Small steps that make a big difference

Success in retail is more about the many small steps you take to promote, grow and manage your business, the one percenters some call them. I’m a firm believer in this for convenience store businesses today.

There is no big thing, no single bold step, no one product or product range that will save, define or grow your store.

The future of every convenience store relies on many small steps, some interconnected, some stand alone. I am talking here about hundreds and thousands of small steps. This leads into my marketing tip for today: what are you doing today? What small step are you taking today to market or promote your business.

Here are some examples of small steps you could take today:

• Create a new window display
• Move a department or category of products to a new location
• Change the products at your counter, print a small flyer to be given to every shopper with an offer for a product you want to move
• Put signs on your car and park it a few streets away
• Reach out to another business you have not connected with before
• Reach out to a community group you have not connected with before
• Spend an hour you would not usually spend on the shop floor helping customers
• Relieve a staff member stationed at the counter and give them freedom to change something on the shop floor while you serve at the counter for them.

While these steps may seem tiny, they represent the types of steps necessary to make an overall small-step strategy to work and help a business grow.

The idea is that every day you do something – yes, EVERY DAY – you take a step, no matter how small.