Optimizing Your Retail Operations for Success with Susan Negen
Crystal Vilkaitis: Get ready for another amazing episode of Rooted in Retail. Today, my guest is Susan Negen, co-founder of Whizbang Training and a dear friend. And man, we talk about operations. If you want to save time, have less stress, and have your employees be happier, then this is an episode for you.
Trust me, one thing that you take away from this episode could save you a lot of time, a lot of hassle. Could give you more free time on however you want to spend that. I love this conversation and operations are so critical to running a successful store. And so, Susan breaks down, she's got specific things that you can implement, like frameworks that you can implement, that she talks about today.
Then we will also talk about their brand new platform: Brilliance. I can't wait for you to learn more about this. I think this is a game changer for your store and to our industry. So that we covered all in this episode, you'll learn all about it. Be excited for that. And then we also close out with what do retailers need to know today.
Where do they need to be focusing? And what's coming that they really need to be paying attention to and embracing? And I couldn't agree more with what Susan shares. Plus, we have awesome answers for the resilience round. So, let's dive in. Actually, if you want to learn more about WhizBang! Training, go to whizbangtraining.com. They've got a lot of great resources for retailers. You can sign up for their weekly newsletter and let's dive into today's episode.
Welcome to Rooted in Retail. I'm your host, Crystal Vilkaitis. Here we have engaging and informative conversations with successful indie retailers and industry experts. Together, we learn, connect, and grow. Don't miss our live after the show every Tuesday night in the Rooted in Retail Facebook group. All right, here's today's episode.
Susan, welcome to Rooted in Retail. I'm thrilled you're here.
Susan Negen: I am so excited to be with you today, Crystal.
Crystal Vilkaitis: Yeah I know, yay. You are super rooted in retail, so we're going to talk about some operations today and educational aspects to a retail store and some of the things that are happening now and coming. Like we've got a lot to talk about, but before we do, will you take a couple of minutes and for those listeners who maybe aren't familiar with you, will you tell them about your retail journey?
Susan Negen: Absolutely. Well, if you want to talk about rooted in retail, I started in retail selling on a retail floor at a little women's boutique when I was in high school. That was way back in the day, when the blouses had the big puffy bows on them, and professional attire for all women was like skirts and blazers.
That's when I started, a long time ago. And then just have always loved retail. And out of college, I started working for huge department stores, big giants like Bloomingdale's and Macy's, Lord & Taylor, and was an executive for a big department store and retailing for a long time.
Then decided I was going to get out of retail. I was done. I was burned out and I was tired. I decided I was going to move to Michigan where my family was living. And who did I meet? Lo and behold, literally the first week that I went to Michigan, this cute guy in the bar, and I was really interested in him.
And of course, he owned a retail store. So that's my husband, Bob. And I started working with him and his brother in their store. So together we owned and ran this independent retail store called the Mackinaw Kite Company. He owned that business for 20 years. And then he and I together started WhizBang! Retail Training.
And we've been working with independent retailers, helping them build better businesses, create more fulfilling, exciting businesses for themselves, for their employees for 20 years. Over 20 years now. So my whole life has been rooted in retail, really.
Crystal Vilkaitis: It really has.
Susan Negen: It’s been a lot of fun.
Crystal Vilkaitis: Yes, so this is the perfect platform for you to be here. And my audience is going to learn so much from you. I love that you went so big, down to our indies, and you and Bob are making such a difference to our independent retailers. I thank you guys so much for how you show up for them.
Crystal Vilkaitis: And I want to dive in, because I know a big thing that you helped Bob do with his retail store is get it tight with operations. And then this is what you guys do for your retailers as well. And so many of our retailers want less stress, more time. And so, what strategies or tools would you recommend?
For retailers to save time, reduce stress. And can you share an example of when these have been particularly effective?
Susan Negen: Absolutely, absolutely. This is exactly what Bob and I did when we were at the Mackinaw Kite Company with his business. The business was growing. We were adding stores. We had a whole set of satellites, those little kiosks in the malls. Like we had 15 or 20 of those little kiosks, satellites in the mall, selling yo-yos. And the business was growing and expanding, and we had to develop systems and procedures in order to run the business.
So that we didn't go insane. And most importantly, so that our customers got the great experience in every one of our stores, every time they interacted with our company. Even if Bob wasn't there, I wasn't there. Maybe people we never knew or hadn't even met before were there interacting with our customers. So what we had to do was really learn how to build these systems to run our business effectively.
And so that's kind of what we've been doing for the last 20 years or more, is helping our indie retailers understand what these different skill sets are in your business, these different systems that you have to develop and put in place and help them understand what they are. Give them the templates, the systems, the processes. So that you can run a better business without being insane, without driving yourself crazy.
Cause if you try to do this scattershot, if you try to just whip it up off the top of your head, it's going to make you nuts. And I know that a lot of retailers can definitely relate to that.
Crystal Vilkaitis: Oh, for sure.
Susan Negen: As a matter of fact, even our flagship product that we have developed is called the Retail Mastery System.
Like it really is, and inside that big system, there are all these little systems. They all work together to help you run your business. I will give you a couple of little teeny systems and then maybe some bigger ones that people can think about. So, one little, teeny system that we put in place at the Mackinaw Kite Company and have been teaching is the opening and closing checklist. That is a little teeny system for you and your team, how do you come in?
How do you set the store for the day? How do you get ready and prepared to greet your customers? And then at the end of the day, how do you wrap it up? How do you reset? How do you get your store ready to go operationally for the next day? So, there's this, it's a little teeny system. It can be easy.
It can be complicated, but it's a little system. That really starts to minimize stress. If everybody's following this system, stuff doesn't happen like the trash cans are overflowing. Or there's no change in the register or the people from the night shift didn't tell the day shift people what happened and there was a customer issue.
All these little things that happen, you can set this system in place that really helps you run your store with less stress and better service for your customers. So that's one tiny little system. It's a really little one. And then there are big systems that we like to think about, like an open to buy planning system.
What's the system that you use for thinking about how much merchandise you bring in? When do you bring it in? When do you mark it down? Instead of just making these decisions one by one. If you can put it into a systematic, more strategic approach, it's so much easier.
It's easier for you, and it brings you more profit, it brings you more sales, all these different things. So that's a bigger kind of system. But those are two examples of all the different kinds of systems that you can bring into your business that really can help.
Crystal Vilkaitis: Well, and that's the thing. I think that we hear from our retailers all the time. They need to save that time. They're like the busiest business owners I've ever met. And systems are not sexy. They're not fun, they take work to set up. And I know that often, because I've been there. I'm a small business myself.
Like it takes time to set up the system, but it will save you time in the long run. And to your point about the experience, we're going to get to the resilience round. And the last question I ask is about: what does the future of independent retail look like? And so many of my guests mentioned experience.
And so one of those ways that you can ensure that it's a good quality, consistent experience is that you have to have these systems. And I want to call out, we did an episode with Two Boston's AdreAnne, who I know you know well, she did a shout out to WhizBang! Training. Cause she follows the Retail Mastery System to a T. She has seven store locations, and she's able to have these consistent experiences.
Seven different locations because she has systems. So we'll link to that episode, but it's so critical. They've got to take the time to build these systems. Even if it's that the open to close. If anybody listening to this right now does not have that, that's your action item. That's your first step.
Susan Negen: Number one.
Crystal Vilkaitis: Yes, create that.
Susan Negen: And you know, Crystal, it's funny because we even have a system for if they don't have enough time to build their systems.
Crystal Vilkaitis: Ooh. Oh, that’s smart.
Susan Negen: We really do, and we call it The Retailer's Time System. We are big into systems and processes. And the reason that it's so important to us and it should be so important to the indie retailers is that this is how you can have that business of your dreams. That's profitable, that's fun, that's easy to run, that doesn't take over your life. And you just have to build these things. I'm going to just say the Retailer's Time System quickly.
It is in the Retail Mastery System. We call it the Four F’s: Floor Time, Focus Time, Flex Time, and Free Time. The idea is that you need to understand and block and manage these four kinds of time that all of us have. Floor time, obviously that is when you are on the floor specifically to work with customers and coach your staff.
Floor time. You are working with customers or coaching your staff. You're not taking calls from vendors. You're not trying to post on social media while you're on the floor. You're not trying to get that purchase order in between customers. No, no. That kind of time is the other kind of time called flex time.
And that's your multitasking time. Those are the times when you're doing your administrative kinds of work, flex time. Floor time is when you're working with your customers, working with your staff, coaching them. Flex time, all this administrative stuff, all these little important things that need to get done in every business, but they're not the things that leap your business forward.
Let's put it that way. Focus time. This is the big one. This is where you actually get to work on all of your other systems. Focus time is when you don't flex. You're not multitasking, you are not on the floor, you're not answering questions from your team, you're not interacting with your customers.
You are focused on some important business building activity in your business. Maybe it's building your marketing plan. Maybe it's building your staff training program. Maybe it's working and running your open to buy plan. Maybe it's building your assortment plan for the year. Whatever it is, whatever your big projects are, whatever those big important chunks of work that are the things, those systems that move your business forward, that's what you do in focus time.
And if you organize your floor time, your flex time and your focus time, what you get in the end is free time. And that is when you have time off completely away from your business. We talk about a free day as being 24 hours where you don't think about your business. You don't check your sales, you don't log into your business email, you're not checking your social media. And I know you guys are all out there freaking out right now like, I can never do that! You can! You can if you have the systems.
Crystal Vilkaitis: Exactly.
Susan Negen: This is what we've seen over and over with all our best clients that we work with, is once they start to put even just a few of these systems in place, suddenly they have time for themselves. They've got time for their families; they've got time to go on vacation.
Crystal Vilkaitis: Yes. Oh, and I've heard from your case studies, like Maureen, who now goes to Italy for a month or more every year with her family. A very successful retailer, and she's got this time off. Now I would really love to know, our listeners, if you want to share this with us, we would love to know. Otherwise, you need to be thinking about this.
What time allocation are you giving to those four Fs and is there an opportunity for you to be more balanced? Susan, are you supposed to have do you try to have an even pie chart here where everything has 25 percent, or it really depends? Okay, walk us through that.
Susan Negen: The pie chart is a great analogy, so I'll just run with that. If you think about the pie chart, most people right now, probably if you're thinking about your time allocation, a massive chunk of the pie is flex time. Massive, maybe the whole pie. I don't know, could be the whole pie. But what you want to try to do is determine how much floor time you want to be on the floor.
Is it three days a week? Is it three days a month? Depending on your business, depending on the size of your business, what kind of business you have, what your personal goals are. That floor time, you should try to set that floor time first. And that's kind of sacrosanct: this is when I'm on the floor, this is when I'm working with my customers, this is when I'm working with my team.
Then from there, what you want to try to do is take that flex time and you want to minimize the flex time as much as you possibly can. And you want to start chunking in and scheduling. This is the key thing about focus time. You want to start scheduling chunks, more and more chunks of focus time because the more you can work in focus time, And the less you can work in flex time, that multitasking time, the more you're going to get done and the more important and effective things you're going to get done in your company.
So, the trick is if you have to spend all of your time on the floor selling, working with customers, working with your team, it is tough then to get that focus time. Which is why it all turns into flex time. You're trying to do everything all at once, all at the same time. Part of it is building your sales to the point where you can hire a team, get staff members on the floor to give you that time away from the floor to build your business.
Crystal Vilkaitis: Awesome. I love that we broke that down because we have to have the right time allocation to the right things in order to have our sanity and to have the business you want. If you want that time off a month in Italy, then you need to really be restructuring your time and how it's being allocated.
And I bet some retailers laughed at the free time like, "Ha, that's hilarious," But if you laughed or you felt tightness when you heard that, "I don't have that free time," pay attention to that now. Do the work, sit down, look at your tasks. What can your team help you with? Schedule in that time to focus.
Because that's going to help you build your business and create those systems so you can have free time. I think it's so important.
Susan Negen: Yeah, I think just start here. If you aren't chunking your focus time right now, just start here. Take between two and four hours a week and put it on your calendar. Maybe it's Monday afternoon, maybe it's Friday morning, two to four hours a week, every week. And take that time and maybe don't try to do your focus work in your office, because you know what's going to happen is, "Hey boss, I got a question."
"Hey, your favorite customer's here." They're gonna be knocking on the door. So maybe you go to a coffee shop. Maybe you work from home. What we sometimes have done at WhizBang! Training is we close our door and we put a little sticky note on it. We have a cottage up in Canada and when we go away to the cottage, we're like in Canada, we're on an island.
Nobody can reach us. There's no telephone or anything like that. So, we put a little sticky note that says, "I'm in Canada," which means, "I'm gone. You read me. Figure it out on your own." If you do that, think about that. If you did that for two to four hours a week and you spent time working on your training program, building out your marketing plan, fine tuning your assortment plan, creating partnerships with your vendors.
If you did that for 50 weeks a year, I guarantee you, you would have a transformed business in a year. For sure. Two to four hours a week. Just start there. Then, of course, you can increase that and decrease your flex time. Awesome.
Crystal Vilkaitis: I love it, I love it. And this is a perfect transition into talking about education because I'm such a believer of the more you learn, the more you earn. And would you consider the focus time, is that also education? If you are learning, you're going through a course, you're going to a conference. Is that under that bucket?
Susan Negen: Absolutely. That is focus time because we, like you say, the more you learn, the more you earn. You have to have good input. You have to always have great input in order to give great output. You need to learn and grow and think. You do, your managers do, your employees do.
It's this skill building and this education that we get that allows us to get better and better and better, right? That's how you learn what the systems are. It's how you learn how to execute these systems in your businesses. So absolutely, education is so, so important.
And I did mention education for you, education for your managers, education team. If all you have on your floor are nice, kind, friendly, helpful people, that'll take you some way in the retail business. But what you need are retail superstars. You need people who know exactly what to do, exactly the way you want them to do it, who have all the information they need to be really super successful.
Just like you need to have all the information that you need to be successful in your role as business owner or store manager. Everybody needs that time.
Crystal Vilkaitis: They need it. And it's going to make such an impact on you, your team, your bottom line. I'm just such a believer. I know that you guys are, you have a lot of educational training resources. We do too. And this is where I want to talk about Brilliance. Something that I think is so brilliant. I'm going to let you do the talking on this.
But we're talking about operations here and we're talking about education. And if only there was a platform that could allow for these things to coexist and be easy on the retailers. Susan, do you know of any kind of platform like that?
Susan Negen: Gosh, Crystal. Yes, I do. We are just in the final phases of finishing our Brilliance retail training platform and we are so excited. And this kind of came as an epiphany to me when I was doing some education. When I was taking a training course about two years ago, and I was listening to this guy talk about different kinds of businesses and how businesses can be built, and I just had this epiphany that this is what we needed to do.
Think of it as a marketplace, like a place where independent retailers can come get all kinds of training for their employees. Any kind of training all in one place and create their own company training program. Their own company training platform. So, for example, if you wanted your marketing team or your social media team to get great training on social media.
You might take a course from Crystal Vilkaitis, the Queen, right? Or you might create your own course for your employees’ onboarding courses, like where do I park? How do I get time off? How do you run the POS system? What's your return policy at this store? All this kind of training that you need to do for your own store, you can create that.
And we're also going to be adding lots of product training. So, brands and vendors and manufacturers are going to be putting product training on there that you can assign your employees. To get that information that's relevant to your industry, to your store, to your business. All of the training is going to be living all in this one place where it's easy for you to find, assign to your team, check to see if they've done the work, if they've understood the work.
And track and manage all of that learning that you know that you should do, but you don't have time to create it yourself. Right now, it's so fractured for everybody, I think. Maybe they want to learn something from one vendor and they have to go over here, and they want to learn something else and they have to go over there.
So we're trying to bring everything together in this one place so that it's super easy for the retailers to give all their employees all the trading they need in one place.
Crystal Vilkaitis: Yeah. It's. It really is brilliant. I love the name of it. And for our listeners it's everything, like Susan was saying, on one platform. You have one login and password that you have for your internal and external training. And take the time to set that up because then you will have less stress and more time.
Susan mentioned a key word here too: track. You can track your team on what they've gone through. You can assign them to go through training, so there's accountability. I love that you guys baked that into this platform. I feel like you don't see that in a lot of other platforms that are out there. And you can tell people watch this video, but you don't always know.
Susan Negen: Maybe they did, and maybe they didn't, and you'll never know.
Crystal Vilkaitis: And you can even do quizzes so you can make sure they're retaining the information. And so that's so smart on all levels, of your policies and how you do things, and your culture, and how you answer sales questions and work with customers. And all the product training, like all that in one. And then your external training where vendors like me and amazing people we've had on the show.
And I'm sure, you guys, WhizBang's going to have a bunch of training in there, like all you can access it all in this one platform. I'm very excited for this to be live and I feel like this is a game changer for our industry. And I'm just grateful for you guys leading this charge and building this, because it's going to help the retailer be more successful.
It's going to make it easier on them. And so, thank you guys for doing this. It's pretty awesome.
Susan Negen: We're super excited. Again, this is just another system. It's a plug and play system that people can put in their stores. Part of the reason that we were trying to learn more about this and how I got the idea was, it's always been so frustrating for us that we know, and our retailers know, that giving great training and developing an awesome training program for your team is so important.
Honestly, it's one of the things that you can do as an owner that's going to give you back your time. Because otherwise, you are the only repository of knowledge. You have every answer. You have to solve every problem. You have to do the training over and over again.
So, it was so frustrating. We knew that this was so important, and yet it was the thing that just kept getting, pushed to the back burner for our retailers. And so we're like, "Well, we're going to figure this out and make it happen for you." So that's where we came up with this idea and we're stoked.
Crystal Vilkaitis: Yeah, you did it. People are going to love it, congrats. I know that's a big job and you've been working on this for a while. I've had the inside scoop on it and I'm really glad that we're able to talk publicly about it now. And I can't wait. We'll link to it in the show notes, of course, but Susan, how can people go learn more about Brilliance?
Susan Negen: Yeah, you can go to retailbrilliance.com and learn more about it and create your free account. Actually, you can create an account for free on there. Browse around, see what's there. You can add your employees for free. And until you start accessing the information and materials, everything you want to do on there is all for free.
And there will be free courses available on Brilliance, I'm sure as well. All kinds of different ways people can get great training for their staff.
Crystal Vilkaitis: I love it. We're going to have a free course, so go there, check it out. Now, Susan, you do so much at WhizBang! Training and one of those things is your platinum mastermind group. And we've worked with some of those clients, some of those retailers too. And there's some of the most savvy, successful retailers that we've worked with.
Crystal Vilkaitis: So I love when guests can share like an insider secret or you pull back the curtain on something. So could you give us an insider's view and share a specific strategy that has been highly effective for maybe one of your platinum mastermind group members?
Susan Negen: Okay well, I'll just share a little Brilliance one that just happened if that's okay. I can share some others too, but we just had our platinum mastermind group meeting a couple months ago and we always do this part of our meetings called What's Working Now? And we've turned it into a little competition actually.
We get to vote, at the end, on who's got the very best What's Working Now. And I was excited that at our last meeting, 4 of our 25 members brought Brilliance. They're training on Brilliance as they're What's Working Now, but specifically one that I want to talk about is Angela Scogin and she put some vendor training from one of her very high end products.
Ankarsrum is the name of the brand. It's a countertop mixer, kind of like a KitchenAid mixer, but way fancier and it costs almost a thousand dollars. Okay, like a mixer for $1,000 or $800. So somewhere between $800 and $1000. She put this three little product training series course up on Brilliance, on her own custom course.
She had her entire team go through it right before they had their weekend anchorship promotion event and they sold six in two days.
Crystal Vilkaitis: Dang.
Susan Negen: It's systems like this, product training, training for your team, education, being systematic about your learning. Huge results in her sales in just two days, right?
And of course that carries through, right? Now they have that training and they can continue to go back to that training, get refreshers whenever they want. So that's just one little example. We also love working with Management One, like you, they're one of our favorite partners.
And one of our fave clients, Ryan Raffuse from Anchorage House of Hobbies, up in Alaska, has started to do some work around building his open to buy system with some help from Management One and the massive change he's seen in the amount of outdated merchandise. The far fewer number of SKUs that he has to carry.
The less total volume has really helped improve not only his sales, but profit levels. So that's a great system that's been working for people. There's just so many that I can't even begin to count.
Crystal Vilkaitis: Oh, sure. When I hear all these stories too, because sometimes we work with the client, or I hear him at the Retail Success Summit. You guys are producing such cool results, but thank you for sharing two of those, because it's fun for us to hear that behind-the-scenes sort of, and what other people are seeing work.
Crystal Vilkaitis: Now I want to talk about, before we go into our resilience round, what you're seeing that we need to focus on today. And then we'll look ahead to the future as well. So for today, from your extensive retail experience, what major industry changes should retailers adapt to today?
Susan Negen: Well, I think that one of the things that we've been talking about over the last couple of years that is still really true is that if we're focusing in on this whole idea of WWMCW, it's what we teach, "What would my customer want?" Really understanding that your customer wants to interact with you and your brand and your store in many, many different places.
And we have to keep responding to that. And is it work? Absolutely, but they want to shop with you on social. They want to shop with you on your website. They want an amazing experience when they shop in your store. They want to participate in your events outside of your store.
Maybe it's something with a nonprofit, but we really have to understand that we can't wait for them to come and play our way, the way we like it. We have to go out and give them this omni experiential experience with our brand. We have to go out and meet them where they are. And it's nothing new, but it's continuing to strengthen, really since the pandemic. And it's becoming more and more important today. We're seeing it more and more; I think every day.
Crystal Vilkaitis: Oh, for sure. I think it's only going to increase. We want that convenience. We want the engagement. What we've been seeing recently with TikTok shops over the past six months, that's been crazy. And that's another channel now and so I think you're right. You have to embrace it.
And I will say, watching retailers embrace it and make it through on the other side. It isn't that scary. Like it feels like it's scary or feels like, "I could never do that." But so many times retailers have just done it anyways. They've done it afraid. They learn the easiest way to learn as you dive in, you start using it, and then you start seeing those results.
And then so many times we've had people cry like, "I could have never imagined this level of success or these results," because they didn't think they could do it. I love that you're encouraging them. Embrace it.
Susan Negen: You have to embrace it. And again, that's where that little two to four hours of focus time a week, it makes all the difference. That's where you get the time, the mental focus to take these new steps, even if you're afraid. Right? That's when you can make progress on these new things.
So, don't forget that little focus time tip that we talked about.
Crystal Vilkaitis: Exactly. I'm glad that you made that reminder because a lot of people say, "I don't have time for social." "I don't have time to launch my email," or get my email out. And it's like, how much focus time do you have? And there's a good chance you're not scheduling that in and committing to it, so it's a great reminder.
Susan Negen: It's probably because they're putting out fires on the sales floor. And if you don't have a great team in place, with all of the knowledge that they need, that's really why we built this. The Retail Mastery System too. It's like you can't take one of these pieces out without it impacting and affecting the others.
So, if you can really start building some of these foundational pieces, then it gives you the space to grow and do some of these more fun and interesting things in your business.
Crystal Vilkaitis: Exactly, so good. They all work together. You got to look at the whole picture here. Now, looking ahead, what future trends in retail should independent retailers prepare for to stay competitive?
Susan Negen: Gosh, it is such a great question. I think we're going to have to continue to look at AI. I know that just this last year has really been a lot about this large language modeling with ChatGPT and all that stuff. But I think that AI is so much bigger than that. And I think we have to keep watching and listening way out into the forefront, like maybe as independent retailers, we don't adopt as early as some of the people do.
Although the way trends are moving and tech is moving, it's democratizing all of this. Like the big boys don't have as much of an advantage as they used to in this area. But I think we have to be looking way out into the future at. What could this do for us? How will this impact us?
I feel like, with AI, we're about where we were in like 1988 with the internet. And the World Wide Web was just a barely a thing and look what it is today. So I feel like that's the thing that we're going to have to keep watching and learning and keeping an open mind about trying little things.
Not just with these large language modeling like ChatGPT, but what is the bigger expansion that's going to be happening in business in general? And in retail in particular?
Crystal Vilkaitis: Exactly, I could not agree with you more. We are talking so much more about AI as well. We're using it more. I use it every single morning. I joked to my team, like it's my new best friend. You just have to, again, that word embrace, you have to embrace it. You will be left behind. And I just couldn't agree more.
Crystal Vilkaitis: Susan, are you ready for the resilience round?
Susan Negen: Let's hear it.
Crystal Vilkaitis: Let's do it. Best business book?
Susan Negen: Alright so, wow. It's so hard because I love so many of them. I love Influence by Cialdini, I think that's great. I love Give and Take by Adam Grant. I love that one. But I'm going to say that my go-to right now, and I think it's such an important book for entrepreneurs and retailers, in general, is The Gap and the Gain by Dr. Ben Hardy and Dan Sullivan.
Like seriously, you should read this book. It's a little book. You will feel so great when you're done reading this book and you'll feel so empowered when you're done reading this book. Have you read it?
Crystal Vilkaitis: I have. And as you're saying this, I'm like, "I need to read this again." I have it. It's such a fast read, it was such a good read.
Susan Negen: Such a good read. Yes, such a great read. So, The Gap and the Gain.
Crystal Vilkaitis: Awesome. Best retail technology, like an app or software.
Susan Negen: Brilliance, of course.
Crystal Vilkaitis: Uh huh, I was hoping you'd say that.
Susan Negen: Brilliance for training you and all your whole entire team, it's going to be the app for sure.
Crystal Vilkaitis: Love it. How do you keep up with the ever-changing retail landscape?
Susan Negen: I just try to do a lot of reading. So, everything from retail-specific reading, but also like really big picture. Like The Economist magazine or Scientific American. And I know it sounds weird, but you know, it's all those changes out there in the world that start affecting us day to day.
Crystal Vilkaitis: Smart, I think it's really smart. To help retailers be stronger, more rooted in success, what's an operational foundational best practice?
Susan Negen: Okay, I'm going to give three because I think these are the three pain points that retailers have most. Number one, I think you need to develop a complete annual marketing plan and it just takes all the stress away when you have a plan for what you're going to do to bring traffic in your door.
That's what marketing is. It brings traffic in the door. So, when you get traffic, that's a big chunk. The second one is to think about putting an open to buy system into place. I'm a huge fan. An open to buy plan is what's going to help put money in the bank account.
It really helps with your cash flow, helps with your overall profitability, helps with developing sales. So that's the second one. And a staff training program, like your team is such a critical component of your success. You can use Brilliance. I don't care if you use Brilliance, use something else.
I don't care, but you have to develop a training system for your team so that they know what they're supposed to do, how they're supposed to do it. They have all of the confidence and competence and enthusiasm that they need, and your customers need, when they're on your sales floor. Because otherwise everything rests on you.
And if everything always rests on you, and you don't have great people working for you, you're overwhelmed. And life is not fun. I would say those three are traffic, money, staff. Those are the things that people keep people up at night and so those are the three systems that I would look at.
Crystal Vilkaitis: Beautiful, excellent advice. If you had to start your business all over again, what's one thing you'd do differently? Yes.
This is something that happens with me personally, but I would try things and put things out there that weren't quite ready yet. This is happening right now with us with Brilliance, right? You just got to put things out there, whether it's a display or your training program, or build your marketplace, it doesn't have to be perfect.
Susan Negen: Just get it going. Just let's get stuff started. Don't worry if it's perfect. Don't worry if it's complete, just get it going.
Crystal Vilkaitis: Done is better than perfect.
Susan Negen: That is better than perfect. We always say, don't let perfection get in the way of progress.
Crystal Vilkaitis: Yes. Oh, I so agree. That's a good one. Finally, what do you think the future of independent retail looks like?
Susan Negen: Oh my gosh, it's so incredibly bright for you guys. I think I alluded to it earlier that all the technology that's been developed really like in the last just five years, even, has flattened the competitive landscape. The technology that all of the big boxes and big tech players, all the advantages that they had, is starting to flatten.
So that you, independent retailers, have all the opportunities, all of the tools, all the technology, all the abilities that these guys have. And what you have is your own unique personality, your face, your connection with your customers, your connection with your communities, your ability to move and maneuver and shift and change more quickly than these guys can. You have so many advantages. I think the future of indie retail is super bright.
Crystal Vilkaitis: I love it.
Susan Negen: I'm excited.
Crystal Vilkaitis: Yeah, I am too. I totally agree with everything you said. So good. Susan, how can people learn more?
Susan Negen: Well, they can come and visit us at whizbangtraining.com or go check us out at retailbrilliance.com.
Crystal Vilkaitis: Love it. Susan, thank you so much for joining me today. This was such a good helpful conversation.
Susan Negen: Always love hanging with you, Crystal.
Crystal Vilkaitis: Yeah, same. Everyone, remember that I am rooting for your success. Have a great week ahead. Bye!
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