how,
• 21:34
  how do you navigate the transition?
• 21:36
  I mean, it all is all in the team and, and who you recruit
• 21:40
  to come to come into that team.
• 21:42
  And I mean, I'm interviewing this afternoon, so I'll
• 21:45
  be reiterating this later.
• 21:46
  It's really important to get across like the type of shopping that we are.
• 21:50
  We're not CHO shopping, which I know you've spoken about before
• 21:53
  on, on the podcast.
• 21:54
  We.
• 21:55
  Yeah, we're like, and we're an experience.
• 21:57
  We're enjoyable.
• 21:58
  We should be fun.
• 21:59
  We're not a service.
• 22:01
  And it's making sure that people understand that so that when
• 22:03
  customers are in, it's about enjoying what they're buying and you know,
• 22:07
  talking to 'em about it in that way.
• 22:09
  It's not really about sell it like hardcore selling, it's about talking
• 22:12
  to 'em about the product, adding in helpful information that sort of thing.
• 22:16
  But it's also looking at how we work.
• 22:18
  some of us that work in the team are very efficient working.
• 22:22
  I like to be really busy.
• 22:24
  I mean, that's like goldmine.
• 22:26
  If you can keep, keep your team busy and like, if they really wanna be busy and,
• 22:30
  and to a certain extent it's about letting go, which I think when I speak to a lot of
• 22:34
  shopkeepers and they think about opening a second shop, that that's the element.
• 22:39
  They're like, oh, I, don't want to let go of this or this or that.
• 22:43
  But I think what helped me in the past is I was on maternity leave twice.
• 22:46
  I
• 22:47
  had to bring in people to run the shop and I, you just have to let go
• 22:52
  and you find out the real things that you need to keep control of.
• 22:55
  Like, I still do all of the banking, like no one has access to the banking,
• 23:00
  but the girls have got access to the de, you know, the card for the account so
• 23:04
  they can buy stuff like pencil boxes or raw mail or what, whatever it might be.
• 23:08
  So obviously trust is really important.
• 23:11
  And luckily in a small business that can flex, Quite easily.
• 23:15
  But yeah, I think having that time away gave me a better pinpoint
• 23:19
  of what I need to keep control of and actually what I can let go of.
• 23:24
  And it's also giving a little bit of freedom to your team so that they can
• 23:28
  actually perhaps improve processes
• 23:31
  and improve the things that you think you're the only thing,
• 23:34
  only person that can do it.
• 23:36
  Because I don't do any window displays now.
• 23:39
  you know, I discuss that with the team.
• 23:41
  We come up with ideas.
• 23:42
  Sometimes I'm like, I don't have any ideas, and they, and they just go off to
• 23:45
  Pinterest and come back with some ideas.
• 23:46
  Sometimes I do, and then they're the ones that kind of execute it or come
• 23:50
  up with a few other things to add in.
• 23:52
  So that's wonderful.
• 23:53
  And they, and like that's a great creative outlet.
• 23:56
  Like I want the team to do creative stuff while they're at work because we've
• 24:00
  always got, because we have the wholesale site to pencil in of printing pencils.
• 24:03
  We always have that to do.
• 24:05
  We always have wholesale orders waiting.
• 24:07
  And I'm like, I don't want to feel like that is always the number one task.
• 24:11
  I want you to do some creative stuff so you're not like, so bored at work
• 24:15
  that you're gonna get disengaged and you're gonna wanna leave.
• 24:17
  you know, they both do.
• 24:18
  We have like a shop iPhone and we have a digital SLR, so they Claire and
• 24:22
  Louise mainly both do photography at work, so we have a huge big light box.
• 24:25
  So they do flat leaves that I use then in our email marketing on our social media.
• 24:30
  Louise Rephotographed every brush so that we could put that on the,
• 24:34
  on the website so it was consistent.
• 24:36
  So they do all of that stuff as well.
• 24:38
  And it's a, yeah, I think it's about opening up what a role could
• 24:42
  be as, as a sales assistant, which is such a rubbish title, because
• 24:47
  they do so much more than that.
• 24:48
  And, and that's what I try and do is give the team.
• 24:51
  Other interesting responsibilities that aren't just serving a customer,
• 24:55
  cleaning the shop, dealing with a delivery, and try and kind of bring
• 24:58
  them on board and, and, you know, bring them to trade shows with me.
• 25:01
  So they get to meet all of our suppliers.
• 25:03
  They get to see how it's merchandised at the show, and then their mind goes to,
• 25:07
  how can I make a display out of this?
• 25:09
  Well, I'm like, what's the price point?
• 25:10
  What's the margin?
• 25:11
  You know, how, how can I make, how many will I buy?
• 25:15
  But they're, they're like figuring out how that's gonna look.
• 25:18
  which totally takes it off my shoulders.
• 25:20
  So there could be real benefits to bringing new people in because they'll
• 25:24
  have a completely different insight,
• 25:26
  to your business, to, to the shop.
• 25:28
  But yeah, it's, it's something to get people to come on board
• 25:31
  and like my past experience was running big teams, so I do have that
• 25:36
  sort of experience bring into it.
• 25:37
  And I think sometimes people are a little bit scared to hire people in case.
• 25:42
  I think they're gonna steal from them or, or something, but there's
• 25:46
  gotta be that trust.
• 25:47
  yeah, it's like, it's how you get to that trust, isn't it?
• 25:50
  It's how you make sure that what you need to be done is.
• 25:53
  Being done and then that you can then step away and know that you can.
• 25:58
  Yeah, it's like building that trust up and how you get to that point.
• 26:01
  But no, that's fascinating.
• 26:03
  Control doesn't disappear.
• 26:05
  As you grow, it becomes selective.
• 26:07
  Knowing what not to hold onto is what makes growth sustainable instead
• 26:10
  of exhausting So what's next then?
• 26:13
  How many more shops?
• 26:16
  I was pretty sure that I'm done, but my mate was like, this is just the start.
• 26:22
  yeah, I dunno.
• 26:22
  Three, three is a lot.
• 26:23
  I've still got, you know, my kids are still pretty young.
• 26:26
  They're only four and seven, so it's like, how much more
• 26:29
  do you wanna add to your to-do list?
• 26:32
  And you know, my husband works away most of the time as well, so it's.
• 26:35
  It can be a bit frantic behind the scenes, which I don't of, I don't
• 26:38
  usually share that side of it because like no one wants to see you on the
• 26:41
  school running and stuff like that.
• 26:43
  I actually wrote like my pro, we've done a strategy for 2026
• 26:46
  and it's got like 53 elements.
• 26:48
  I was like, that'll do for this year.
• 26:51
  But no, this year's really just about, you know, settling task and
• 26:54
  just kind of trying to improve.
• 26:55
  We're doing a wholesale trade show.
• 26:59
  Pennsylvania, we're doing Harrogate in July, so we've got
• 27:01
  that to boost wholesale sales hopefully.
• 27:03
  So there's a few
• 27:04
  Is that the first time?
• 27:05
  No, we've done two others.
• 27:07
  So we did the stationary show ages ago,
• 27:09
  um, 2022, and then we did top door 2023.
• 27:14
  And that was great, but like overwhelmingly great and they kept
• 27:18
  phoning me to try and rebook and I was like, I've got PTSD Ts from doing this.
• 27:21
  Probably Stop phoning me.
• 27:22
  So, so I've only just got right to like book outta the
• 27:26
  show 'cause it was so crazy.
• 27:28
  And then we're trying to like just build that niche of the brushes.
• 27:31
  So that's up here.
• 27:32
  There's lots of Highland Games events, so we're booked in to do it, to take
• 27:36
  the brushes and do like a highland game stall in the shopping area, just
• 27:41
  to kind of get the word out about it and just to test that market as well.
• 27:47
  This isn't really a conversation about opening more shops.
• 27:49
  It's about understanding what growth actually costs in cash,
• 27:53
  in attention, and in energy.
• 27:55
  Deciding deliberately whether that version of growth fits the business you
• 27:59
  want and the life you want alongside it.
• 28:02
  If you wanna find out more about Sarah and the different shops she
• 28:04
  mentions in this episode, you'll find all of the links in the show notes.
• 28:08
  And what I really love about Sarah's story is that it feels like a
• 28:11
  love letter to independent retail.
• 28:13
  Each of her shops has its own identity, its own role in the community.
• 28:16
  It serves Growth for her hasn't been about cloning one idea again and again.
• 28:22
  It's about contributing something meaningful to each place and
• 28:25
  working out a way of doing that that actually works for her.
• 28:28
  And that's the real takeaway here.
• 28:30
  Growth isn't a rule, it's a choice.
• 28:32
  And the most important part is making sure it supports the kind
• 28:35
  of business you want to run and the kind of life you want to live.
• 28:39
  Enjoyed
• 28:44
  episode.