Related Articles

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  What's the Score? Measure Your Financial Strength

  By now, you have your year-end financials for 2021. Remember, it always comes with a Balance Sheet!
  
  Whether sales are up, down, or sideways, the financial strength – and staying power – of every business is shown on its Balance Sheet. And revealed by its Balance Sheet ratios.
   

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  The Irony: It's "Financial Literacy Month"

  On April 5, the National Retail Federation, “the world’s largest retail trade association,” felt compelled to explain “Five Things To Know About Tariffs.” 

  Among the first things they explain is who actually pays the tariff.

  What is a tariff? 

  • “Tariffs are a tax on goods imported into the United States and are paid for by the U.S. importer.”

  • “When tariffs are enacted, retailers are forced to choose between raising their prices or relying on already slim profit margins to absorb the increased cost of inventory.”

  • “Many small retailers are indirect importers and rely on other companies to import the products that they sell. These indirect importers [that is, small retailers] have even less ability to shift their supply chains to mitigate tariff costs.”

  This sums up pretty well the challenges retailers are living with. But...

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  Vital Formula for Every Retailer

  The #1 responsibility of every retailer is to manage and control the inventory. By doing that, you are managing margin, profit, cash flow...also known as success!
  
  Managing inventory demands a merger of art – the selection of merchandise – and science – the quantity of merchandise at any given time. 
  
  And here is a formula that makes the science part accessible for every retailer. All you need is a pencil to do this (remember those?) And it can and should be embraced by every retailer!

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  From Main Street "Survivors", Vital Lessons for Urban Downtowns

  The just-released "2021's Main Street Business Survivor Study" from the Pandenomics series conducted by the PYMNTS.com folks* focuses on the "Main Street Survivors:" those small to medium sized businesses "that have weathered the pandemic's fallout." 

  Vital lessons.
  
  What have these "survivors" done differently than the rest of SMB businesses? Here are the major findings of their study. We think that you'll see many of the survival steps you have taken, or be prompted to adopt some others. 

• Make It A Happy New Year

  There are many ways to succeed in retailing, many ways to assert your competitive edge, whether location, pricing, merchandise selection, knowledgeable staff, etc. 

  But there is only one way that retail businesses fail: they fail financially. So the key to success? Have a competitive edge, and take charge of the financial demands of the business. 

  Where Do I Start?

  As a retailer, navigating your financials can feel overwhelming. That’s why we’ve created a suite of online calculators designed specifically for independent retailers like you. No spreadsheets, no guesswork—just fast, clear insights for your next business decision.

  Here’s how and when to use five of our powerful tools:

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  Surely Your Stores Are Above Average, Right?

  How's Everybody Doing?

  
  The Retail Owners Institute® makes it easy for you to get a quick financial health assessment of your own stores, as well as the retail industry, and every vertical within it. 
  
  From farm stores to apparel stores, wine stores to tire dealers, gift shops to convenience stores; all 45 verticals.
  
  Here's how to get started.

  • Go to the Retail Benchmarks page of The ROI site.
  
  
  • Scroll down the page to see the links to all 45 retail verticals.
  
  
  • Choose the vertical that includes your stores; immediately go to that vertical's Benchmarks page. 
  
  
  • See the results for each of 6 key ratios for the past five years. To get a better look, just click each image to make it larger. 

  Quite a picture, isn't it? Which ratios are trending up? Down? Any suggest some shaky times ahead? Any surprises? But most importantly, how will yours compare?