SMALL BUSINESS CAN SUCCEED AGAINST LARGE

Small retail business can succeed against large chains. So state two small business proprietors who have come together to write a book on succeeding in starting or buying a retail business.

Geoffrey Heard is a marketing consultant who works mainly for small business and Gordon Woolf is now a book publisher but who has owned a variety of businesses and worked in retail since he was 15.

Their views, in a new book, "Success in Store", are endorsed by entrepreneur and adventurer Dick Smith, who made his initial fortune from starting with a single retail store. He comments that small retailers can achieve much by making customers feel special; they will then want to come back.

Dick Smith adds that when people have their own money on the line, they'll work harder to protect it and they also do something which very few large companies do: they talk to staff and customers "who will soon tell you what your strengths and weaknesses are".

Geoff Heard says that by taking some elementary steps, which they describe, small business can change the odds to being in their favour.

Small stores win on service and availability, and need to constantly push those factors, which some small store owners don’t do very well. Independents can also beat the big boys by cross promotion of other similarly minded businesses. Their book details a whole bunch of ways this can be done. And other advantages over the big boys are the speed with which decisions can be made, and that the customer deals with the people who make the decisions.

Gordon also says that small business owners should not forget that big businesses make even bigger mistakes. The boss of one of this country’s biggest retail chains, who grew up in retail never stops reminding others that most of the big chains are now run by people who have no experience of retail. As he says, there’s no way they’d know "just which pink is going to be next season’s fashion pink". 

That retailer, Gerry Harvey has been quoted as saying "People have traditionally said to their kids ‘don’t go and work in a shop, you’re going to be a doctor or a dentist or a lawyer...’." His response is: "you’re wrong, you should work in a shop because there is more opportunity there."

Independent retail businesses give the owners the opportunity to learn their craft, and one or two of those small stores may become the next chain, or provide a healthy income for their family.

And a final warning from Dick Smith in the book: A business doesn’t grow from borrowing money. It grows through obtaining the things people want to buy at a price which gives them good value, and give you a profit. Then you plough that profit back into new stock and promoting what you have. "Only when you are making a consistent profit can you think of getting that expensive car -- or helicopter!"

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Success in Store: How to Start or Buy a Retail Business, Enjoy Running It and Make Money 
-- by Geoffrey Heard and Gordon Woolf. Published by The Worsley Press.
CONTACTS:
 Geoffrey Heard -- (03) 9583 0788 / 0418 330 911   Email: marketyman@yahoo.com.au  Website: www.marketnow.com.au
 Gordon Woolf -- Tel: (03) 5979 1112    Email: gordon@worsleypress.com   Website: www.worsleypress.com
This release is available at www.worsleypress.com/media/sisrelease3.txt