| Welcome
to the first installment of the Retailing/Restaurant column on the
MDSBDC Network’s revised website.
Being a successful retailer or restaurateur is always challenging,
but in difficult and turbulent economic conditions, it is downright
daunting. This column will attempt to present and investigate
the face-to-face activity of selling to a customer in a bricks
and mortar facility as an understandable money-generating operation
and prompt owner/managers to examine their business from a financial,
operational, and customer perspective. In addition, the column
will be bold enough to suggest concrete tactics that can contribute
to the profitability and sustainability of the enterprise.
And, as if competition hasn’t always been tough, this column
will address issues of E-commerce and technology and how doing
business with the cyber-customer can have dramatic implications
for the traditional bricks and mortar businesses; indeed, when
does “clicks and mortar” become the proper strategic
alternative? The dimensions of doing business are expanding rapidly
to boundaries only defined by the speed of a click!
The durability of the small business is determined by the ability
of the people involved to execute consistently against standards
of communication and service to vendors and customers alike and
by adaptability to new and constantly shifting parameters of doing
business. This column will examine tested methods of generating
sales and providing service and explore the techniques and considerations
for competing in the changing world. Whether you’re big
or small, you need a reason for being, and a plan for lasting.
Take our Small Restaurant/Food
Service Checkup!
or
Take our Retail Business Checkup!
|
