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.
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?
First, some reminders:
Don't stop here. See how your stores measure up! (It's free, too!)
Now that you have your financial statements for 2022 in hand, it's time to use them for something other than filing tax returns!
Use the free Key Ratios Calculator on The ROI site to calculate your own ratios for your business.
Quickly find out for yourself: is our operation above average? That is, how do we compare to the Benchmarks for our retail vertical?
Just like the lab tests that your doctor requests for an annual checkup, your P&L and Balance Sheet contain the "vital signs" of your segment, or vertical.
It's that time of year. As you review your Profit & Loss statement for 2022, your thoughts most likely are turning to "How do we make 2023 a better year than that?" As we look around, we see a popular cost-saving and productivity-boosting tactic being instituted by many national retailers, shopping malls, and restaurants. They are open fewer hours. This offers an opportunity for you to revisit your store hours and employee scheduling practices. Maybe it's time to consider some changes, if you haven't already. Start with the mass of data resting comfortably in your POS system. Look for all the reports by the day of the week. (Be prepared; this may require you to gather information from several reports.)
What you are looking for is data such as this by the day of the week:
Let's assume your stores have been closed for weeks now.
We recognize how conscientious you are. So, after paying what you can to your employees (and yourself), the next most-worrisome dilemma is your rent.
As you likely have discovered, a common choice for many landlords is to offer to defer your payments. But that means taking on more debt, as those payments are only being postponed to a later point in time. You need a better solution than that.
There's a very important annual job for you, the owner, and all of your senior staff. It's vital, and it involves your presence. The pressures are mounting on your stores, and in particular, your front line staff.
As your stores are able to re-open after the coronavirus shutdowns, how they look tells a powerful story. And for you, a great opportunity. This is no time to try to go back to normal, back to business-as-usual. Nor to simply have all kinds of protective shields in your store. While necessary, how welcoming is that? Instead, this actually IS a second chance to make a good first impression! Take full advantage!
This is, after all, The Retail OWNERS Institute. We long have specialized in alerting, coaxing, and applauding retail owners worldwide. Today's message is a major heads-up. Keeping pace with the relentless changes in retailing has never been easy. Retailers know that constant adjustments are demanded. Then, the three pandemics of 2020 happened: COVID; the economic meltdown; the social unrest. And life changed modestly or enormously for almost everyone, including owners of retail businesses.
What is the definition of "value" for customers? Pretty straightforward, actually.
Wait. What? "Benefits received?" "Burdens endured?" Turns out, the only single answer to "What is value?" is, "It depends." Don't just roll your eyes. What constitutes value for your customers increasingly is a make-or-break part of retailing.
Incredible value! 👀
Start NOW!