It’s not my fault newspaper and magazine sales are falling. It’s not my fault I’m going to lose my business and my home.
The newsagent speaking to me recently was explaining why they were so close to losing their business.
Creditors are circling and they are looking for help. It looks like the request for help has come a year too late. Their own business data from 2012 and 2013 provided evidence of what could happen if they did not act and change their business. The data from 2014 is worse.
They did not act. Indeed, they continued to run their newsagency in a traditional way, offering the traditional range of products.
The result is their situation today, where creditors are circling and their business looks like going into receivership.
This business offers a traditional mix of cards, newspapers, magazines, stationery and lottery products. They have some gifts for Christmas and other seasons but no permanent gift department. They have some soft toys for baby gifts but they are not from a specialist soft toy supplier.
This business is not unique in any way. It’s biggest asset is its convenient location, an assets which have not been leveraged in any way.
I’m not a retailer I’m a newsagent – is what the newsagent said to me in response to me suggesting what they could have done over the last couple of years.
I feel for them as they look set to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars, more than the equity they have on their home.
We have many people in our channel who have been brought in through a system that did not choose and approve retailers. Rather the approval processes focussed on the self interest of a some suppliers selecting based on skills for their products and not for the overall business. Those processes over the last twenty or so years have left us with too many newsagents and not enough retailers.
If this is you, if you feel ill-equipped for being an engaged retailer in today’s market, I say: OWN YOUR SITUATION as that is the starting point for you to create your own success.
Own your situation ASAP. Look at your data, know what it shows you, project your future based on past performance and embrace every change necessary to make your business relevant and viable for your future.
Don’t wait until it is too late to act.
I’d be glad to help.
I don’t like writing a post like this but I feel I have to to get attention of newsagents to look at their numbers and act for themselves on signs of rough waters ahead.
Whilst this blog concentrates on newsagencies I suggest you take a look at other industries, say farming and manufacturing. What happens if they don’t change with the times to remain relevant?
Look up High St or the Shopping Centre and see the reasons why some businesses are not there.
I was fortunate to have a successful business and then moved on to working for a pro active owner in newsagencies.
A challenge to improve sales and the traditional newsagency GP.
This required change to the way the businesses were run , change of stock lines to enable increased GP etc.
Change is hard work, challenging but rewarding.
Stand still and watch the world go by.
Take up and meet the challenge.
James I have touched on other channels and businesses over the years. The challenges are the same. Be average and stand still and you have no future. The best approach is to change before you are forced to.
Many newsagents are running growing and healthy businesses.
Unfortunately in most cases it takes an impending disaster like the threat of losing your business for you to challenge yourself.
Retail is a different place today it is very easy to keep repeating what we have always done.
A lot of Newsagents who have built successful business in the past are finding they can no longer use the same strategies in today’s world.
We have been operating in survival mode for so long now due to the economic downturn that some are now unsure how to shift out of this survival stage back into a healthy growth mode.
Was in my favourite Newsagency, in Glenelg, was told that they will not stock ‘The Drovers’ book! Because, their supplier agreements forbid them from doing so.
Some people are generally unfit for business. It just happens. If they follow the contracts, then they deserve… something. I don’t know what. Maybe losing…
What do you expect from that sort of justification/mindset? They do not know, who really runs, their business. Or do they, really want to know?
That is SAD. Very damn sad.
John I wonder what agreement stops them.
John, I have a son who used to work at Service SA (former motor vehicles dept) and we used to get the Drivers Handbook (hundreds of them) and sell them but Service SA stopped supplying all newsagencies/retail and started selling them only at their Service SA outlets.
The newsagent at Glenelg can still get them from Service SA but only at the retail price – why would anyone do that??
It wasn’t his mindset – it was the mindset of the govt. in our state (SA) who has no
idea about small business.
John, I just got off the phone to Alice (her number is 0499559399). I had no trouble at all ordering 2 boxes direct from her. A lovely lady who was more than helpful.
Looking forward to stocking her book.
Cheers
Al
John/Al, I just realized that I read Drovers Book as Drivers Bk (silly me) I thought that John had made a spelling error and I
was fixing it for him?????????
I must be getting too old for all this.
However, I reiterate what I said above that we cannot get the Drivers Handbook for sale in our shops when we used to sell them all the time.
All governments in Australia let small business down. They mock us with their lip service at election time and too many small business owners fall for it.
John if the newsagent in Glenelg did have “The Drover” for sale would you have bought it from them? or was your enquiry just to see if they had it based on its promotion here. It makes a difference as every newsagent who is changing how they operate makes countless calls on what to stock and what not to stock based on their own custs and cuomers and past experience of what will sell. They may be saying lease rules prevent them from selling it when in fact they have just decided not to sell it. And it may just be the right decision for them. I’m not selling it because the Brinkworth cattle drive doesn’t have the same profile here in the west and I’ve struggled to sell other similar rural themed photo based coffee table books in numbers that make it worth pursuing.
I have no doubt its a great book that a lot of newsagents will do well out of but I’ve decided its not right for me. I dont think not stocking “The Drover” makes me “generally unfit for business”.
It does obviously however make me generally unfit to post a coherrent comment. I’m just glad theres an “s” and not an “n” in my cock-up on the 5th line.
What is “The Drover”?
I have changed my business considerably but in a small town peoples habits are hard to change. It doesn’t matter what I do inside my shop I have to get the customer to come through my door to experience it. How do I do that?
Steve, I damn well would’ve purchased that book.
I will mention more tomorrow, about how ‘stuck’ a newsagency owner, is believing, following a very ‘dry’ contract, stops them from, running their business.
This is why I think newsagents need to think carefully about agency business they take on. Less agency business = more freedom. Good retailers will flourish with more freedom.
This is also why associations are challenged. They must serve all including non retailer retail newsagents who do not understand the changes occurring as well as the forward thinkers who are embracing and loving change.
Here in SA we can get it Driver’s Handbook through Toll ph 131 531
Resisting change is like holding your breath – if you succeed, you die
Basically, I was informed that, ALL of their magazine supplier contracts forbade newsagents selling items directly from other suppliers, this included the publisher of The Drover.
Tried to make the owner see the senseless “I’ll obey the contract at any cost” thinking was not productive.
Again, they won’t experiment with books, or anything else. The newsagent can do this due to local loyal clientele/position.
Mark, I actually sent you an email a very long time ago, trying get the newsagent to use the module in your POS software that sends out sms for putaways. I got chided by the owner for it, so I demanded no more phonecalls. Since I’m on such good terms with the owner/staff, I’m allowed to go to the putaway cabinet and check if my mags are in, although I never have, it doesn’t feel right.
June, that made me laugh… you just reminded me to update my Heavy Vehicle log book to the new one, just in case, not a driver but work in IT.
Carol, was from a ‘once’ country town myself, so know the mindset. I’ve had no retail/counter experience but a budding interest in shop fitting. My take on attracting customers into a store is just, make sure the store is well lit.
It seems Westfield have cottoned onto this but, they use Mercury Vapour lighting which is expensive. I’d be going for LED lighting since it really does make items on a shelf jump out at you, the MV although bright can still make items seem as if in a shadow.
Country people like flashy/bright stuff in stores, that’s why they go to the ‘big smoke’ and purchase their TV’s/whitegoods etc. It’s my theory, and I’m sticking to it!