Mastering Inventory & Cash Flow: Retail Success Strategies with Dane Cohen

Pete Mohr welcomes Dane from Management One for a no-nonsense conversation about one of the most critical and misunderstood aspects of retail: inventory. They explore the difference between inventory management and inventory planning, why open-to-buy isn’t outdated, and how retailers can use data to stop guessing and start profiting—even in uncertain times.

What You’ll Learn:
 → Why slashing expenses won’t save your store
 → The real cost of dead inventory (and what to do about it)
 → How open-to-buy forecasting gives you control
 → The mistake of underbuying when business slows
 → Why now is the time to double down on your best categories

Guest Info:
Dane from Management One
Website: https://www.management-one.com
Instagram: @m1retailexperts
Email: dane.cohen@gmail.com  

Host Info:
 Pete Mohr | Simplifying Entrepreneurship
 Website: https://simplifyingentrepreneurship.com
Instagram: @petemohr_coach
Email: pete@simplifyingentrepreneurship.com

PLUS: Whenever you're ready, here are 3 ways I can help you move from the Operator’s seat to the Owner’s seat in your business:

1. Take the Value Builder Assessment to better understand the areas of your business that add the most value to your business - Click Here

2. Uncover your Kolbe. Whether just for you, or for your full team, better understand leadership strengths and ways you can advance your People - Click Here.

3. Listen my other podcast Business Owner Breakthrough podcast as well for quick tools and tips - Click Here

Transcript

0:00

Dane, it is a pleasure to have you on the footwear retailer podcast here today. Thanks for having me, Pete. Yeah, I'm excited I'm going to be seeing you as we're recording this. Both of us are going to be at Crystal Volcaitis Evolve as well and I know this episode will probably come out a little bit later than that. Another great retail event that we're both going to and I think part Dane of being a good retailer is going to different events. Whether it's Evolve or whether it's your retail association, like most of us in the retail in footwear belong to the National Shoe Retailers association association or a variety of these different things and you know, getting in and getting talking to different people at these different organizations get you such great ideas, let you learn about different things. I mean whether you're hearing it on here on podcasts, whether you're going to these events. But getting together with a group of like minded people is such an important piece. And you know what, Management One is often at these events and you're a big piece not only for the footwear retailers but for retail in general. Management One has been been a partner to so many retailers over the years because one of the biggest things that we have in our stores of course is inventory. And you're involved in inventory mastery, right Dane? I like to think. And you know, first off, Pete, I'm so excited about Evolve and if this recording comes out after, I am sure it's going to be an incredible event. This is my third year and it's the last Evolve conference. So super excited to see you there. And then I'll be at the with the NSRA in Atlanta in August. So I'll be there as well connecting with the footwear community. So definitely that one's in Glendale. Oh it is. Okay, we'll do that. Where. So we were in Atlanta at the shoe show in February, but we'll be in Glendale, Arizona for the, for the NSRA Leaders Conference. So yeah, I'll be there too and excited to see you there. Good thing you told me I would have booked the wrong flight when we. Have other people booking that stuff and you know, traveling around as much as you do, it's always hard to keep everything straight. But it's great that you're going to be there and be a part of that as well. Good, good. I think what we need to ask here to our listeners today is how confident are you in your inventory decisions and are they truly driving profits or are they draining cash flow? And I think those are things that you do particularly well. Why don't you tell, you know, not only give us a little lowdown on you and your 10 or so years with the business now as well as what management1 does for independent retailers and how you can help them turn around some of the areas of their business to make them into areas of joy instead of pain. All right, well, first, Pete, let's set out some ground rules, right? Because I think this is, this is where things get really interesting with inventory, right? First off, number one is every single retailer, inventory is your largest cash expense. Usually it sits around 52% is your cost of purchases, right? So all majority of your cash is going back into your inventory. And so there is no more important place. And every retailer out there knows this, but there is no, you know, better place to shore up your bottom line, your profits, your cash flow, it's all sitting in your inventory. Right? We know this, we know this sometimes we know it intellectually, but we don't really feel that. The one thing that's really bugging me right now, Peter, I want to address there's, there's two things and we'll kind of go on how, how we help people and we'll get into all that. The one thing that I'm hearing the most right now is how do we, if there's tough times in the economy, the tariffs ahead, people go right to cutting expenses. That's the solution. I'm going to cut hours, I'm going to cut payroll, I'm going to cut, you know, talk to my landlord and all that might be important, but then they're sitting on piles and piles of cash sitting in dead stock and dead inventory in their business. And so I really want to encourage, and I hope that this is the discussion that we can get into today that the best way to prepare yourself as a retailer for economic booms, economic uncertainty, downturns is to have mastery of your inventory, right? And so, you know, we look at it two ways, right? There's inventory management, which is your POS system. It's how you kind of calculate everything and know what's going on in the business and know what stock you have. And then there's inventory planning and forecasting, right? And really being able to look forward into the business, into the outlook of what you can do and what you can drive and challenge yourself to really make profitable buying decisions, you know, in that kind of future 12 month outlook. And so that's where really Management One has stepped in with retailers the past 40 years, guiding them towards better Inventory decisions and really demand forecasting of what the future might hold and how to pare that back to profitable buying and inventory management. So that's the nutshell there. I'm sure we have a lot of topics to dive into from that. I mean, I'll use our own stores. We have two stores and it hasn't been the best January and February, it's been dreadful. And I've talked to several different retailers here in the Northeast as well as in Canada. Most of them are experiencing the same sort of thing where, you know, with all the uncertainty going on right now in Canada and in the US a variety of different things, you know, the tail hasn't been ringing as much as it has maybe in the last couple of years during two particular months to kick the year off. And now we start looking ahead at our cash flow plan. And it's like if we don't have the cash that we had expected in the the till over the first couple of months, how does that affect the next couple of months? And when we look at our cash flow analysis and we start digging into that versus our inventory and we have this steady flow of inventory that we've pre planned and coming in, how are we going to pay for this? And you know, as most people, of course you can go to your cash reserves if you have cash reserves or your line of credit, whatever the case is. But you know, one of the things that, that you had mentioned there is this idea of if we, if we are planning our inventory and we are looking our dead stock and we are looking at these sort of things, it's not like I'm going to sell a lot of winter boots now because even though I came, I was away for a month, came back home and we had, give or take, two feet of snow in the last week, it's all gone away. Cause we had great warm weather and it's great for spring sales, but the winter sales are done now essentially. And so how do we take that dead stock? How do we plan that? And what can we now look at as far as event promotions and a variety of different things because we need to plan this stuff. It's like I need to have a certain amount of cash in the bank in order to pay the bills of the new stuff coming in. I didn't have that planned right now. But if we're looking at these numbers on a regular basis, we make the change. That's the beauty of being an independent retailer. We can make the changes that we need to make and address the things we need to address along the way if we have the right tools, if we have the right information, if we have the right data and then we can sit down with our team and say what are we going to do to add another event to inject some cash flow to maybe try and do some things that we haven't done in the past that we'll need to do here in order to bring more dollars in so that we can make this season a successful one. And I think these things all work part and parcel Dane with each other. And if all you're doing is looking at your inventory at the end of the year and you're not looking at your cash flow and what you need, then you run into these problems. It's almost like it's too late at that time. Yeah. And Pete. So I come from a retail family. I'm a third generation retailer and you know, dad and my uncle used to always say when we were in team meetings or that the best part about being in retail is the door opens again every day and you have a new chance. I love it. To kind of get better and improve as a business. Right. And it's this very unique opportunity that retailers get. We're in a tough business but there are those kind of little moments of winning and joy there. And so listen, you're right, it's spring now. We should be focused on that. There needs to be a lot of energy about around newness, right. The winter sales, the winter clearance, the winter sellouts and promotions. It's kind of done now. We have to look towards the future. And so we got to be strong with spring right now. We got to be making big statements. But it's the moment to be a tough, critical retailer right now, especially in regards to your inventory. So this is, this is probably, if I had to get one point across right now and in, in our discussion, this would be it. Right. Most retailers will, there's, there's kind of two mistakes that they'll play off of right now when the January and February sales are in a little bit of a downturn. The first is what we talked about, slashing expenses and just kind of, you know, especially when it comes to payroll. Right. Especially in footwear where that is your secret weapon against, you know, generic websites, the fitting, the customer service. So cutting payroll is like a kiss of death to a footwear retailer right now. I know that there maybe have to be smart scheduling but you don't want to just again start slashing hours, slashing payroll, not hiring great people that you know are going to Service your customer. So that's number one. Number two is people start pulling back their budgets and severely under buying and then you end up in a situation where you're creating, you know, a self fulfilling prophecy. The surest way to depress your sales is to not buy enough inventory. Right. It's pretty simple. So what I would say here is you have to start being laser sharp with how you're reviewing your data and how you're actually looking at your business. So you know, that means maintenance markdowns, right? Don't let things go too long, you know, into the season before you start looking at a markdown. I know that there's this, you know, tendency we want to hold on to that margin as long as possible. However, you know, we may be in a position where we really need stuff to move and to get some of that cash flow back. Okay, so that's a great first place to start. You know, what promotions can we have coming up? Start doing targeted promotions in the areas and the categories you need to move, whether it be buy one, get one 20% off, you know, promotional sales in a category over a weekend. You got to start being smart and driving those promotions and markdowns where they need to be. And then on the positive side, right, when something's working, you have to catch it and keep reinvesting in it, right? So these are the, you know, areas where if we're sharp, if we're launching our data, if we're responding to the business instead of just reacting at the end of season, right. These are the ways that we are going to be able to keep up with what's, whatever, you know, the economy throws at us, which could be interesting this year. It could be, you know, I think a couple of the words that I like to use around that is we don't want to be inventory rich and cash poor, right. And it's better to be cash rich and inventory poor in a way because we want to have our inventory leveled properly. And if, if all that stuff, like I said, like you had mentioned about the dead stock, if we're sitting with so much stuff that's dead stock and continues to be dead stock, there comes a time where it has to leave the building. And how are you going to do that sort of stuff? How are you going to work through those different things? And are you even looking at those things? And I think we need to put a rhythm in place if we, you know, for you, the listener, if you don't have a rhythm in place already to be reviewing these things as more often probably than you are. And I think a tool like Management one and sort of those rhythms of whether you're doing it on a weekly basis, a bi weekly basis, some people don't even, I've been working with a few retail businesses that aren't like literally have just put in point of sale systems in the last couple of years and don't even have, you know, digitized inventory management inventory at all. And so how are you doing this and what can you do to improve, I think is an awesome part of this, this conversation today because whatever level you're at, whether you're still writing out stuff by hand or whether you're at a level of being able to look at things and print reports, or whether you're at a level of having a system like Management one help you with your planning, what else can you be doing to take ticket up a notch when inventory like you mentioned is the largest item on the balance sheet for every small business owner that's listening here today. And how can we manage that? Because, you know, we know what our investment portfolio says. We are looking at that. We know what's in our bank account, we know what our home's worth, like all of these other big things that belong to you, the business owner that are in your sort of parameter. Why do we not look at inventory deeper than we do as a general rule, Dane, you know why? Because it's scary to look under the bed and see the mess there, right? Or take a look under the hood or whatever phrase you want to use. And really it is, it is always surprising to me when I get on the phone and I have the privilege of speaking with hundreds of retailers a month, you know, and probably in the course of a year, we're talking thousands and thousands, right? And the one thing that never ceases to amaze me and by the way, it happens at a store that's just starting up. It happens at a, you know, store that's been in business for 20 years. It happens at a $20 million retailer. It happens at a half a million dollar retailer. And I ask how much inventory do you have on hand on average, how much do you have right now on hand? And it is always shocking to me when I see the response, look in the eyes and then just, I haven't looked at, I haven't looked at that in a while, right? And so the first part of all of this, like you said, is the power of knowledge, right? The power of data. We are now in a world where you can get numbers in the click of a button we should be on, you know, these metrics of our business in these KPIs, what do we need to know? And that's why I always look at like a Monday morning report. What are the 10 key data points that you need to look at every Monday morning and measure yourself against week after week? Because you'll never know where you need to go if you don't know where you are. Right? So that's number one. The second. And I'll give a little bit of a plug here for management one. Right? But more so, More so, More so the plug that I'm going to give is for open to buy planning, right? And this is one of those, you know, it's a little bit of an old school retail mentality. The term is a little, it even feels a little dated. But I'll tell you why. Open to buy is sexy, right? Because open to buy, it's what allows you to plan for cash flow in your business. And another thing that really, you know, I try to kind of hammer in with new retailers that we're working with and to get them kind of a shift of mindset is stop just looking at LY numbers, okay? LY sales are just telling a tiny, tiny piece of the story. How much did you receive in order to do those sales? What was your turn in a category in the, in the business? What was your average stock to sales ratio? These metrics are just as important, if not more important than sales, right? So when we're thinking about open to buy and we're planning the future, we're taking into account a lot richer data than just, hey, what did we do in women's boots in sales last year? And let's just beat that. We want to put together a comprehensive plan over the next 12 months of what achieving profitability in the class actually looks like. And so the ability to analyze that and then have some place to benchmark again. So the shift here with open device, instead of benchmarking against ly, you're benchmarking against your potential opportunity that actually exists in the class. So if you're over inventoried, you know how much because you're benchmarking it against a forecasted inventory level. If you're behind in sales, you have an idea of how much because you're benchmarked against the forecast inventory sales number that is going to get you to that cash flow positive state. So it takes just a tremendous amount of guesswork and, and having that full understanding and your finger on the pulse when it comes to where's my business at Ergo, where's my cash at? Without the cash, we don't have a business. And I think that's the thing, you know, in these trying times when we go, we go into these times and we've been through them before. Many of us who have been in business for even back to Covid, you know, have been through this sort of thing before where we're seeing troubled times and expect them sort of ahead based on what everybody's saying in the news. But planning for that sort of stuff and understanding what we need to do and the shifts that we need to make and where we need to put our eyes and our focus is such an important piece of running a successful, profitable business. Yeah, I mean, listen, we all know it all comes down to cash. And for footwear retailers, right, the interesting thing is it's a much more difficult business to plan for because, you know, a women's fashion boutique, you know, you could turn inventory five, six times a year. Footwear, you're lucky if you turn it twice. So the planning has to be very future forecasted. We have to really look into those pre buys. But there is nothing, nothing again, like we said before, that will depress sales, like depressing your inventory in areas that you need it. So what I'm hearing already, right, is hey, let's talk about, we're looking forward to fall of this year, holiday of this year already, obviously. And retailers say, I don't, I don't want to increase my budget anywhere. I'm taking my budgets down when it comes to buying. And there's two things, again, that's going to be really difficult there and going to cause a lot of problems. One, if the financial insecurity or the economy doesn't hit turbulent times, you're a little bit screwed because now you're not going to have the inventory you need. And the second part that is so important is that you're going to kill yourself in the classes that are actually driving the business. Right. If you want to take a class that has historically been a little weak, that's where you put less budget into it. Right. But if you have a well performing class, let's go with that women's boots example. If they are on fire and we're buying for the next season out and you don't buy enough there, listen, the vendors are getting tight with their inventory too. In these cases, if you don't put in aggressive orders in the places that matter, you're not going to get the inventory. So true. You know, the other thing that we're dealing with. And we deal with this a little bit more in Canada than in the States because the warehouses don't stock as much here in Canada as they do in the States. So a lot of times you had mentioned future order. A lot of times our percentage of the buy is much more future oriented than in season. And you know, one of the things I hear a lot from my coaching clients and in the industry is that through Covid, we understood the reasons why they lengthened out the time for futures, whereby even our trade shows now, for example, are back so much further than they were. And I'll use an example, I'm just going to call it out because it's one that I think a lot of us deal with Birkenstock. And Birkenstock is a great brand that many of us do very, very well with. But one of the things as a frustration is that, you know, we're recording this in March and they've said we need our orders by April. Well, if we need our orders for next spring and summer by April, yet their biggest season hasn't even really begun yet. And we have no idea where to plan for that because we don't know how the season is going. Plus we're dealing with last year's leftovers. Along with that, we've triple sort of overlaid on top inventory problems when we can't actually change around any of the orders or we can't send stuff back from this year or we can't maneuver things. And I just use that as one example. There's lots of examples out there that I could have used. And you know, I'm just picking on Birkenstock for this one because we're dealing with it right now. But many of the brands are like this. Go ahead, Dane, you're going to say. Because no one wants to get stuck with inventory and they're thinking the same thing. Right, I get that. And listen, of course the independent retailer always gets the short end of the stick in these situations and we know that, right. These big brands should be, you know, taking accountability and taking on some of the risk as well. Because, you know, family owned businesses, it shouldn't all be on their backs. But those vendors are having the same conversations. They're worried about the future, they're worried about the economy, they're worried about getting stuck with too much inventory. You know, when I was on the wholesale side of the business in the 20s, right, we used to overcut willy nilly. Right? We'll sell it, we'll offload it. We'll get a bit to, you know, a off price store. There was no worry about overcutting goods. Right. And now that is just simply not the case. Right. Vendors are cut to order. They are not, you know, looking to have overstock. They're not looking to have replenishment for you in season. You get your orders in early and you get what you get and you don't get upset. Right. Especially the ones that actually have the muscle in order to say that. Exactly. From a perspective of looking at what we consider at least at our stores as core stock and being that we're talking Birkenstock, I will just use a Birkenstock Arizona Havana leather, which is a very core piece. Right. You would think that from something like that perspective that the brands would be working to have core in stock at all time, knowing that this is a core piece and has been for, you know, decades, that we should be able to fill that kind of thing in along the way because they'll end up getting more sales too, because we can actually have access and fill in along the way and not be missing sizes on a variety of different things. Why do you think that that isn't happening as much as it used to as far? And again, I'm not trying to pick on Birkenstock here because this is a thing that's with almost every brand out there. And it's just that in that particular instance, a lot of people know that particular sandal. Yeah. So, you know, why do you think this is? When it comes down to, let's say, the 10 most core pieces at any given brand, why are they not stocking those and having them available for ready access? Because just as we know if we can be filling in on stuff and managing our inventory properly, that they'll end up selling more too. Yeah. I think there's two reasons there. Right. The first is I do think that there are brands that are worried about oversaturation. Right. They want it to feel like there's a little bit of still, you know, scarcity out there. Right. And there is something to say about that. Right. When something becomes too available, I mean, we saw it happen to converse. Right. When something just becomes too available and too out there and it's all over the place and it's every retailer, every market, every off price, then it starts filtering down and all of a sudden that, you know, core style that used to be in such high demand kind of starts, you know, waning. So they have to be a little bit, you know, that's where I'll give them a little bit of, you know, leeway, right. From a brand positioning, scarcity mindset, create a little demand for it. I could, I could run with that, Pete. Right. I could kind of. But I think the other side of that comes down to the conversation we were just having, which is they are sitting in a boardroom having the same conversations about getting stuck with inventory and cash flow being a problem and maybe having to make layoffs at a big company like that. And so they're. They're probably cash dropped too, in a lot of cases. And, you know, we think about it as a, you know, they're just these big entities and corporations, but they're. They're having the same conversations. And I will repeat this. Right. It is the biggest shame always. And I saw this for years in my business working alongside my father, who was a shoe dog through and through. Right. Love it. And we saw what happened with Nike, right, when they just abandoned the independence. Right. For sure. Now they're coming back after it. Right? Yeah, yeah. Because they build their business on the backs of the independent retailer and then they get too good for us, and then, you know, they, they remember who kind of don't bite the hand that feeds, so to speak. So that, that has been a nice little turnaround. But, you know, it is unfortunate that oftentimes the burden of business and inventory and excess falls upon the retailer. But, you know, that's why those good vendor relationships, investing in the areas that you need to. It'll make you more important to the vendor as long as you're investing in the right places in your business and not just spending money to spend money. Getting back to the data side of things, if you have the data to show and share, and I use both of those words to show and share, because I think there's a lot of independent retailers out there that don't share appropriately with their brands. And how can you expect them to understand your position if you're unprepared to share what you've got? And so I think part of this rhythm that we go through twice a year in our buying cycles, and we should be going through it more often with our reps, independent reps and stuff like that, too, is to make sure that we're sharing the information that they both need and we both need in order for them to help their business, like you said, on their side of things, to make sure that they have the inventory that we need, but also to make sure that they understand where our positions are so that they can help us through, because it really is a partnership. Dane, you know, as much as some people, I've heard it saying, oh, they're not a partner there, you know, but, but I look at, at all the brands that I work with as partners, and we're in partnership to promote the brand and they're in partnership to promote our store. And what do you do with partners? You share stuff and you work through things and you work through problems and you go through the different things to create a strong bond, a strong relationship so that when you do need your partner to step up, they'll step up and they're glad they do it. Yeah. And listen, it just makes for more productive conversations in market when you know your stuff and you know your facts. And so when the rep tries to push something on you, hey, we didn't sell that that well this year. You know, we had a high markdown percentage in this category in your business, and we're going to walk away from that. But you know, where we are doing well, you know, over on this side of the business. Let's focus there. Let's invest there. So the truth in what you're saying, and I don't think there's a retailer out there that would disagree with me, the more you come to the table, knowing your numbers and having facts to back you up, the more power you have in that vendor, retailer dynamic. Right. Because you're not going to get pushed around. You're not going to take what you don't need, you're not going to keep merchandise on your floor and you're going to ask them for, you know, to return to vendor. You're going to ask them for a swap. You're going to ask them to partner with you because you're proactive about the business and not just walking into a showroom appointment and taking whatever they tell you to take. Right. So. And also knowing when to walk away from a vendor. Right. Especially there's so many family, heritage businesses here. Three generations, four generations, five generations. You know, it's, it's, it's a wonderful thing for our industry to have those heritage family businesses. But when we look at that side of things, it's like these words come up often, but we've always carried that, but we've always done it that way. But there's one thing that is true and even more so now than it was and at a faster rate, change is happening. And we need to be able to adapt to change as independent retailers so that we can continue for the next generation. And just because we've carried an existing brand. Just because we've carried an existing department, just because we've never had a point of sale system or just because we've never used an outsourced supplier to help us with inventory planning or with marketing or with any of the other services that go on, or we've never had a web store doesn't mean that we need to actually go. We do need to make the changes, our customers are expecting it and we do need to have the stuff that they're coming and looking for or we will lose to the big box, we will lose to the online people, we will lose to another store down the road. You know, Dane, because you mentioned it, you're talking to literally hundreds of retailers a month and thousands a year. Navigating through retail is not an easy ride. But what are some of the trends that you see that are happening now that people start need to maybe be looking at more now than ever that are going to affect independent footwear retailers for maybe the next year or maybe for the next decade? Like what are the things now that you're saying this is an obvious shift and if you're not there yet, you really need to look at it. So here's what I've been seeing, right? And it's interesting because it's kind of like a light bulb moment for a lot of retailers. And I don't think it's that interesting. I think it's something that's tried and true, but the recognition and remembering that it's your job as a merchant to find new and interesting product, to try a new brand, to go with a local vendor, to bring new things in, to bring something that is unexpected or you know, kind of bucks the system of what you've done, like you were saying. And I think that this, you know, kind of curiosity around discovery and newness and freshness, the retailer has to stay connected to that because if you're just doing the same thing, you could expect the same results. And so again, like you said, it's really, especially in footwear, you hold onto these big brands that you've carried for a long time. But we want to know, remember when HOKA was coming up and there were some retailers that wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole and you know, on and of new brands sparked a lot of fear. And the great retailers that got in early and said, I'm going to take a chance, I'm going to go for it, look how high they soared on that. And so then what's the next one? You can't ride a wave too long. You have to go find the next product because eventually they're going to get too big for their bridges. They're going to be on every website. You're just competing with, you know, the anonymous, you know, Internet void out there. And so it is your responsibility and it should be your creative juices, right, to find what else is the next big thing and what you could bring in that will surprise and delight and intrigue your customer time and time again. A few years back, and I wrote a little book on it. It's called the Business Owner Breakthrough. But the idea here is that every business should have a promise. And that's what you promise your clients. And then you should align your product, your process and your people to promise, promote it properly, and then you get to profit. But when we look at that product piece, you know, sometimes the product doesn't necessarily align with the promise. And I think that's an interesting piece, too. And you know, if we go back to even because there's. In our industry, there has been a huge shift to athletic over the last several years. And for those that haven't made that shift to athletic over the several years, they're finding it harder and harder to appease some of the customers because they don't have certain product offerings. I'm just using this as an example because it could go the other way, too. But if you were always sort of more dress focused and you haven't taken on athletic or athletic inspired, and you're losing that customer to athletic and athletic inspired, maybe it's time that you changed your promise a little bit. Maybe it's time that you looked at, like you said, the newness, what's happening in the industry, all these different things so that we're tweaking around our promise a little bit to hit the customer in the way that they want to be served and provide them with what they want to be served, not just what we've always served them with. And you know what the greatest example of this is that we should all learn from is what happened in the menswear industry. You know, just like a decade ago when all of a sudden you had this huge switch to a more casual look, right? The suiting industry changed as we knew it, right? Guys weren't wearing suits to interview, even interviews anymore, let alone their work. It just became an outdated way of dressing day to day for a large swath of guys. And the menswear stores that adapted. That said, you know what, we're not going to resist this. We're not going to try to pretend it's not happening. And we're going to lean into some new, you know, kind of business casual or even some casual wear and T shirts and ready to wear. And those are the men's stores that adapted and survived. And the, the, the stores that were refused to walk away from their, you know, suiting roots, the stores that refused to kind of change or adapt, a lot of them got left behind. And so it's this, it's, it's a great lesson to be learned about retail. And you know, it, it happens in every segment of the business. It just matters. You don't want to be on the wrong side of history, so to speak. You don't. And when you do see those things starting to tail off a little bit, it's like we need to be getting back to that sort of data side. This is why data is such an important piece of the puzzle in order to help us make these decisions. Because one thing we do as business owners is we make decisions. And in order to make the right decision for you, your business and your family, we need to have all of the available information so that we're making the right decision. Decision. And Dane, as we sort of wrap up this segment and this show here today, what are sort of three main things that you would like to suggest if they haven't already done it, starting to look at for these changing trends, for the different things that are happening in our industry. What are three things that you're saying you really need to dig down and look at this these days? Yeah, I'd say the overarching umbrella is you have to make data driven decisions. Right now the only insurance that you have against something that is out of your control, like economic factors, is to be making decisions that are based in data. So there's a few things here, right. The first thing is know what your age merchandise is, right. Do not have any, you know, hidden merchandise that you don't know has been sitting there for a year plus. And we all are guilty of it, right? Yeah, sure. And you know what's in the storage room that's been sitting in boxes that you'll see next winter. Next winter. Next winter, Right. Those boots will still serve me and they're, you know, sitting in literal dust and cobwebs on the box. We've all been guilty of that. Okay, so take it. Take an aged merchandise reporter, really know what's dusty in the business. Okay. Then look at what is actually growing in the business. Right? And so I would take a Look at your receiving and Your sales last 90 days, year over year, Right. What's driving your business and how much are you receiving in order to drive that business? Right. Know that stock to sales ratio so that you could be making informed decisions on where to continue to invest and where you need to double down and where you need to be a little more aggressive, where maybe you pull back a little bit and you, you start being a little more conservative. But you have to know that. And then the third thing is continue to invest in yourself. And whether that be hiring outside experts or help to guide you through this right now, don't stand on ceremony. Right. And don't say, you know, this is the time that we need to hunker down and not change anything. And this is the time where you need that support and you maybe need another eye in the business and you need a fresh perspective or you need a system to help you out. So I think it's the boutique hub that has this great saying. I'm not sure if you're familiar with them, Pete, but I'm not. Do what you do best and hire out the rest. Yeah, I love it. I love it. And I think that's a great place to cap the show. And I think my main key takeaway with this conversation is really when it comes back to inventory anyway, that smart inventory management isn't really about buying more or less, it's about buying smarter. And we need to be smarter in all of the areas of our business. Things move quickly and we need to keep up with those. And as business owners, as we move from detail to dashboard, where we're not able to be involved in the detail, in every little detail of our business and we're looking at those dashboard metrics, it's like so long as someone's looking at the detail so that they can get the dashboard that you need to make decisions properly in order to run your business and in order to take this business to the next level, potentially pass it on to the next generation or prep it for a successful exit. Because one of the things, you know, you will exit your business someday, and whether that is a planned exit or a forest exit or whether it's a family transition, whatever the case is, we want to always be working to have the systems in place, have the people in place that are going to carry on with or without us, so that this business and this legacy that we've worked so hard to build over the years continues on and, and serves our clients and serves our along the way. So thanks so much, Dane. For being a piece of this. And if people want to get in touch with you or want to find out more about Management One and all the great things that you guys do there. How do they do that? Yeah, well, you could find us just, you could visit us on our website@management-one.com or find us on Instagram, M1 Retail Experts. So that's M1, the number one retail experts. And I'd love to chat with anyone out there. And Pete, I really appreciate you having me today and looking forward to seeing you at some live events coming up soon. That sounds so great. Make it a great day, Dane. Thank you, Pete.