nursery matters JOHN BARKER
Barking Mad Pramland’s John Barker is taking a look how nursery retailers can survive these strange times and why a focus on margins and successes might be key.
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nother month has ticked by and another month can be marked up as “odd”. I’ve spoken to a fair few of you and it would appear that we are all facing these strange times. I thought this month I’d forget all about this and look at something that is now more important than ever, margins and how focusing on your successes is the key to trading during these difficult times. When the shop is quiet it’s far too easy to wallow in a pit of depression, instead what you should be doing is looking for the positives. Don’t ask yourself “what am I doing wrong”, ask “what am I doing right” and “how can I implement that success in other areas
of my business so that I can turn that into a win”. Instead of wandering around your shopfloor like a bear with a sore head when the phone hasn’t rung for an hour, or you can’t remember the last time a car pulled into your car park why not take a seat, have a cup of coffee and get a pen and paper out and get scribbling. Look at how you’ve done this week and month. Don’t isolate days, that will only depress you more. Compare the past few weeks and months so you know if your trading trends are stable, increasing or (hopefully not) decreasing. You’ll be amazed at the moment – I was when I looked at the details – the quiet days are the ones we seem to focus on when in reality
Another good deta il to look at is if you are pro fita ble. After all, if you kno w you’re pro fitin g you can rest assu re tha t I bus ines s is a little qui eter it’s not goin g to have as hug e an imp act on the bus ines ses cash flow. 28
nursery today
john@pramland.co.uk
Image source: pexels.com the end of the end means they were just blips. We’ve seen some truly terrible days over the past few months, but this hasn’t resulted in a decline in turnover at all. Another good detail to look at is if you are profitable. After all, if you know you’re profiting you can rest assure that I business is a little quieter it’s not going to have as huge an impact on the businesses cashflow. Firstly, work out your operating costs. Write down anything you pay out each month / week – rent, rates, utilities, insurances,
wages, accountancy fees – everything. Once you’ve done this break that down into a period of time you’re happy to operate with weekly, monthly or quarterly - it’s your choice. Personally, I like to operate on a weekly basis as that matches how I manage my cashflow. Once you know how much it costs you to simply open your doors during this period it’s time to figure out what you need take each week in order to stand still. This means it’s margins time! As we all know margins in the
