How Business School Turned My Store Around
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By :
Thomas Pretty
Submitted:
2009-06-03 14:27:23 Number of Times Read: 29
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I have run a small record shop for several years, all without any training or any real knowledge of how to make a business work. I didn't go to business school; I opened it up with a small ventures loan from my bank and one session with their small business advisor who seemed more interested in looking at his watch and just nodding a lot. In many ways, I think the shop has only survived because of the passion I have for music and the rapport I've built up with my customers because of this.
Recently however, times have been tough. It's not just the economy causing my bills to rise, it's the fact that an enormous chain store has opened in the same high street, and the fact that shopping on the internet is so cheap. My prices aren't unreasonable, but I can't afford to undercut the internet stores and the chain store sells DVDs and games as well. The only thing I could think to do was to take some classes at a business school and hope that the loyal clientele I'd built up combined with some better organisation of my finances would see me through.
Organisation has never been my strong point, especially with the business. The storefront is always tidy as is the actual shop itself, but the stock room used to look like several bombs had hit it and my financial records were borderline non-existent with just a bunch of tax receipts pushed in several folders. If I was to stay open in the light of the increased competition I would have to sort this out, so I enrolled in evening classes in the local business school.
The course was very helpful and I was soon implementing what I'd learned in the classes into my day job, from organising the stock room and keeping more comprehensive financial records through to some marketing tactics I hadn't thought of and I found it really helped with my store.
Because the stock room is tidier I have found I am able to save a lot of money on ordering as I don't find myself re-ordering albums which are already in there, or ones which have been damaged because I threw another box on top of them. By taking some flyers from a rock night at a local nightclub and putting them on my counter, I've been given an advert on the screens in the club on their nights by way of a trade. Just simple things like that and taking better care of my financial records has really helped me cut down on my overheads and thus my prices.
Through taking my evening classes at the local business school, these improvements coupled with the increases in the already loyal clientele I had have helped me turn things around. I'm not going to be running the chain store out of town anytime soon, nor will it stop people buying CDs from the internet, but I have more than enough custom to keep my store open for what will hopefully be many years to come. |
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Thomas Pretty has owned his own music shop for several years and was able to combat the recession by taking some evening classes. Find out more about business school at http://www.isb.edu/isb/index.shtml |
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