When was the last time you have someone not connected with your business look at your roster?  It’s a good experience, getting a second opinion.

Anyone with retail experience will look at revenue per hour, return per employee.

While many of us are close with employees, the business itself must come first, especially if money is tight and net profit low or non-existent.

Almost every newsagency I am asked to review has spare capacity in their roster. Even saving one hour a week could be worth between $80 and $150 in sales depending on the cost of the hour of paid labour saved.

Ask a friend with business experience or a fellow newsagent. Their free advice could drop some welcome cash to your bottom line.

There were plenty of upbeat newsagents and newsagent suppliers on the floor of the GNS Market Fair in Melbourne yesterday.

While this is a trade show for suppliers offering products through GNS first and foremost, there was an excellent mix of other suppliers there adding value to those visiting.

There was some discussion about the T2020 changes but most newsagents I spoke with were focused on retail opportunities for their businesses. This opened some excellent business planning and development discussions.

Alex Stewart, the CEO of GNS, presented an open and accessible face for the business … talking about excellent business opportunities for newsagents.

The Bendigo Advertiser is reporting the closure of a newsagency in the centre of the city. The photo published with the report shows a letter posted in the shop window casting some blame at suppliers to the business for the business closing.

They say the business was not given a fair go by some suppliers because of what happened with the previous owners.  The previous owners went broke.

I’d be interested in knowing if this is the case, if suppliers treated the business unreasonably because the previous owners went broke.

I have heard about this happening in our channel and wondered if it was an urban myth. If suppliers do treat a new newsagent poorly because of the actions of a previous owner of the business then they should be dealt with through the appropriate channels.

It was always a long shot and at least we got to express interest.

Our pursuit of a position with the future of Darrell Lea will not go anywhere. That said, our expression of interest has raised the profile of our channel and made it clear we are looking for products we can bring to our communities around Australia.  This could still play out for us with Darrell Lea in some way.

What is interesting is the newsagents who were prepared to put their hand up and nominate an amount they would invest. In a couple of days I received pledges totalling more than I expected, an indication that we could raise funds for some other appropriate corporate play.

We need to be thinking like this, chasing products we can have for ourselves, creating, through ownership, monopoly situations that cannot be challenged in the courts.  If we look around at retail success stories today they are built on factory to shop floor control: Smiggle, kikki.k, Apple.  We need to be thinking along these lines – no, not the size, by the model – controlling a respected and in-demand brand for our own benefit and the benefit of the shoppers we serve.

I am disappointed the newsagent associations did not see the bigger picture opportunity of Darrell Lea and actively promote it to their constituencies.