As travel season wraps up for 2024, I noticed some things missing from the hundreds of retail stores and restaurants that I visited with in person over the last year.
In no specific order, some common sense advice specific to things that every retail store and restaurant owner should be doing to help increase profits:
- Have a website
- Have active social media accounts (Instagram and Facebook are the most popular)
- RESPOND TO ALL REVIEWS (Yelp. Google, etc - respond with a positively worded reply to all reviews)
- Be part of an industry association specific to your "niche" or vertical
- Comply with all state and local statutes when it comes to things like sales tax rates and age verification
- Use/invest in technology that saves on labor costs
- Take a look at newish trends like Dual Pricing - consumers are used to paying more when using a credit card so why are you still paying those payment processing fees?
- If you are dead-set against Dual Pricing - at least shop around for better merchant services rates
- Have signage that matches your business name (seriously - when the sign on the building doesn't match the actual business name, how are customers supposed to know that they are at the correct business?)
- Keep the aisles clear so customers are not stepping over boxes to find what they are looking for
- Use technology for inventory ordering - nothing more disappointing that dining at a restaurant where 1/3 of the menu is 86'd
OK - what suggestions do you have that should be added to the list? Please send the suggestions to kevinantosh@gmail.com
Want me to swing by your retail store or restaurant to help advise on some way to increase profits or decrease expenses? You can use the same email address to reach out to me.
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