Hey fastlaners, I need your advice.
As I've posted before, my wife & I own a brick and mortar retail store. We compete directly against Justice ("tween" girl clothes/gifts/accessories) but we are higher-end and classier.
We had our 3 year anniversary this summer and things have gone relatively well. Our lease is coming up for renewal next December and I've decided this coming year is make or break it.
Justice can be Justice because they manufacture most of their own goods (higher margins, allows them to constantly have 40% off sales) and cater to a lot of parents who don't have much money or care if their daughters look like ho's.
We cater to much wealthier clients and ones who are selective about what their daughters wear. In theory this is a great market. We get better margins than Justice and way more enjoyable customers, but there are so few of them in our town.
Unfortunately, it seems that our current market is just to small for us to hit the revenue numbers we need to be at - which is 50% more than we are at today (for the income etc we want). No matter how much better we get at all the small things - displaying things better, e-mailing customers, etc it's not going to fix our broken business model.
I feel like getting better at those things are just the bare minimums, but to really grow I can't help but think we have to make some serious structural changes.
Thoughts? Feedback? Commentary?
PS: If this would get much better feedback on the INSIDERS group, let me know - I'll consider joining.
*EDIT: I SHOULD PROBABLY MENTION WE WERE BURGLARIZED LAST NIGHT SO I MIGHT BE OVERLY FRUSTRATED, BUT THE BUSINESS MODEL PROBLEM HAS BEEN BREWING.
As I've posted before, my wife & I own a brick and mortar retail store. We compete directly against Justice ("tween" girl clothes/gifts/accessories) but we are higher-end and classier.
We had our 3 year anniversary this summer and things have gone relatively well. Our lease is coming up for renewal next December and I've decided this coming year is make or break it.
Justice can be Justice because they manufacture most of their own goods (higher margins, allows them to constantly have 40% off sales) and cater to a lot of parents who don't have much money or care if their daughters look like ho's.
We cater to much wealthier clients and ones who are selective about what their daughters wear. In theory this is a great market. We get better margins than Justice and way more enjoyable customers, but there are so few of them in our town.
Unfortunately, it seems that our current market is just to small for us to hit the revenue numbers we need to be at - which is 50% more than we are at today (for the income etc we want). No matter how much better we get at all the small things - displaying things better, e-mailing customers, etc it's not going to fix our broken business model.
I feel like getting better at those things are just the bare minimums, but to really grow I can't help but think we have to make some serious structural changes.
Thoughts? Feedback? Commentary?
PS: If this would get much better feedback on the INSIDERS group, let me know - I'll consider joining.
*EDIT: I SHOULD PROBABLY MENTION WE WERE BURGLARIZED LAST NIGHT SO I MIGHT BE OVERLY FRUSTRATED, BUT THE BUSINESS MODEL PROBLEM HAS BEEN BREWING.
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