Plenty of newsagents are changing their businesses, bringing new products – indeed, whole new categories, reconfiguring floor space, removing newsagency-like fixtures, hiring non newsagency experienced staff and promoting outside the business.
I get to see the scope of change in data newsagents share when they reach out for advice or submit data for the sales benchmark studies I undertake. This is encouraging to see, exciting in fact.
But I wonder if the change I am seeing is enough. The failure to change played a role in the closure of Taylor Square Newsagency last week as I wrote here yesterday.
Today I am thinking about newsagent who have changed their businesses. Take the newsagency that has grown overall non agency Gross Profit from 29% to 34%, reduced operating costs and positioned the business so it is making a reasonable profit. Is this enough? Has the newsagent done enough to secure their future?
I am asking because of a discussion I am having with the owner of the newsagency at the moment. They know I am writing about it here without sharing any identifying information.
The owner thinks they have made enough changes, that they can keep doing what we are doing. They think this because after years of break even trading, the 2014/15 financial year was nicely profitable and 2015/16 will be profitable with their steady as she goes approach.
I can understand this thinking as their position today is considerably better than last year and the years before.
While they have made good moves and are seeing good results, they need to reach for more. They need to have a higher goal of GP growth, they need to see more new faces coming into the business, they need to trade more outside what is traditional for a newsagency.
I want them to push harder because I think trading conditions will be harder, more challenging … economically, retail, competition wise operating cost pressure and the cost of finance. I think it is healthy to expect tougher conditions and to respond as early as possible before such conditions eventuate. And if they do not eventuate, you have a better business anyway.
If your newsagency business is doing okay, if your numbers are improving, if you are profitable, I urge you to not rest on laurels. I urge you to push harder, chase more growth, reach way outside your business in pursuit of new traffic as this is where your brightest future is.
The reason for doing this is simple: the more profitable your newsagency the more valuable the business will be to a purchaser when you come to sell it or the more use it will be in funding your own future lifestyle.
If you are going and are happy with your business, ask yourself: can you do better and if so, what’s the plan?
The plan needs to be broadly based, driving the appeal of the business across age groups, interests and genders. Unlike some expect, it will be a plan of many small steps rather than one big move. It will be local and personal. It will take you on a journey further away from the newsagency shingle.
Most important: the plan will not stop. A great result as being seen in the newsagency I am working with at the moment does not mean you can rest. Indeed, it ought to encourage you to push harder. That is the point of this post.
