How many of you find at the end of the month, season or year that you do not have any money for you, the owner? You are not compensated for all of the risk and hard work you put into running your store. You have customers, many of them repeat customers. You are feverishly marketing your retail store. You have good taste. You understand what your customers want and you provide it for them in an exciting retail experience, yet at the end of the day you find yourself having to borrow money to make ends meet or that credit card debt you racked up is not getting smaller.

When you decided to go into business for yourself and decided to open your retail store, what were you thinking? Did you have dreams of successful entrepreneurship? Did you think to yourself, “I can do what I love all day”? Were you dreaming about all the money that would come rolling in once you opened the doors?

Assuming you have a good merchandise presentation, traffic and people buying what you are offering, in order to receive the compensation you feel you deserve you must focus on the metrics or on the things that drive retail. I have seen over the years that getting great cash flow from a retail business comes from tweaking a few key things, and only adjusting them when needed. The money is actually already there in your business, you just need to know where to look for it.

Getting what you what out of your retail business, will it be by chance or by choice?

ABOUT RETAIL SMART GUYS

Retail Smart Guys is a consulting firm, specializing in assisting retail stores with their inventory planning and open to buy. The firm was started by Dan Jablons, who has 30 years of experience working in and consulting with retail companies, from single-store mom-and-pop operations to major retail chains. He has also worked extensively with point-of-sale systems, including Retail Pro, QuickBooks Point of Sale, and Microsoft Dynamics. For more information, contact Retail Smart Guys at 818-720-2585 or visit www.retailsmartguys.com. Retail Smart Guys is an affiliate of Management One, which provides planning and services for retailers around the country.