Solutions of Challenges Faced by Retail Businesses

Are you anxious to know the solutions to the previously mentioned, impediments and hurdles in your way of establishing a retail business? However, before jumping into the solutions I would like to throw shine on some preeminent knowledge regarding business.

Establishing a business is like claiming a hierarchy in a jungle filled with lions and leopards. If one fails to anticipate the problems beforehand and does not contemplate over the previously mentioned issues, it will most likely end up being the dinner of a vicious animal. Also, the establishment of any business depends on how strong the roots are; it means how firm your hold of the basics of business is. If the roots are strong, one may expect a healthy and fruitful tree to grow at some time of life.

To know the solution to the problems, one needs to identify the problem first. This lack of judgment, in identifying problems, lay an important brick in the establishment and survival of any retail business. Every retail business-related problem could be tackled in two basic methods:

• Non-Digital methods or solution
• Digital methods or solutions

Utilizing these two mentioned fashions, one can put a problem to rest in an efficient manner and pave the path for a prosperous future for a retail business. These two methods could be adopted by anyone, depending on the severity and need of the problem, and are completely independent of each other.

Our previous blog aimed to identify the problems and enlightened you with the most likely hurdles in any retail business, while this blog focuses entirely on how to overcome those problems in a non-digital manner.

There are seven, durable, ways to encounter these problems. Want to know them? Here we go.

It is not easy-peasy lemon squeeze to run and administer any retail business. It is, undoubtedly, a tough and challenging task for a retail business owner to be held responsible for every action he takes, every minute he allocates for a task and doing the right thing at the right time.

You might have had come across a statement: The busier one seems, the more hardworking they are. However, in the modern age, this is not simply true completely, because in the age of competence, working smart, and not hard, counts to be the success mantra for any retail business.

You are anxious and stressed to find the magic of handling time more beneficially and profitably? Wait no more.

The three steps of effective time management are:

1. Identify time-sucking activities : Inscribe this line into your mind, read it again and again: DISTRACTION NEEDS TO BE STOPPED. Usually what happens is that we devote and invest a major part of our time in keeping us busy in activities which are of secondary importance, which ultimately results in distracting us from achieving the goals for that particular month or day, whichever is the case. Distraction is like procrastination, the more one is distracted, the higher the chances of failure and inability to meet deadlines.
   To overcome this issue, one needs to have a clear picture of the goals and ambitions for his retail business, e.g. which activities need my supervision? What are the goals for this month? What goals do I need to achieve by the end of this year? The purpose is to remind oneself of his real goals and achievements and when one has a mental image of his destination, every step taken is towards achieving and touching that destination. Also, hiring a professional to chart your business may prove to be a helping hand.
2. The prioritizing strategy : Successful and a failure person both have the same number of hours in a day, so how could one complain of a time shortage? While the big fish achieve his goals in the same number of hours which you have. The difference is Prioritization. You cannot change the number of hours in a day, but what you can do is effectively manage this time to the maximum of your efforts.
   How to prioritize your activities? Just give 15 minutes of your day, it is easy. When you wake up to a new day, you should have a to-do list in your hand that will determine your priorities. The list will be designed according to the urgency and importance of activities. However, if a retail business has a vast chain of staff, it is still not an issue. Divide the activities and to-do list according to the skills of your staff and embark on the journey to achieve and claim your goals.

Money is the brains and backbone of any business, as long as it functions properly, everything falls in place. Finance management helps a retail business to ensure and ascertain its survival for the long term while providing quality service and products to its customers.

It is cry of the time that for a successful business, an uninterrupted flow of money or funds is a crucial factor.

To achieve financial stability for the long term, financial aspects such as budgeting, forecasting, profit planning, leverage management, and asset management are eminent factors.

The following two effective strategies could be employed to achieve your financial goals:

1. Retail cash flow management : The process by which one analyzes and monitors the cash flow through selling calls retail cash flow management. The extensive gap between inflow and outflow of cash is called Cash shortage, which harms a retail business, certainly. In an effect to avoid Cash shortage, retail cash flow management is employed by retail business owners.
   Not only this, this strategy benefits a retail business by meeting the employees’ salaries in time and maintain an optimum balance between cash inflow and cash outflow.
2. Being up to date : Hiring a tax professional is an easy choice to keep oneself informed of the fluctuating tax each year and requirements of taxes by the government etc.
   The effectiveness of being updated brings the following advantages to your business:
   1. Helps you make fruitful decisions in times of challenges
   2. Effective in avoiding any tax penalty
   3. Saves money

“Examples work more forcibly on the mind than percepts”- Henry Fielding in his book Joseph Andrews.

The building block of any retail business is laid down by the managerial individuals, as it is a known phenomenon that culture is always transfused from the upper class to the lower class, as water flows from upside to down, and not the contrary. Therefore, to achieve an advantageous staff, one needs to step examples from his actions. This strategy helps you to save a great period.

Customer is the King. He needs to be satisfied with providing him a quality service by both the managerial and counter staff of any retail business, so they could leave your store content and satisfied.

• Keep a record of all the products.
• Products must be well arranged on shelves

To achieve the goal of making your staff a competent in this fierce fight, the following two strategies could be placed in effect:

1. Huddle together : The most proficient time to make your staff listen to you is by having a huddle before starting a shift. This strategy is lacked in many retail businesses, however, our readers may find it quite helpful in their knowledge because of the following advantages it has:
   1. A pre-shift engagement with staff could be used to share any suggestions and news, regarding your business, from different perspectives and corners.
   2. It could be made effective by prioritizing the activities.
   3. Healthy interaction with staff is to your benefit in every manner.
2. Allow employee information sharing : This strategy aligns with the exact previous one in some manner. It aims at encouraging your employees or staff to come up with a solution to the problems faced by your retail business and giving them the freedom to express their opinion and breaking the ice in between managerial and staff individuals.
   It helps in:
   1. Giving you an insight on different upgrades and updates on industrial development.
   2. Benefitting the workers and employer by engaging a strategic meeting in which various aspects are discussed with an open mind.

In retail business, one has to work and function according to what is right and not what is easy. Keeping this point in the subconscious, you may become able to confront any underperforming employee without feeling any hesitation, as you are doing what benefits your business in an optimum manner.

The daily drill of saving and recording the financial transactions of a retail business saves one a large sum of money and helps him achieve his financial stability according to his personal goals. However, it requires time daily, which could be, somehow, tedious.

It involves tracking sales, expenses, payables, receivables, and inventory. The following plan of actions could be used to achieve accountability:

1. Inventory accounting : Inventory accounting is a system that could be put in a retail business to keep a record of any inflow and outflow of stock on a daily or monthly basis. It enables one to regulate and adjust for spoiled, stolen or damaged goods and products.
   It is proven to be a crucial factor for a retail business and comprises of large investments that the owner makes.
2. Income : Once the business starts to grow proficient amount of income, it needs to be regulated according to the tax regulations of a state. For this purpose, one has to keep a record of all the invoices and compare them with the bank statements to refrain and avoid any discrepancies. Have a complete and end to end records of any cash inflow and outflow and transfer the cumulative total into the designed accounting system as often as possible.
3. Expenses : Similarly, align your expenses with the bank accounts to tackle any unfavorable situation in the future. Keep a safe record of all the variable expenditures in their prescribed double-entry bookkeeping accounts, which also includes:
   1. Cost of goods sold
   2. Labor expenses
   3. Taxes
   4. Fees
   Purchases in their own designated accounts, that you may easily separate the, to calculate and check the progress of profit by the end of the year or month.

Disciplining your business by remarking a clear set of goals is a substantial element in a successful retail business. The question remains the same that how to engage customers in a proficient and attention-catching manner? This paragraph will lay down the basics to solve this hurdle in an easy manner.

It all comes down to your individual, and collective efforts that will determine the satisfaction of your customers. Investing your time to have a goody two show idea about their needs and requirements will perhaps help you plan a strategy to provide on-point service and quality products to the customers, accordingly.

1. Who is your audience? This question holds the mantra to any problem related to customers and their requirements. This question will help you determine a cogent picture of your customers, their needs and preferences. For this purpose, the best source is your existing customers who visit your store.
   What this means is that you should often ask your customers the following questions:
   1. What led them to your store?
   2. Why do they prefer your product over any other in the market?
   3. What could you do to meet their surging expectations?
   All these questions could be presented in the form of a questionnaire before the customers. It is an effective manner to know your audience.
2. Enable a customer-centric culture We all know that business runs with customer, the customer is the pivot for any business. A happy customer means a happy and prosperous business.
   However, what usually happens is that managerial post individuals put this burden or responsibility of managing customers on the shoulders of the support team. This quite a questionable approach in any retail business, as the satisfaction of customers, not only lies under the umbrella of the support team but also the staff and managers.
   This is an important factor in a retail business, which makes the retail business owner take every step towards the satisfaction of his customers to meet their exceeding expectations.
3. Collect feedback For every human being on the face of the earth, appreciation is important to boost his morale and encouragement. Similarly, every retail business needs to put forward a customer satisfaction questionnaire to explore what are the factors that could be improved and which things are meeting their expectations and demands.
   This will certainly help you in recognizing your loopholes and strong points in your retail business

Trust has always been a two-way road if a retail business wants his business to be trusted by his clients, he is supposed to earn that trust. But How? Here are our observations and information from the trusted sources, which will surely help you gain the trust of your clients and audience.

1. Be available To gain more and more loyal customers, a retail business needs to showcase its image before as many eyes as possible, as it will make an image of your brand in the minds of the clients. You may not expect your retail business to grow sufficiently by hiding behind the curtains, choke the curtains and make your presence count every single second. It is a simple phenomenon, the more visible one is, the more chances the retail business is going to grow its wings.
   Be available to your customers via various lines of communication, e.g. giving them your cell phone number in case of any emergency will develop personal ties with your clients. Building trust is not a trouble-free task.
2. Under-promise and over-deliver It is a known fact that with the increase in a number of retail businesses, the trust of the client’s decline or vary according to the fluctuating circumstances. Any small inconvenience to the customer expectations may lead them to shoo off from your store in a matter of minutes and part with your brand, forever.
   Let us put it in simple words if a customer expects delivery in two weeks, make it in one week. This way the customer will be obliged by your efficiency.
3. Communicate and engage more One of the leading causes of any misunderstanding between individuals or groups is the lack of communication. Employing effective and on point, communication proves to be fruitful and productive in a retail business for many miscellaneous reasons.
   Using effective communication, it is meant that the customers are never left in dark or alone when he enters your store or retail business. The more you engage him in a healthy conversation, the more you will catch his attention, which certainly proves to be fruitful for a retail business.
   Do not withhold any information or client service from your customers, this will perhaps help you achieve your aims and goals.

An adage goes by: Business needs to find the right location to be successful. However, with the expansion of the retail business, in recent years, the choices for every business owner diversify to identify the right location.

One needs to have a background of knowledge before choosing any location, on the contrary, he could be easily perplexed in the diversity of choices nowadays available.

The following approaches and plans of action could be helpful:

1. Customers and your product The significance of customer and product information needs to be highlighted as much as possible in every step of a retail business. Every retail businessman before establishing his business needs to have a master plan. This master plan or plan of action will help him know his customer needs and their purchase patterns.
   On the contrary and opposite situation, lack of relevance and information regarding your customers will lead you to a state of failure and will be doomed to height of an unsuccessful journey.
   Right product at the right time and location is the key to a triumphant and victorious business fortune.
2. Demographics How much time is required to select a perfect and suitable el location for your retail business? At least six months. It is not as tedious as it may sounds if one knows the criteria of his search.
   The following attributes could be reached to fulfill this search of location:
   1. Average Age : Depending on the type of goods a retail business provides to the general public, the location varies. On a condition that a store sells modern outfits and shoes for younger people, the owner should vouch for a high young people ration, unlike to set up a business in a town of people above 60s.
   2. Income : Anticipating the expenditure of people is a moving point in allocating your retail business to a good location. APPLE is located in the middle of rich and developed cities because they are selling high-end products to people who could afford them. Therefore, the overall ration of people’s income is an important factor in determining a location for any retail business.
   3. Accessibility : Accessibility to commonplace is a crucial factor in finding a suitable location because the majority of the people uses public transports as a mean of travel. Apart from accessibility, the availability of parking facilities, near metro or subway stations could also add a positive point to your advantage.

The reader is enlightened, via this blog, about the non-digital solution to the previously mentioned problems of any retail business ranging from location to accountability of staff along with customer loyalty and trust.

The diversity of various problems in this age of competence and the hierarchical situation could be handled in either digital or non-digital fashion. It is up to individual choice to choose wither and proceed with strategic and competent mindset to tackle each problem with these sets of information in regard.

However, the curiosity of readers could be quenched with digital solutions in the coming blog. Which will highlight the efficient and modern techniques to overcome the same problems with digital techniques?